... a deep respect for children and how they solve complex problems. Love this fascinating interview series...
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Gene WIlder Interview - Creativity, Humor, Acting, and Truth
This is interesting. Love this series of illustrated interviews and I'll be posting a few more here.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Really interesting -- Einstein and the story behind E=mc2
The story behind the world's most famous equation, E = mc2
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Accountability, leadership, and how to develop your organizational culture
A really interesting read on the relationship between accountability, leadership and the impact on organizational culture. Short answer: if you want to change organizational culture, it has to start at the top.
" When someone like Governor Chris Christie stands up and says “I’m responsible because it happened on my watch” the public often gets the sense that the speaker is being disingenuous and the underlying message is, “Yes, I’m responsible, but not directly.” But leaders are responsible directly for the behavior of others because leaders are accountable for the day-in and day-out operating culture of their organization. Leaders may not be able to monitor everything, but it’s a leader’s job to make sure there’s an organizational culture in place that assures that what happens on their watch is consistent with their intent. Leadership and culture are two concepts that are inexorably connected."
So, how can an organizational culture be created that ensures that the work represents the organization's mission? (italics are my comments):
" When someone like Governor Chris Christie stands up and says “I’m responsible because it happened on my watch” the public often gets the sense that the speaker is being disingenuous and the underlying message is, “Yes, I’m responsible, but not directly.” But leaders are responsible directly for the behavior of others because leaders are accountable for the day-in and day-out operating culture of their organization. Leaders may not be able to monitor everything, but it’s a leader’s job to make sure there’s an organizational culture in place that assures that what happens on their watch is consistent with their intent. Leadership and culture are two concepts that are inexorably connected."
So, how can an organizational culture be created that ensures that the work represents the organization's mission? (italics are my comments):
- Articulate a core cultural statement - However, it's not enough to just articulate a statement, it has to be supported at every turn and incorporated into everything from mission statements to employee reviews. EVERYTHING.
- Develop a cultural vocabulary - and use it!
- Model your behavior - Be the culture! Don't just pay it lip service - your actions, words, tone, language - even they way you dress - needs to support the culture. The higher up in the administrative chain, the more important it is to set the tone. I don't know how many times I have heard people talk about an organization having a diversity or tolerance statement but yet they do not feel that it is REALLY supported. Even something as minor as casual friday plays into organizational culture - after all casual friday is not really casual if the boss shows up in a suit!)
- Avoid cultural drift: " Day-in and day-out, leadership should reinforce, recognize, and reward behavior that's consistent with your core cultural statement." - Consistency and recognition. One of the easiest things to do in management is to ignore good behavior and performance. Isn't the expectation that a person who does their job is... well... doing their job? True, but everyone works better with appreciation and recognition. We all want to feel valued. Just as with a garden, a positive organizational culture needs to be nurtured and fertilized!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Reflections on OCLC (Jay Jordan retires)
Some interesting thoughts sprinkled throughout the interview portion...
----------
OCLC now serves 72,035 libraries in 170 countries, with more than 260 million records—up from 39 million records in 1998. Its businesses have shifted radically, with an increasing proportion of its revenues derived from the library automation business rather than metadata services.
Jordan’s tenure has not been without controversy. Some in the automation field charge that OCLC has an unfair competitive advantage as a nonprofit. Its records use policy has been a point of contention, too, and OCLC is still involved in a lawsuit over members sharing of bibliographic data.
But Jordan’s track record has also been marked by innovative R&D and hires of respected librarians to facilitate that. Under his leadership, OCLC has taken a role in major surveys of customer perceptions of libraries worldwide that have impacted library service. It launched WebJunction, an online learning community that has particular value for staff in small and rural libraries, as well as the Geek the Library community awareness campaign. In addition to the WorldShare platform and WorldShare Management Services, earlier this year, it debuted the beta cloud-based Website for Small Libraries, so they can build low-cost websites with basic patron inventory management features.
more at
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/04/people/end-of-an-era-at-oclc-jay-jordan-reflects-on-his-14-year-tenure/
----------
OCLC now serves 72,035 libraries in 170 countries, with more than 260 million records—up from 39 million records in 1998. Its businesses have shifted radically, with an increasing proportion of its revenues derived from the library automation business rather than metadata services.
Jordan’s tenure has not been without controversy. Some in the automation field charge that OCLC has an unfair competitive advantage as a nonprofit. Its records use policy has been a point of contention, too, and OCLC is still involved in a lawsuit over members sharing of bibliographic data.
But Jordan’s track record has also been marked by innovative R&D and hires of respected librarians to facilitate that. Under his leadership, OCLC has taken a role in major surveys of customer perceptions of libraries worldwide that have impacted library service. It launched WebJunction, an online learning community that has particular value for staff in small and rural libraries, as well as the Geek the Library community awareness campaign. In addition to the WorldShare platform and WorldShare Management Services, earlier this year, it debuted the beta cloud-based Website for Small Libraries, so they can build low-cost websites with basic patron inventory management features.
more at
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/04/people/end-of-an-era-at-oclc-jay-jordan-reflects-on-his-14-year-tenure/
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Sabotage in the workplace + how to demotivate your staff in 4 easy steps
A friend and I had an interesting conversation some time ago where we talked about good supervisors that we had (& conversely) bad supervisors. I noted some of our thoughts for a later (now) blog post as I've come across an article that fits really nicely into this theme.
The obvious bad managers were micromanagers or those that were abusive (throwing things, yelling, rampant favoritism/selective punitive treatment, etc.). However, in our conversation, we agreed that management is a spectrum; although at some point those in the middle will tip towards bad or good. Ineffective managers, managers who neglect their staff, and saboteurs also fall into the category of bad managers - regardless of whether their intent is benign or malignant. The intention is completely irrelevant; the results of the actions are long lasting and devastating. Not only demoralizing - bad managers can kill the career of even the brightest star.
