live blogging #InfoCampSeattle

Having a great time here in Seattle. Learning about some really cool projects.

One that just caught my interest: Wikipedia Loves Libraries. In short: a project to try and create a wikipedia page for every library.

A session on academic libraries is about to start, titled "Head in the Sand." Should be good. So I have to go. But to learn more about InfoCamp, a UX unconference, search for the hash tag #infocampseattle in twitter!

Leading From The Stacks: LIAL

This is the fourth post in the series Leading From The Stacks, an examination of leadership in the library industry. It was initiated by my course Leading From Any Position.

I recently read about Harvard Graduate School of Education's Leadership Institute for Academic Libraries (LIAL), reading about is on the blogs of K. D. Schneider and  John Dupruis. It sounds like an amazing experience, bringing together leaders from across North America for a week for an in-depth conversation about the management of academic libraries.

For a week during the summer, participants gathering in Boston, where they are encouraged to unplug from their computers and dive into in-depth readings and discussion focusing on leadership development in academia and libraries. LIAL creates a safe space for the group to examine both what is happening in their own institutions as well as wider trends that effect all of them From Schneider and Dupruis's descriptions it seems that a lot of introspection and excitement is generated during the week.

Reading their posts, what I come away with most in the notion that leadership development is an ongoing process. While most directors and managers of academic libraries are certainly hired for their leadership skills, it is understood the continued development is necessary to be an effective leader. This seems to be a common element of organizational culture for institutions who focus on learning and information sharing. Theories and best practices are always evolving and reacting to outside influences. I think this is an element that draws me to a career in libraries: lifelong learning is not just expected but celebrated.

Look inside the mind of a library circulation worker...

...when things are super slow, I get sucked into the Bermuda Triangle of social media:


When I'm really bored, I make Venn Diagrams:



Thankfully I have enough on my plate that this doesn't happen super often!

Leading From The Stacks: Words from McChrystal

This is the third post in the series Leading From The Stacks, an examination of leadership in the library industry. It was initiated by my course Leading From Any Position.

If you are a leader, the people you've counted on will help you out. And if you are a leader the people who count on you need you on your feet.

- Stanley McChrystal

As I mentioned in the last post in this series, I think it is always important to look to leaders who inspired. you. I count Andy Woodworth as a leader in the library community. His many awards and accolades are certainly well deserved. I was not surprised to find posts on his blog about leadership, but my curiosity was piqued when I noticed that he had a Ted Talk by Stanley McChrystal, former Commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. While undeniably a leader, I don't always expect to see the intersection of military interests within the sphere of librarianship. However, watching the video and reading Andy's comments, I found that the intersection made perfect sense.

Many of McChrystal's comments struck a cord with me. There were some that were expected, along the lines of never leaving a falling soldier behind and good leaders let you fail without being a failure. But I was really impressed with what McChrystal had to say about being a leader in a rapidly changing time in history. Which makes sense, both the type of warfare that we are engaged in and the makeup of our troops are constantly changing. And, of course, the technology used to communicate is evolving as well.

Andy picked up on this as well, succinctly summarizing the talk as the need of leaders to use our technological innovations to build trust and a consensus of a common purpose. Andy specifically related this to the dialog that librarians are creating with publishers on the best way to lend ebooks in libraries, which is a difficult conversation to have.

But the idea of leveraging technology to build a common goal within an organization or institution is an important lesson in 21st century leadership. Although librarians don't all work together in a physical space, we have tools to allow us to engage in conversations regardless of location and work towards the common goals of efficient information access, effective information literacy instruction and protecting basic freedoms.

Leading From The Stacks: Looking to others

This is the second post in the series Leading From The Stacks, an examination of leadership in the library industry. It was initiated by my course Leading From Any Position.

I think it an important source for developing your own leadership philosophy is to look to those who've come before you. I have always been a great fan of In The Library With The Lead Pipe, a collaborative, peer reviewed library blog whose contributors always seem to have their fingers on the pulse of what is happening in library-land. Recently, Eric Frierson had an excellent post on leadership. Frierson wrote about the importance of authentic leadership, and I couldn't agree more. As I mentioned in my first LFTS post, I developed my leadership abilities at summer camp, where our biggest critics were the campers themselves. They were the first ones to detect when a cabin leader was not being themselves, giving that leader a difficult time getting his cabin to fall in line. On the flip side, campers would follow a self-confident leader to the ends of the earth and back.

