Customer, Consumer, Users, and Other Mistakes

“Customer, Consumer, Users, and Other Mistakes” LIANZA Annual Conference 2015. Wellington, New Zealand.

Abstract: Librarians and the libraries they build are turning towards the communities they serve. Librarians have found renewed relevance and purpose in unleashing the knowledge and aspirations of the world’s towns, schools, universities, and businesses. However, this realignment can go too far – to a place where the values and unique contributions of librarianship get lost in a rush to meet every demand and fad. This talk will focus on the new compact libraries and their communities must forge for the benefit of both.

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2015/Lianza.pdf

Video: http://webcast.gigtv.com.au/Mediasite/Play/4d8a688879144bc49d19e6f3330d74f41d?catalog=69ebd641-e877-4b28-a35e-cc8efe83e3c1&playFrom=6614&autoStart=true

I’m Looking for Doctoral Students

Come study with me…come help me change the world. Below is the recruitment announcement for Syracuse’s Ph.D. program. I am looking for good folks to come and work with me. It is increasingly vital that we have information scientists and new faculty in the field. Let me know if you are interested. I’d love to talk.


Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies welcomes applicants for our doctoral program. Admitted students are assured of at least four year’s funding (including summers) along with tuition and other support.

The interdisciplinary nature of our program is visible through the backgrounds of the 30 current doctoral students.  These students hail from ten countries and have academic training in the social sciences, communications, business, computer science, librarianship, linguistics, information science, and others areas.   Our doctoral program is a welcoming and inclusive place for scholars from under-represented populations, something we see as a defining element of our program.

Doctoral students pursue individualized course plans that are tuned to their particular research interests and needs.  This means advising and, more importantly, close working relationships with faculty members is a cornerstone of the Syracuse University iSchool Ph.D. program. This is why it is both residential and full-time.

We celebrate the success of our recent graduates who are taking up tenure-track positions in premier research institutions and exceptional liberal arts colleges, excelling in academic and policy think tanks, and pursuing entrepreneurial success! Current students are earning awards for their publications and dissertation work, continuing a long tradition of such recognition.

For 2016, we are particularly interested in speaking with applicants and seeing applications from those whose interests align with one or more of the following research areas

  • Text and data mining, Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval
  • Computational social science, visualization, and data analytics
  • Agent-based modeling
  • Information policy, Internet governance, and telecommunications policy
  • Librarianship
  • Mobile computing
  • Data infrastructure and services in support of research
  • Organizational impacts of ICTs (e.g., Citizen Science, FLOSS, Wikipedia, mobile work, distributed scientific collaboration, and infrastructure studies)
  • Information security and privacy
  • Social computing, social media, social networks, and crowdsourcing
  • Wireless telecommunications policy and telecommunication service markets

You can learn more about the Syracuse iSchool faculty and interests at https://ischool.syr.edu/research/faculty-research-areas/

You can learn more about the doctoral program and application (due 3 January, 2016) at https://ischool.syr.edu/academics/graduate/doctoral/information-science-and-technology/

Please reach out to the faculty member whose interests draw you forward, the program director, Steve Sawyer, at [email protected] , or our program manager, Jennifer Barclay, at [email protected] with questions!

From Bringer of Doom to Bringer of Hope

“From Bringer of Doom to Bringer of Hope” Upstate New York and Ontario Chapter of the Medical Library Association. Buffalo, NY.

Abstract: By embedding librarianship directly into patient support and engaging patients as more than symptoms and diseases medical librarians can help the entire field of medicine transition to true patient centered care. In this talk Lankes will draw upon his experience as both a professor of library science and cancer patient to outline a future for librarians in healthcare.

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2015/UNYOC.pdf

Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2015/UNYOC.mp3

Screencast:

From Bringer of Doom to Bringer of Hope from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

Day 45,626

“Day 45,626” NYLA’s 125th Annual Conference. Lake Placid, NY.

Abstract: This year NYLA celebrates its 125th anniversary (45,625 days). 45,625 days ago Melvil Dewey, one of NYLA’s founders, saw the future of libraries in standardization, efficiency, and industrialization. 45,625 days ago the future of libraries was in shared structures, shared methods, and librarians devoted to the maintenance of institutional libraries. On day 45,626 this is the formula for disaster. On day 45,626 the future of libraries is in librarians building libraries around the unique communities they serve. The success of the next 125 years is intimately tied to the success of the counties, cities, towns, and villages of New York. Our next 125 years is in the dreams and aspirations of New York’s citizens, students, and scholars not our stacks.

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2015/NYLA.pdf

Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2015/NYLA.mp3

Screencast:

Day 45,626 from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.