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Health Update and Professional Changes

So I’ve got good news, and well, let’s pretend it’s good news, but it is going to mean some big changes for me in the coming year.

tl;dr version:

  • Chemotherapy is doing its job, but it is not enough to eliminate the underlying cancer.
  • This fall I will be starting an allogeneic stem cell transplant, a year-long process.
  • I am stepping back to the faculty for the year and Dick Kawooya will be interim director of SLIS.
  • The building of the global knowledge school continues.
  • Working with conference organizers, we have a plan for my fall keynote commitments.
  • I’m rearranging my social media presence.
  • There are ways you can help.

Thank you all for your concern and offers of assistance as I’m going through chemotherapy. The good news is that chemo is doing its job and killing the cancer. My most recent PET scan was clean. However, over the past few weeks the consensus of my doctors is the chemo alone will not eliminate the underlying cancer. In essence, chemo will push it back, but in a matter of months or possibly years the cancer will come back and most likely in a more resistant form – plus I’ll be older and have sustained the ongoing damage of chemotherapy.

Stem Cell Process
Stem Cell Process

To truly give me a chance for a cure and long-term remission, I need to get an allogeneic (donor) stem cell transplant. This is an intensive process that involves me living within 20 minutes of the transplant clinic at Duke for at least 3 months, followed up with at least 3-9 more months of semi-isolation until my immune system is strong enough for the public.

For those playing our home game, this will be my second stem cell transplant. The difference is that years ago my transplant to get rid of my Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was autogenetic, i.e., I was my own cell donor. Well, apparently, I was a lousy source since my immune system keeps misbehaving, so it’s time for a new one.

This time, I’ll be getting someone else’s immune system. The bad news is that the normal sources of donors, siblings and the bone marrow registry, don’t have a match (I didn’t match the 19 million people in the registry – I am indeed a unique snowflake). Instead, I’ll be using a 50% match – my son. That’s right, my son is going to save my life. I fear this will lead to awkward holidays where he holds it over me to get extra gravy. On the other hand, at least my blood will be 50% Italian by the end of the year.

Stem cell transplants are intensive processes and they come with plenty of risk. The same benefits of a transplant (fighting cancer cells that my new immune system will see as foreign pathogens) can turn into big problems (seeing my entire body as a foreign invader called graft vs host disease). These risks are only amplified by the fact that this is my second transplant. Given the reality of transplant, I am stepping back as director of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina and returning to the faculty for the year.

Dr. Dick Kawooya
Dr. Dick Kawooya

SLIS has made too much progress and is making too many gains for a part time director. Dr. Dick Kawooya has agreed to serve as interim director for the year to continue the progress the faculty, students, staff, and alums have made. I will continue to push forward the agenda of the global knowledge school as a professor in my bubble. Special thanks to Dean Tom Reichert and the university for being so supportive during this whole thing.

Which brings me to some upcoming changes. I’ve been working with the conference organizers of my fall keynotes. Some will seek another speaker, but several have agreed to go with video keynotes. This has the advantage of giving organizers a chance to get my remarks translated for the audience. I still want to be out there pushing forward an agenda of librarianship grounded in knowledge and built around the community. While I may not be able to be there in person, I will connect online as I am able.

Speaking of online, I am making some changes to my online presence; particularly Facebook. Every day I get friend requests from librarians and allies around the globe. It is a diversity I truly cherish. However, Facebook is also the place I use to keep up to date with friends and family, and this will increasingly include more and more personal information. To keep my Facebook connections with the library community, I’ve created a public Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/rdavidlankes/

Much of the content on my personal profile and this page will be the same. However, on the public page I will focus more on library and information science stuff, and a bit less on family photos (though some of those will end up here as well). If you are interested in the work I do, please connect at this page.

In the coming weeks I’ll begin to prune back the connections on my private page. Please don’t be insulted if I unfriend you…it is more a matter of keeping one site for my work and one for those whom I have a personal connection. My public site will also have updates on my treatment.