Frierson also prompts a great discussion on vision. I think having a vision or a mission statement is key for effective library leaders. It's something bigger than the organization that gives it a sense of direction: a point in the distance to mark their compass and point the prow of their ship. As Frierson mentions, the vision must be imaginable, desirable, feasible, focused, flexible and focused.

I really appreciated this post, not only for it's discussion on leadership but the fact that its published by leaders in the library community.

Leading From The Stacks: An introduction

This is the first post in the series Leading From The Stacks, an examination of leadership in the library industry. It was initiated by my course Leading From Any Position.

When I saw that Cindy Romain was teaching a course on leadership, I got pretty excited. Cindy was an internationally-recognized Library with Nike "where she was responsible for the strategic global collections for a world-class design community." She is the founder of Romainiacs, a consulting firm that offers companies intelligent research services. And she is the current President of the Special Library Association. If there is any instructor who know a thing or two about leadership, it is certainly going to be her.

We were asked to keep a blog, reflecting on our thoughts about leadership throughout the term. I thought that it would be great to complete this assignment here. It'll be a great opportunity to share with my readers my perspectives of leadership and share what's going on inside the mind of a library student in his final semester of library school. This is my first post, and I hope to keep posing once a week or so throughout the semester.

Campers enjoying Lake Winnipesaukee, Copyrighted by YMCA Camp Belknap

I thought I would share where I have developed my perspective of what it means to be a leader going into this class. It all started at summer camp. I attended YMCA Camp Belknap in New Hampshire for 7 years as a camper, and then 6 years as a staff member. Belknap is a leadership based camp, promoting staff members directly out of the camper ranks. The values that Belknap promoted were apparent in all aspects of camp life, most notably  our motto: 'God First, the Other fellow Second, Myself Last.' While this may seem creepy and cult-ish, I should note that this was the camp motto since it's founding: in 1903. But it should also be examined with a wide angle lens. To us, 'God First' meant putting something larger than yourself first. And the rest of the motto communicated a commitment to promoting the benefit of all and appreciating serving others. Although, to most campers, the motto really only translated to not taking the biggest brownie at desert.

The leadership model that the staff utilized most was Leadership By Example, what we called LBE. We believed exhibiting personal behavior we wanted to see in others was the most effective form of leadership. And it worked very well for us.

Fellow camp alumni and I joke that our years at Belknap was horrible for the resume, but excellent for the interview. Other staff members have gone on to become leaders of education, business and medicine. And while it may not be instinctual for most to see how years at summer camp prepares you for almost anything, it is certainly the truth. I know that I am constantly seeing correlations between lessons learned as a cabin leader ans lessons I am learning in library school. Being able to adapt, the need for creative and the importance of collaboration. I am excited as my career as a librarian develops to see how else I can incorporate my experience from Belknap.

Centennial Post: Keep Calm and Ranganathan On

One Hundred. 100. Centennial.

I find it appropriate that I made this milestone as I wrap up my MLS education. I am entering my final semester, and have just finished my Capstone requirements. For the Capstone course, I created an online portfolio highlighting my academic and professional requirements and presented the portfolio to my cohort members, professor, adviser and Dean. To celebrate my one hundredth post, I thought I would share my capstone presentation. I related my favorite assignments with Ranganathan's Five laws of Library Science. With each law, I have provided a link to the corresponding page on my portfolio. I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoyed putting it together:

Keep calm and Ranganathan On

Ranganathan was one of the first theorists I learned about in library school. Throughout this journey he has very much been both an anchor and a trail blazer for me. As a student, whenever I could not wrap my mind around a situation or a concept, I would think “What would Ranganathan do?” And one of his five laws would provide me with an answer.

First law: Books are for Use

His first law is the basis of the foundation of our profession: use. As a librarian, Ranganathan saw that the majority of books were literally chained to the shelves to prevent theft. He recognized this as detrimental, and new that librarians needed to promote access and use of the materials in their library.

This is still true today.

Librarians have always been about connecting people with information, building relationships. As Brenda Dervin would say, we help individuals add meaning to their experiences. When Ranganthan was a librarian, the most common format for information was books. Today there is no common format, but we still help build relationships.

