A New Challenge
It’s official! I’ve accepted a new job at Arlington Heights Memorial Library. I’ll be their new Information Services Manager starting the first week of July. To be honest, it’s going to be very tough leaving Skokie because the past three years have been very good to me professionally. I’ve had a chance to work with some incredibly talented people and I’ve loved the work, but I just felt that this new opportunity at AHML was just too good to pass up. AHML has a great reputation and has been an innovator in many areas, so I think it’ll be a great fit for me. And who knows, maybe I’ll get a second crack at building a digital media lab! It never hurts to think big, right?!
Best Free iPhone Apps
Here are the slides to a new presentation I created for mpow. There was a fun atmosphere during the class and the attendees seemed really into it. Half of them already had an iPhone or iPod Touch (mostly newer users) and the other half said they were thinking about buying an iPhone/Android phone/Blackberry soon and they just wanted to learn more about mobile apps. The class really should have been called “Some of the Best Free iPhone and iPod Touch Apps” because it was really a difficult challenge to identify all the apps people should really know about. Are there any duds that should’ve been left out of the presentation? Which free apps should I have included?
Interviews with Photographers
Lately, I’ve made an effort to produce more video content for my library’s YouTube presence. Here are some video interviews with some of the top finishers from the recent teen photography contest. I shot each of these five videos in our Digital Media Lab against the chroma key wall (aka SPL’s green monster). It was a ton of fun meeting these students and hearing them talk about their interest in photography. I’m amazed at their talent and intelligence! Enjoy!
Stump the Librarian on Facebook
When librarians talk about the future of reference, much of the conversation seems to find its way to this idea of moving beyond the traditional reference desk and embedding (the embedded librarian!) ourselves where people are already spending time. Obviously, this can happen in both physical and online spaces. One of my favorite examples of the former is “librarian with a latte” by Eric Frierson, who is, btw, a fellow UMSI alum! Recently, Toby Greenwalt, a colleague from mpow, started what I think is a great example of the latter.
Each Wednesday, he posts a message on our library’s Facebook wall challenging people to send questions and “stump the librarian.” We have over 700 followers on our Facebook page and I’m guessing a lot of these followers see our wall posts on their news feeds. An invitation like this one gives people an opportunity to find answers to their questions and it gives us an opportunity to flex our information/reference muscles. Plus, it has a “game” feel to it, which makes it even better!
Check out today’s “Stump the Librarian”…
Digital Media Librarianship
It’s been 7 months since the Digital Media Lab (DML) opened and we’re continuing to see it being used for tons of interesting projects by a wide variety of people. Yesterday, I staffed the DML for 3 hours and just in that time alone I met the following people:
- a recently retired man interested in starting up his own website
- an equine photographer interested in digitizing her negatives so she can sell her photographs online
- a football player interested in editing video footage to create a highlight reel for college recruiters
- a father interested in digitizing and editing some old home videos
- four of our top six finishers in our recent teen photography contest who came in for a scheduled interview to talk about their interest and inspiration in photography
When I think about the future of libraries, I can’t help but think that educating our users in technology (including digital media creation) has to be a huge part of the equation. That’s why I was so impressed with the Helsinki Library 10 and Meeting Point, recently featured on Walking Paper! These libraries look like what would happen if you took our single-room DML and just kept expanding its space and services.
Check out these great slides as well: