The New Librarianship

This is a call for book chapters for The New Librarianship, a book that will focus on new roles and responsibilities for librarians in the digital environment, as well as new skill sets, new partnerships, and other exciting endeavors.  The book will be published by Scarecrow Press.

Topical areas suggested include:

• information stewardship
• research evaluation metrics
• new skills and new roles
• open access
• scholarly publishing
• the library as publisher
• involvement, engagement, connection with patrons/customers
• training
• embedded librarianship
• research data management and services
• grant writing
• virtual reference, instruction, etc.
• e-science
• innovative uses of technology
• library mobile apps
• information visualization
• ILMS redefined
• data literacy, media literacy, multi-literacy
• institutional repositories
• sustainable and effective assessment
• exciting and innovative partnerships outside of and within the library
• user-generated content
• data curation
• innovative uses of metadata standards and interoperability
• new models for library services
• mega-collaborations (shared print, shared services, etc.)
• marketing/outreach services
• "green" libraries
• creating/reinventing new spaces in libraries
• web-scale discovery tools
• folksonomies

These are only a few of the topics that will be explored in this book.  The editor is looking for case studies, thoughtful and insightful opinions, and innovative new services and models for moving libraries forward. 

To submit book chapter proposals, please submit an abstract of approximately 100 words and a title for the chapter to Dr. Brad Eden at brad.eden@valpo.edu.  Deadline for proposals is November 25, 2013.  Deadline for accepted chapters to be submitted to the editor would be May 1, 2014. 

The Accidental Systems Librarian

I am pleased to say that Nicole C. Engard's and Rachel Singer Gordon's book "The Accidental Systems Librarian," second edition, is now available!

"The Accidental Systems Librarian takes the approach that anyone with a solid foundation in the practices and principles of librarianship and a willingness to confront and learn about changing technology can serve effectively in a library systems position—with or without formal technology training."

I was delighted to share my opinion of the book in a blurb for it, and I'm happy to point it out as an invaluable resource for anyone who's either been dropped into this happy field by accident, or is thinking of choosing it down the line. (It's a great review for the kind of things you'd be doing!)

Give it a look!

This Book is Overdue!

I'm assuming by now you've probably heard of Marilyn Johnson's "This Book is Overdue!" - a new book about librarians, data overload, and why we are the saviors of the future. I've had several tabs open all week to share about this great new book, but intelligent commentary just ain't happening right now - so here's the links and a promise of more to come!

* Wisconsin Public Radio's "To The Best of Our Knowledge" interviewed Johnson on February 14th - "Marilyn Johnson is the author of 'This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All.' She talks with Jim Fleming about how librarians are emerging as heroes of the digital age because of their love for the written word, free speech and open access."

* "Here's to librarians, saviors of the data-weary." Kim Ode at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune gives a really nice review of the book. I also quite like her line "Yahoo doesn't light up with a smile when we log in, but a familiar librarian will." Amen!

* Jed Lipinski over at Salon.Com also interviewed Johnson, in "Hot for Librarian" on February 21st.  "[T]here's bad news for those of you with a shushing fetish; as Marilyn Johnson explains [...] the uptight librarian is a species that's rapidly approaching extinction."

 * And Tommy Wayne Kramer in Ukiah, CA needs to read Johnson's book; he recently stated in an opinion piece for The Ukiah Daily Journal that we should "save the county, close the libraries." For someone who is clearly proud that he hasn't set foot in a library in ages ("But it's easy to go years and years without visiting a library - I haven't had a library card in a quarter century and can't recall a single time I wished I had one.") he certainly has some strong opinions about what should be done with them. I'm astonished at the negativity in this opinion piece, and depressed that a series of book stores provided support for the piece.


My copy of the book is half-read, and I'm sure I'll have my own review and opinion once I'm done. In the meantime, check it out, rejoice in the spirit in which it's offered, and keep fighting the good fight!

What They Said

It's not quite a random collection of stuff today; rather, posts relating to the future (both things to do, and things to dream of):

* AndyW's posting "5 Universal Truths That All Librarians Can Agree Upon Right Now" is, IMHO, danged true.

* Blake's collection of "10 Librarian Blogs to Read" is always good, and I always find one or two more to add to my reader. Check it out, I bet you'll find a few too!

* LJ has a series of video interviews with Marilyn Johnson, author of "This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All," currently on my to-read list. (hi Sally!)