In closing, everyone has been amazingly generous in asking how they can help. Please please please sign up as a donor at bethematch.org as a potential donor. It is easy to sign up (a cheek swab), and donating stem cells is about as tough as donating blood. And donors that don’t look like me (middle aged white guys) are particularly needed. Your donation won’t save me, but it can save a life!

Please give blood if you are able. Every pint saves lives and one of those may well be mine.

If you know of a good sublet or housing option in Durham for 3 months let me know.

Lastly, please continue to support colleagues that are dealing with their own medical journeys. Every day I read about librarians bravely facing cancer, many with more grim prospects than my own. I also know of many professionals dealing with invisible ailments, too often stigmatized because of a chemical imbalance in the brain instead of the breast or lymph system.

As professional educators and librarians (the same thing), we seek to serve our communities with compassion and empathy. We must also extend that empathy to ourselves. We may disagree, but we must create a diverse and welcoming environment that supports intense dialogue without creating toxic environments. This isn’t about civility – too often a code word for suppressing dissent. Our conversations should be loud and frank and passionate. This is about staying true to our values of learning and service. Learning – literally changing one’s view of the world – is hard and it can be painful to embrace new understandings at the cost of the old. However, it is our duty not to relieve the labor of learning, but rather the pain associated with the recognition of former ignorance.

Some Resources if You Want to Know More:

https://bethematch.org to put your name on the registry and a great resource on transplants in general

My new Public Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/rdavidlankes/

A video on transplants from Duke

 

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The Atlas of New Librarianship is going Open!

I am so excited that working with the great folks at MIT Press, we are making The Atlas of New Librarianship available online for free under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International). The physical book will still available through MIT Press.

Since the Atlas was first published in 2011 it has won the 2012 ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Award for the Best Book in Library Literature, been adopted as a text book, and generated numerous conversations (and let’s be honest, arguments) around the world.

The Atlas was the first in a loose trilogy of books focused on the role of librarians and libraries in communities and centered on knowledge. Expect More was written for supporters of libraries from board members to provosts to community members. The New Librarianship Field Guide, also published by MIT Press, was written as a text book for library students and people looking for a more linear introduction to New Librarianship.

We hope by making the Atlas free online we can expand the conversation on the value and future of the profession internationally.

Ready to download? Here’s the new page for the book with download option.

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A Bad Day

Me looking sexy in chemo.

Yesterday was a hard day – a low day. I think those in treatment for cancer need to acknowledge these. It was also a hard day for me in considering the directions and actions in my country and I think we need to acknowledge those as well.

Yesterday was my last infusion on chemo before a PET scan to see what effect it has been having. The infusions with mega steroids left me bone tired where just blinking seemed like work. Leaving the plan of chemo treatments to await a PET scan is not a comforting feeling – it takes a set schedule and direction forward and replaces it with a host of possibilities allowing you to go to the worst-case scenario – did the chemo work? Is it still growing? What’s next? It can get pretty dark in your head.

At the same time, I watched my social media feeds with stories of migrant camps on military bases; separated migrant children with little prospects for reuniting with their parents; potential roll backs of social safety nets and basic human rights; roll back of what little insurance protection people with pre-existing conditions have; the fact that our national policies seem to be an embrace of tyrants over our European and Canadian allies; and finally deaths in a newsroom shooting made worse by a direct linkage to a national dialog that demonizes those that do not agree with us.

Tired and sad and pessimistic is not an image I project. It is the opposite of the projection I want in my life and career…a fact that many of my critics are happy to point out (“library apologist” and “library cheerleader” being my favorite repeatable phrases). But even a pragmatic utopian gets tired.

So, I went with it. I moped, and I despaired, and I read the damn comments.

Then, I slept. I took the sleeping pill. This morning I woke up and read about librarians working collaboratively to track separated migrant children. I read about libraries improving communities around the globe. I read about female library directors speaking out about their right to be professionally respected and seeing men step up to acknowledge that right and their obligations to support these great directors. I read about the increase in first time candidates for public office who in the face of the same depressing news went to do something.

