Posts

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New Servers

For a few behind the scene reasons I have moved my website to a new host. With any luck you didn’t notice.

The site now uses DavidLankes.org for all the URLs, rather than just redirecting to quartz.syr.edu which traces (at least the name) back about a decade to the GEM project. So please update your links.

At this point I think everything has made the move or soon will. Please let me know if you run into any dead links or URLs that point to nowhere. As a nice side benefit I fixed the links to presentations I’ve made before 2008…because I know you were clambering for my thoughts from a decade ago.

A BIG special thank you to Ryan Drescher and James Powell for providing the technical back up, and the whole iSchool tech team under Roger Merrill for all the hosting support int he past.

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Changing Servers

Over the weekend and the next week I will be working on moving my site from it’s current server to a new hosted set up. That will involve changing URLs.

If all goes well everything will automatically redirect to the new site, but for future reference (when all is done) current URLs that point to quartz.yr.edu will soon be replaced with davidlankes.org

Also for this weekend the url http://DavidLankes.org will be a bit spotty.

I’ll post updates as I go.

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My Last Cancer Post…I Hope

Today is my second birthday.

Two years ago yesterday nurses were shoveling ice chips into my mouth to minimize oral blisters from a Melphalan injection. The Melphalan was the last ingredient of a toxic chemo cocktail that would kill my bone marrow, and thus my ability to make blood or muster an immune response. In essence, two year ago yesterday I received a lethal dose of chemo as a salvage attempt to rid my body of cancer because the preceding 6 months of chemical warfare was insufficient.

Two years ago today a doctor slowly pushed six syringes of my own frozen stem cells into my heart. The now thawed cells would find their way back to the not decimated core of my bones and, slowly at first, begins to make the cells to feed, defend, and repair my body.

Yesterday I received six shots as my second year vaccinations, completing a two year journey of recovery and a suppressed immune system. Two years of fearing colds, only eating hot processed foods. Two years of regrowing muscle, and weaning myself from drugs that modulated my pain, my blood chemistry, even my sleep. Two years from 42 steps in a hospital ward to going home to going to work to going on airplanes to visiting the world.

Since that day of ultimate peril I have been to the Tower of London, down the Italian boot swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, to the resort coast of Belgium, to the flower markets of Amsterdam, enjoyed a November Spring in New Zealand and a February summer in Australia. I have ridden a Segway through an historic garden in Rome, examines 1,500 year old illuminated manuscripts in the archives of Bruges, toured the Vatican Library, and three days ago plunged to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico to scuba among the fish.

I did all this with the love and support of a wife who never lost faith. With a mother who shared her faith with me. With two boys who make me more proud than I ever thought was possible. I have done it with co-workers who picked up the things I dropped and a community of colleagues who now truly span the globe. By my side have been doctors and nurses and medical technicians that healed my body and fed my mind.

I pray that you never have to learn what you are capable of by facing cancer, but there is nothing inherent in recovery that makes us challenge ourselves. Travel, fellowship, love, risk is ultimately a choice. A choice to say yes and know that you will fall. But also know you will get up. And if you can’t get up at first know that you can ask for help. A choice to see the world, even if your world is only as far as the street corner.

Not everyone recovers from cancer or a stem cell transplant. Not everyone will regain his or her strength or mobility. I am lucky. Cancer no longer defines my life or the confines within it. I choose to move beyond being a survivor to simply being a person. A person faced with decisions, tragedy, and triumph. I choose to engage, to attempt, to plan, to move forward and to face the barbs and pain that comes with that choice. What do you choose?

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Librarianship: Saving The World One Community At A Time

“Librarianship: Saving The World One Community At A Time” VALA 2016. Melbourne, Australia.

Abstract: We live in uncertain times of war, protest, terrorism, economic austerity, ecological disasters, and mass surveillance. What can librarians do to help communities in such turbulent times? Lankes will discuss how a proactive librarianship can build an alternative path to the growing “security versus freedom” narrative. Librarianship can shine in times of crisis, but it requires a focus on improving society over informing customers.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2016/VALA.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2016/VALA.mp3

There is a video of the talk for VALA members.

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Librarianship in the Growing Information Domain…or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Information

“Librarianship in the Growing Information Domain…or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Information” University of Sydney Library’s Experts Program Series. Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Abstract: How do librarians and libraries fit in the new information landscape? How does the L fit with the I in LIS?