* For the first time in 1600 years, there is again a Librarian of Alexandria. (hi to Mandy, who's lucky enough to work there!)

* I am totally going to be playing around with concept maps.

What will you add in the new year?

ITI Authors On Parade

ITI Authors On Parade at #il2009
Originally uploaded by libraryman

The booksigning event at Internet Librarian was a blast - what a great bunch of folks to be a part of! Thanks to Libraryman Michael Porter for the photo op... and for buying one of everyone's books!

Longshots Podcast Now Up!

I'm pleased to announce that my book interview with Sarah Long for her LongShots podcast is now available! We talked about - yes, it's true - the image of librarians, why you should care, and what we can all do to help continue to update that image. It was a great interview and I was really pleased to have the opportunity!

SLA 2009: Day Three

So, after completely discombobulating my brain with the fact that yes, Day Three is, in fact, Monday, I was able to shake it up and get going. Kicked off the day with an informal meeting of the Innovations in Technology committee - 2/3 of us, at least - but it was great to meet James in person. And then, it was the non-conflict Info-Expo Lunch Reception and (drum roll please) my first book signing! It went well, I think - the time certainly flew by! (Thanks again to Jill for the great photo!)

The afternoon was spent at the PAMwide Roundtable. The moderator, Joe, had a great idea this year; in addition to the usual round-the-room introduction, you were supposed to share a hobby, and something you were hoping to get out of SLA this year. Thankfully, he set aside the first hour for this, as it was a packed room! Then an experiment in social networking using Twitter was tried (with middling success), and a presentation of the International Membership Award winner's talk was given. (Sadly, the IMA winner, Ms. Adefunke Olanike Alabi, was unable to attend this year due to visa problems.) It was interesting and sobering to hear about the state of scientific librarianship in Nigeria, and I only wish Ms. Alabi had been able to deliver her talk in person.

The evening was given over to the US Naval Observatory - and what an evening! After a brief but lively discussion about the tour bus scheduling, a group of us were off for the PAM Book Group discussion, held in one of the conference rooms at the USNO. We read and discussed "Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries" by Neil deGrasse Tyson; the discussion was lively and included comments on the readability of the book, how some folks had known the author while he was a postdoc, and a great back-and-forth about science and religion. (Really, it was pretty spiffy.) By the end of our discussion, the other group of folks had arrived from the conference center for the USNO Tour, pulled together by Sally (who we cannot say enough good things about). After two hours of amazing thing piled on amazing thing, a full busload headed back to the convention center. Some folks went on to a reception at the Spy Museum, others headed to the IT Division's Sci-Fi night, but me? I went back to my hotel and crashed again!

OPL Plus Reviews the Book

Judith Siess, Queen of the One Person Library and OPL Plus blogger, says in her review of my book (the first review, even!), "You should read this book and take its message to heart. If we don't change, we'll become irrelevant and disappear altogether." Thank you, Judy (and apologies for the mis-spell)!

Crazy & insane, but worth it

It has been, to say the least, very intense around here for the past couple of weeks. But, it's all paid off, and today is definitely Boost Ruth's Ego day:

* The Project Manager for Job #1 told my boss today that he's very pleased with my recent performance, especially since he's aware of how many different hats I'm working under. Yay!

* The Project Manager for Job #2 likes the configuration management system I've set up, that had its big demo yesterday. Yay!

* My publisher, ITI, told me my book (currently a Featured Title on ITI's site) was the second best seller at CiL, behind David Lee King's book! Not bad at all, considering I wasn't able to be there to flog it and do a signing. Yay!

Today is just full of... well, Yay!

"We call it Book."

Penny Arcade for the win once more!

Astronomy Science Fiction

"Astronomy professor and SF author, Mike Brotherton, had a brilliant idea. A lot of people get their ideas about science from fiction, but the problem is that much of the science in fiction is really bad -- like that whole exploding in vacuum thing. So he decided to put together an online anthology of science fiction specifically to use in conjunction with teaching astronomy. The National Science Foundation thought it was a good idea and funded the anthology."

This is just too cool. Check out Diamonds in the Sky, "an original anthology of astronomy science fiction."

And Now: The Interview!

And finally, I can brag that the Shanachies interviewed me at Internet Librarian! (It has been soooooo hard not being able to mention this until now.)


Internet Librarian 2008: interviews from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

A Momentous Announcement: The Book!