I saw my journalist colleagues call the public discourse to task and celebrate their own bravery. I have seen light in local politics that seek to make life better for students and citizens regardless with the gridlock at the national level. I re-read the letters my colleagues at the University of Washington condemning family separations and saw the social impact and responsibility mission of the LIS field is still there.

I chose to seek the way forward and not focus on all the obstacles…not to ignore those, but not to surrender to the hopelessness. It takes work. I have read many people talk about fatigue in the face of the constant negativism. For some that means needing regular escapes to reading or fiction or time off online. I respect those choices. As a profession and as human beings we must acknowledge that self-care is part of being a good professional. But for me, I have to do something.

So today I will get my sleep. I will acknowledge that I have options in my health (and acknowledge that that is a privilege I need to fight to expand to all). I need to acknowledge my past mistakes and re-evaluate past actions in light of new learning (let us all acknowledge the difficult irony that being a life-long learner means acknowledging that you are also to a degree ignorant for your entire past life). And I will make a plan to make a difference. I will seek out allies and be an ally. I will call out the bad, but also sing out the good. And I will rest. Elections matter, but so do daily calls to politicians. Tweets can express outrage, but programs and curriculum make changes.

I have cancer, but I also have power. I work in a profession that is awakening to the true difficulties of taking diversity of ideas and creeds, and people, and social classes into itself and what that means for neutrality. These are essential and difficult conversations and I need to be ready for them. Yesterday I was mad for what I lost. I was depressed. I have to allow myself to be there. Today? Today I chose to create something new in place of those losses.

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Cancer and the Mission Update

IV Bags

Today I finished my first week of chemo. I hadn’t planned on posting much about my treatments because I didn’t want to distract from the important work going on at the School of Library and Information Science and the amazing progress we are making with the Knowledge School across the globe. Pardon the shameless self-promotion, but I do truly love my job and work with the most amazing set of faculty, staff, and students in the field.

However, I realize now, that we are all facing challenges as we pursue our missions in this life. It doesn’t detract from that work but enriches our understanding and appreciation of others. I struggle with balancing cancer and a job, but everyone is balancing something: illness, family obligations, financial issues, social pressures, discrimination…unfortunately a very long list.

In our LIS program we have full time teachers studying to be school librarians. Many of our doctoral students are becoming scholars while working in libraries. To hide one’s struggles simply ignores reality and ignores the honest concern and generosity of those who help us through.

So, I’ll let you know how things are going from time to time – no doubt focusing on the funny and absurd. I don’t see another book or anything so dramatic emerging from it. We caught a very treatable cancer early and I am very optimistic. There are plenty of more important things for folks to pay attention to and plenty of people more deserving of your generosity. But I want you to know I do treasure your support and kind words.

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Hooding Remarks

SLIS Graduate students outside

On Thursday we held the School of Library and Information Science’s Hooding ceremony leading into weekend graduations. The following are my prepared remarks for the event. It starts off a little heavy, just warning you:

On Tuesday a nurse will hook me up to an IV pump and begin the slow injection of toxic chemicals into my body in an effort to kill the cancer that grows in my immune system. My job is to simply sit. And yet, for this act some will call me brave. Friends and neighbors have sent me thoughts and prayers and offered their support. It was not so a century ago.

It may be hard to imagine in these days of pink ribbons, runs for life, and blood drives, but at the turn of the century cancer was a shame. In the absence of viable treatments those with cancer were seen us unfit and a drag on families and societies. Cancer was a sign of bad character or wrong living, or simply weakness. Thousands upon thousands died hidden away in back rooms and hopeless hospital wards.

Indeed, this stigma still remains for certain cancers. Where funding and fund raising for most cancers has increased over the decades, lung cancer remains far behind. Too many people look at lung cancer as a self-inflicted wound seeing the choice to smoke as the only path to this devastating disease. And here begins the point of this lecture.

Today you are graduating into a missionary corps of library and information professionals seeking to serve our communities. Some of you will serve in libraries, some in banks, some in government, and some in the academy. Your mission is to make our communities smarter, and the lives of those we serve more meaningful.