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2016/Sydney.pdf

Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2016/Sydney.mp3

Librarianship in the Growing Information Domain…or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Information from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

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Building an Academic Platform for the Future (and NOW)

“Building an Academic Platform for the Future (and NOW)” Reinventing the Library
The Future Role of Libraries within SUNY and Beyond. Syracuse, NY.

Abstract: The importance of seeing the academic library as both platform and publisher.

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2016/SUNY.pdf

Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2016/SUNY.mp3

Building an Academic Platform for the Future (and NOW) from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

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The Obligation of Innovation

“The Obligation of Innovation” OLA Super Conference 2016. Toronto, ON, Canada.

Abstract: Librarians must lead their communities in innovation by example. If our libraries are to be incubators of new ideas, librarians must model creativity, adaptability, continuous learning, and leading change that makes a difference. This isn’t about apps, or looking like Silicon Valley, it is about weaving together new ideas and expertise locally. Lankes will make the case for innovation as a core attribute of librarians.

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2016/OLA.pdf

Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2016/OLA.mp3

The Obligation of Innovation from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

OLA recorded the session so I will add the video when I get the file.

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ALA Press Release on Haycock Award

Here is the official press release on the Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship. Thanks to Teri Switzer for her very kind words:

For Immediate Release
Mon, 01/25/2016

Contact:

Cheryl Malden
Program Officer
Governance
312-280-3247
[email protected]

CHICAGO — Dr. R. David Lankes, professor and Dean’s Scholar for New Librarianship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and 2016-2017 Follett Chair in Library and Information Sciences at Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Chicago, has been selected to receive the 2016 American Library Association Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship. This prestigious honor is given annually to an individual for a “significant contribution to the public recognition and appreciation of librarianship through professional performance, teaching, and/or writing.”

“It is a privilege and an honor that the Award Jury recognizes Dr. Lankes for his distinguished achievements in the field of Library and Information Science over a career of more than 20 years,” said Teri R. Switzer, chair of the Ken Haycock Award Committee and dean and professor emerita at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. “David has spent the majority of his career advancing librarianship and making us all think about our profession in different ways. David’s commitment to the profession is clearly evident in his teaching, his presentations, his writings, and his service.”

Lankes holds a Ph.D. from Syracuse University, School of Information Studies, and an MS in Telecommunications, also from Syracuse University. In addition to being a faculty member at Syracuse University, Dr. Lankes has also served as a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada, an adjunct instructor for the OCLC Institute, a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s School of Education, and was the first OITP Fellow at the ALA’s Office of Information Technology Policy. Dr. Lankes’ professional successes, publications, grants and service achievements all support his receiving this award.

As noted in the nomination submitted on his behalf, supporters mentioned, in particular, his 2011 The Atlas of New Librarianship and his leadership of the I LEAD U, a three-year continuing education initiative that addresses the need to expand librarians’ leadership abilities to use technology to effectively engage their libraries’ constituents, as only two of the several librarianship projects in which he has been actively engaged. One supporter stated, “ His presentations, teachings, curriculum development, and writings supporting the growth and development of our esteemed profession not only address technologies and infrastructure, but also re-articulate the core role of librarians in the learning process. In today’s world of databases, electronic resources, intellectual property concerns, digital rights management, and efforts of cross border cooperation, it is easy to lose sight of the vision and motivating principles that drew many of us to the profession. David steadfastly draws his readers and listeners back to the core.” Another letter summed up Lankes’ broad achievements by saying, “Having worked with him in various settings, I see the many ways he has taught, inspired, and challenged librarians – those still in their graduate programs, those new in the profession, and those who have been in the profession a long time – all have benefitted from David’s unparalleled methods of teaching and inspiring us al to greatness.”

Members of the Ken Haycock Award Jury are: Nancy Bolt, Nancy M. Bolt & Associates, Denver, Colorado; Nicolas H. Buron, Dorothy M. Persson, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Thomas T. Suprenant, Queens College, Graduate School of Library & Information Studies, Flushing, New York; and Teri R. Switzer, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

The Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship will be presented to David Lankes at the ALA Award Ceremony and Reception on Sunday, June 26,, during the Annual Conference in Orlando.

The deadline for submission of applications for the 2017 Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship is Dec. 1, 2016. Guidelines and application forms are available on the ALA website.