I am simultaneously pleased, nervous, excited, and terrified to announce the forthcoming publication of "You Don’t Look Like a Librarian Shattering Stereotypes and Creating Positive New Images in the Internet Age." With a foreword by the fabulous Elizabeth Burns (of Pop Goes the Library), it'll be available March 30, 2009 from Information Today, Inc. The companion web site to the book will go public on the official publication date of March 30th.

Writing this book has been quite a journey; what started out just being a frequently-heard comment has morphed over the intervening decade (yes, decade!) into a Thing. This Thing has led me to talks and articles, a regular column, this blog, and now The Book. I can't say thank you enough to everyone who's stuck with me, answered my surveys, and sent me articles and cartoons and music videos and so on. Thank you.

Don't expect the comments to stop, though, just with the publication of The Book! There's always more to come!

I leave you with a tease...

I can finally come right out and say it: I wrote a book. And Information Today, Inc. is publishing it, early next year. I'm borrowing a cover tease idea from SBTB and sharing just a peek - watch this space for more!

Giddily wishing you an enjoyable weekend -

Recently Read: "Between the Stacks"

I haven't posted book reviews much here before, but I think that might change. I just finished "Between the Stacks", by Barry Bowes (Landesman, 1979) and quite enjoyed it. Set in a public library in the UK, it follows the trials and tribulations of the staff at the Pike Lane library, told from the viewpoint of the (interestingly unnamed, throughout the book) senior assistant. It's quite amusing, while also illustrating the frustrations of the reference interview, being the unpaid babysitters, and many other well-known PL issues. The issues at Pike Place frame an introspective journey by the main character, who's trying to evaluate his future, both personally and professionally.

It's not an easy book to come by; there wasn't a copy anywhere in my state (thanks, ILL!). Amazon has a few used ones from international sources, and I'm pondering placing an order, but we'll see. Even Library Thing, with its gazillions of books, only shows four copies. If you do have access to it, though, give it a read!

Shopping, Marketing, and Fantasies

Yes, it's another catchup posting!

• Check it out! Shelf Check has a store now! The Twitter button especially made me laugh.
• Coming out next month: The Shanachie Tour book and DVD! If you haven't had a chance to see the DOK guys speak in person (they're inspiring), this is the next best thing. Highly recommended!
• Shelf Talk has a great post about Fantastic librarians, or librarian fantasies? "Could it be that librarians’ staid image is now bursting the seams of naturalistic fiction and spilling forth into the realms of imagination and empires of wonder?" Love the post, and now I have a few more books to read, too.

Currently a pleasant 86° and sunny.

Pop Goes the Library: The Book!

Congratulations to Sophie and Liz, the great minds behind Pop Goes the Library, on the publication of their book! Now you, too, can gain insight into how to use pop culture to jazz up your library services - and have some fun along the way. To top off the publication, they've gone social-networking-mad; there's a blog, a wiki, a Flickr group, and a Twitter account , and a Facebook page in progress. w00t! So pick your way to learn their secrets :-)

Monday tidbits

Just some random bits to share:

* The new Indiana Jones movie has a hilarious scene in a library (well, I thought it was hilarious) involving a motorcycle and a reference question.

* From Playing for Keeps, by Jane Waterhouse: "Kitty Katz, everyone's idea of a librarian---each angular, beige part of her neatly tied with pearly ropes from which hung glasses, cardigan sweaters, even keys." (p.231) As Pat (who sent it to me) says, "I don't feel beige..."

* My Drupal site goes live (finally!) in the next 24 hours. *wibble*

Back to the nervous triple-checking, and closing my window; it's already 86° heading for 102°.

The Virtual Librarian

A new novel by Theodore Rockwell, "The Virtual Librarian: A Tale of Alternative Realities", will be having a book-promotional party in Second Life! That's kinda nifty - a book about a virtual librarian, in a virtual space. Read the press release about it, or an earlier one about the book itself. (I'm going to have to keep an eye open for this one!)

Bombshell Librarians

The emails with new suggestions and info just keep coming! Yay!

Kathe has been kind enough to re-introduce me (thanks!) to Helen Marsh Shandy, the "blonde bombshell of the ALA". She and her husband Peter are the stars of a mystery series by Charlotte MacLeod; I'll be loading yet another book on the request pile at my local library and will be starting with Rest You Merry, the first in the series.