For the course Information Services for Academic Libraries, I created an annotated bibliography based on Megan Oakleaf’s report: The Value of Academic Libraries, focusing on how librarians can assist their institution;s efforts in building high levels of student retention. While this may not seem like a typical role of a librarian, it is actually the focus of what a librarian is.

Where Libraries have been going through a shift from systems to services, so have educational paradigms. Before, it was seen that if students were using library systems they were more likely to graduate. Now, it is sent that if a student has a meaningful relationship with a member of the university staff, they are more likely to graduate. Since Librarians are already in the role of connecting students to information, we are in a strategic place to help foster relationships between students, researchers, faculty and most importantly, librarians.

Second Law: Every reader his or her book

This law suggests that every member of the community should be able to obtain materials needed, which implies a thorough understanding of you community and communities needs. This law was most relevant to me, again, during the course Information Services for Academic Libraries.

An ongoing conversation of that class was the need to understand your users, but in the context of their discipline. We discussed the three different disciplines – Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, and how their information needs and searches would be different.

This lesson culminated with an exercise in Academic Reference. We were given a list of typical reference questions and were asked to find 2 reference sources that contained the answer – both in print and electronically. We had to think about the user and what would be the best source for them.

Third Law: Every book its reader
This principle is closely related to the second law but it focuses on the item itself, suggesting that each item in a library has an individual or individuals who would find that item useful.

This law was constantly in the back of my mind as I was working on OHSU’s digital collection of campus photographs.

I was given the task to generate the Metadata for 160 images, mostly of the Portland Aerial Tram. At first I wondered: why do we need so many images? Looking at the collection, if search for pictures of the tram you will come up to close to 1000 images.

Working with our Metadata librarian and working with the collection, I realized to look at the collection as a whole, and I learned that you never know what a person’s need may be. There might be a day when a patron will need an image of the half constructed tram, or the tram's first run, or the tram at sunset or the tram at sunrise or looking up at the tram or looking down at the tram. We will have their needs covered as best as possible.

Fourth Law: Save the time of the reader

This law is the recognition that part of the excellence of library service is its ability to meet the needs of the library user efficiently.

While Ranganathan original wrote the law in relation to the ease of accessing materials, and thus collection and library management, with the shift from systems to services, I think that instruction of information literacy now plays a huge role in saving the time of the reader, teaching patrons how to efficiently search for and select the best sources for their needs.

For teaching in the Information setting, I developed a curriculum that would teach upper level college students how to incorporate 21st century technology into their research projects. Specifically I chose to teach efficient ways to incorporate RSS feeds into their research, selecting both news sources and blogs and appropriate database searches that would deliver potential sources to them, allowing them easy access to a spectrum of information specific to their topic.

By teaching them to make the internet work for them, they will be able to shift their focus from constant searching to analyzing and thinking critically about the information that is delivered to them.

Fifth Law: The library is a growing organism

This law focused more on the need for internal change than on changes in the environment itself. I think it is pretty apparent that librarianship is changing, as this is conversation we have all had since day one.

For the group project in the Management and Administration class, I worked with an amazing group in developing a strategic plan for a community college library. We wanted to confront these changes head on. We looked at the trends affecting this specific field of education – the massive growth in student populations and the popularity of distance education. We knew that students weren’t searching for information at the library, so we wanted to bring our services to them through embedded librarianship, which would not only meet students changing needs but also highlight that librarians can partner with administration and instructors to help overcome these challenges.

Tomorrows libraries are going to look much different than today’s libraries, which already look radically different than the libraries of Ranganathan. I am fairly certain that he would approve.



So now, here I am, looking back. And true enough, Ranganathan and his laws have been the way for me to sum up the lessons of the past two years: Building relationships, knowing your users, providing access to what individuals and communities need, providing efficient services and quality instruction, and being able to adapt and change.

But there is one lesson that I learned not through him, but through the members of my cohort: the importance of community. These lessons and ideas would be lost of me if it wasn’t for my classmates to bounce them off of and work on together. I can not thank them enough for such an amazing journey. I could not imagine where I would be today if I had to do this on my own.


Image Credit: AtliaTheHun on Flickr
Image Credit: Marta Murvosh