You would not hesitate to serve cancer patients, but what about those who suffer in quiet because society has not yet change in their views of different challenges? Those who struggle with mental health whose only fault is that their chemical imbalance is in the brain instead of the thyroid or immune system. Or the addict whose struggle with opioids is too often attributed to a lack of will power over genetics or an out-of-control pill culture.

The point is that as an information scientist, librarian, or archivist, you are called to serve. We don’t serve cancer or addiction of depression – we serve people – not users or customers, but neighbors and mothers and colleagues. And when society doesn’t give them a voice and support in their challenges we must.

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Expect More Second Edition Now Free to Download

There has been a lot of interest and use of my book Expect More globally. In 2015 Expect More was updated into a second edition with the support of some fabulous library partners. Today we’re making this new edition freely available to download. You can still purchase paper copies of the print book.

In addition to the free online text (and links to translated versions) I have put together a series of videos talking about using each chapter in the context of community conversations.

A VERY big thank you to the partners who made this possible:

Lead Library Partners

  • Cuyahoga County Public Library (Ohio)
  • The Northeast Kansas Library System
  • RAILS (Reaching Across Illinois Library System)

Library Partners

  • New York State Library
  • ILEAD USA
  • Maine State Library
  • Topeka Public Library (Kansas)
  • Chattanooga Public Library (Tennessee)
  • Fairfield Public Library (Connecticut)
  • Enoch Pratt Free Library (Maryland)
  • F. Franklin Moon Memorial Library, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
  • The Califa Library Group
  • Fayetteville Free Library (New York)
  • State Library of Pennsylvania
  • Toronto Public Library
  • California Library Association

Commercial Partners

  • Tech Logic

Education Partner

  • Syracuse University iSchool
  • Dominican University’s School of Information Studies
  • University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science.
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SLIS Update

Ehsan Mohammadi with students

Greetings my SLIS friends.

The end of the academic year here at SLIS is upon us, and it has been quite the year. Here are just some of our accomplishments:

  • In the Fall we hosted a meeting for the Institute for Museum and Library Services that gathered nearly all of the accredited library and information science programs in the country.
  • This lead to a fantastic effort by the faculty and our doctoral students to submit proposals to IMLS. We put in 9, and 5 have been invited into the second round of proposals. Some big congratulations to Jennifer Arns, Liz Hartnett, Clayton Copeland, Vanessa Kitzie, Lucy Green and Edward Blessing!
  • Karen Gavigan is on her third round of Library of Congress grants for teaching with primary sources.
  • We hired on 3 new members of the faculty in the areas of international librarians, youth services, and school librarianship.
  • We brought on 4 new staff members.
  • We made major progress on renewing our library science curriculum, an effort you will be hearing more about in the coming months.
  • We experienced double digit growth in our undergraduate program.
  • We put in place a new curriculum of the undergraduate information science major and an undergraduate minor in informatics.
  • We submitted a manuscript written by numerous SLIS faculty, students, and staff on the Knowledge School concepts.
  • We started a cohort program to fill the urgent need for school librarians in South Carolina. We have partnered with the Charleston County Schools in the Spring for the first cohort, and will be beginning the second cohort with the Florence 1 School District this week.
  • We have seen a major uptick in applicants to our doctoral program.

In addition to these, we are working closely with our colleagues in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications to develop new academic and research programs along the theme of Data, Media, and Society. These programs will marry excellence in data with knowledge of the communications industries. The knowledge school of thought will also be strongly present with an emphasis on ethics and positive community impacts in the use of data and algorithms.

Overall, we are seeing growth in students, research, and ultimately in reputation. The word is out that SLIS is creating the next evolution of library and information science education. Faculty are working in South Carolina schools, libraries across Europe, governments in Africa, and with associations in Asia. We are supporting literacy at home, and redefining librarianship globally.

This is nothing new for SLIS of course. You have been a part of inventing distance education and marrying impact and service with scholarship. We want you to be part of the next evolution of SLIS innovation. We are looking for your ideas, your stories, your feedback as we expand. Let us know your success stories. Let us know your ideas. Connect and be part of the new school of thought that seeks smarter communities and more meaningful lives.

 

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I have cancer again.

I have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, specifically Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma. For those keeping track at home, this is a different cancer than I went through before (that was Hodgkin’s). I will begin a combination of chemo and immune therapy in the next week. The prognosis is good. While it is an aggressive cancer, it is treatable, and indeed, curable. After three rounds of chemo over the summer there will most likely be some spot radiation then more chemo. If that doesn’t do the trick there are several “plan Bs.”

The reason I am making this public is that I will not be accepting new travel or speaking engagements until further notice. I plan on keeping my current commitments this fall and have been in touch with the organizers. Also, I’m about to lose what little hair I have left and am seeking sympathy 😉 I am continuing as director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science with the support of my faculty and dean. I worked through the last set of trials, I plan to do so here as well.

Getting my third cancer diagnosis is scary (though technically I can now be called a lymphomaniac). But I am privileged to have a flexible job, supportive colleagues, an amazing caregiver in my wife, and health insurance (which should be a right not a privilege…come on America). If you want to know how you can help, the short answer is give blood.

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SLIS Update on School Library Program

Karen Gavigan teaches the Charleston Cohort

Greetings Friends,

I just wanted to send an update on some activities of your knowledge school. This month has been a lot about school libraries and the librarians that make them effective. SLIS had a great presence at the South Carolina Association of School Librarians (SCASL). Heather Moorefield-Lang presented an amazing keynote address to over 500 South Carolina school librarians. She got a well-deserved standing ovation. As you can imagine, it was peppered with some great one-liners.

We are also having a great response to the Library Scholars program that partners with school districts to transition teachers to certified school librarians. Our first cohort started this spring with the Charleston County School District. We were able to bring all 10 students to SCASL and they proudly showed their Garnet colors. We are in the process of signing up the Florence 1 School District for the Summer and are in conversations with 4 other districts! Here’s a story on the Charleston cohort: http://www.sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/cic/library_and_information_science/news/2018/slis_launches_library_scholar_program.php

In other fantastic news, our own Lucy Santos-Green co-authored an amazing piece of research with Melissa Johnston. The article published in School Library Research – a highly respected school library academic journal-is titled Still Polishing the Diamond: School Library Research over the Last Decade and provides a terrific overview of research in the field.

Our dedication to school librarians as agents of transformational change and student success is also seen in our hiring. I am thrilled to announce that Valerie Byrd Fort is joining the faculty. Valerie has a distinguished career as a school librarian and has taught many classes with SLIS as adjunct faculty. Starting in the Fall she will come on as a full-time instructor and will lead Cocky’s Reading Express for us. We are also searching for a new tenure-track position in school libraries, and the Augusta Baker Chair in youth literacy and diversity. Where other LIS programs around the country are shrinking or even closing their school library programs, we are investing in ours.

This is also a perfect time for our investment in the school library program, as there is an acute need for school librarians in South Carolina and the Southeast. If you didn’t see the article on the need for teachers and school librarians in the State newspaper, here’s a link to the article and quote I’d like to draw your attention to:

Effort to keep S.C. teachers in the class after retiring moves forward

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article206103649.html#storylink=cpy

Here’s the quote:

“Just in nine (school) districts in my neck of the woods, 75 percent of our library media specialists are within five years of retirement,” Fanning said Thursday. “There’s only one library media program in the state of South Carolina — and that’s at USC (the University of South Carolina) — and they’re not cranking out enough even for my nine districts.”

Fanning, is Senator Mike Fanning, D-Fairfield

For me this story emphasizes the need for our school library program, confirms the importance of our cohort program, and gives us an opportunity to reach out to the legislature. 

So, to our school library students and alumni, thank you for your support and continued feedback. The work you do is vital to our communities. Know that SLIS is there for you and wants to be a partner in the success of educating the next generation. We heard a lot of great ideas at SCASL and are already following up (think student teacher orientation).

The mission of the knowledge school continues.