Perhaps the worst roadblock in a career is the saboteur manager. According to wikipedia, "saboteurs try to conceal their identities because of the consequences of their actions." Yes, we have all known saboteurs in our lives - these are the fake friends, the gossips, the people who will sell you out in a heartbeat, those who PRETEND to help but work against you, the obstacle builders and the power stealers. This is true of managerial saboteurs also. On the surface, they may seem like advocates, but that is just an illusion. Saboteurs may not be even working on their own behalf; they may be creating acts of sabotage on behalf of another party, such as a favored child.
Wikipedia states that "Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions." (emphasis my own)...
In the article How to Completely and Utterly Destroy an Employee's Worklife the author posits 4 steps to destroying a person's sense of worth (and thus joy in their career and perhaps, even career) itself which all seem to fall into acts of sabotage.
Step 1: Never allow pride of accomplishment -- in other words never phrase or reward achievement. Adding to that, only praise and reward some accomplishments, preferably from the favored children.
Step 2: Miss no opportunity to block progress on employees’ projects -- one of the keys here is to give employees no sense of autonomy. I would also add if your employees have had autonomy, take away that power. Or if you want to really make the situation bad, only block the progress of some employees.
Step 3: Give yourself some credit -- in other words, you, as a manager might be the problem. It's not just personality or bad morale (and if it is bad morale, who do you think had a hand in it?)
Step 4: Kill the messengers -- deny and strike back (ah, the two pronged approach - hide the problem, discredit the employee)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/how-to-completely-utterly-destroy-an-employees-work-life/2012/03/05/gIQAxU3iuR_story.html
The obvious bad managers were micromanagers or those that were abusive (throwing things, yelling, rampant favoritism/selective punitive treatment, etc.). However, in our conversation, we agreed that management is a spectrum; although at some point those in the middle will tip towards bad or good. Ineffective managers, managers who neglect their staff, and saboteurs also fall into the category of bad managers - regardless of whether their intent is benign or malignant. The intention is completely irrelevant; the results of the actions are long lasting and devastating. Not only demoralizing - bad managers can kill the career of even the brightest star.
Perhaps the worst roadblock in a career is the saboteur manager. According to wikipedia, "saboteurs try to conceal their identities because of the consequences of their actions." Yes, we have all known saboteurs in our lives - these are the fake friends, the gossips, the people who will sell you out in a heartbeat, those who PRETEND to help but work against you, the obstacle builders and the power stealers. This is true of managerial saboteurs also. On the surface, they may seem like advocates, but that is just an illusion. Saboteurs may not be even working on their own behalf; they may be creating acts of sabotage on behalf of another party, such as a favored child.
Wikipedia states that "Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions." (emphasis my own)...
In the article How to Completely and Utterly Destroy an Employee's Worklife the author posits 4 steps to destroying a person's sense of worth (and thus joy in their career and perhaps, even career) itself which all seem to fall into acts of sabotage.
Step 1: Never allow pride of accomplishment -- in other words never phrase or reward achievement. Adding to that, only praise and reward some accomplishments, preferably from the favored children.
Step 2: Miss no opportunity to block progress on employees’ projects -- one of the keys here is to give employees no sense of autonomy. I would also add if your employees have had autonomy, take away that power. Or if you want to really make the situation bad, only block the progress of some employees.
Step 3: Give yourself some credit -- in other words, you, as a manager might be the problem. It's not just personality or bad morale (and if it is bad morale, who do you think had a hand in it?)
Step 4: Kill the messengers -- deny and strike back (ah, the two pronged approach - hide the problem, discredit the employee)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/how-to-completely-utterly-destroy-an-employees-work-life/2012/03/05/gIQAxU3iuR_story.html
Friday, February 24, 2012
Call for chapters -- School Librarianship
CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS
Proposal Submission Deadline: March 30th, 2012
Collaborative Instructional Design in Library and Teacher Partnerships
A book edited by Dr. Kathryn Kennedy and Dr. Lucy Santos Green
Georgia Southern University
College of Education
To be published by IGI Global:
Introduction
School library media specialists are more readily becoming integral parts of P-12 schools. Once designated storytellers and information resource providers, today’s library professionals are considered experts in technology integration, information literacy and curriculum alignment, essentially becoming co-teachers (Bishop & Larimer, 1999). This shift is also evident in ALA/AASL Standards for Initial Preparation of School Librarians (2010), which continue to promote the idea of librarian as teacher, instructional partner, and leader within the school community and beyond.
The importance of forming collaborative relationships with administrators and classroom teachers has become an integral component in advocating for a school library media specialist at every school (Lamb & Johnson, 2008). These relationships have the potential to positively affect the learning environment, while equally acknowledging both the teacher’s and media specialist’s contributions to student learning. (Muronago & Harada, 1999; Naslund & Giustini, 2008).
While instructional collaborations have been well documented since the 1980s, highlighting these relationships is extremely important now, especially when considering the push for student development of 21st century skills. Even so, establishing instructional partnerships with classroom teachers is challenging due to many constraints including, personnel, budget limitations and time. As evidenced by the field of research and conference foci over the past decade, technology integration specialists, administrators and library professionals continue to struggle with the concept and implementation of collaboration. Despite the plethora of robust collaborative digital tools, and the virtual collaborative possibilities these present, many educators continue to fall back on the comfort of face-to-face interactions. Collaborative Instructional Design in Library and Teacher Partnerships will highlight best practices and innovative technological approaches in the establishment and maintenance of media specialist-teacher partnerships by providing examples that illuminate and reflect on the quality relationships that exist.
Objective of the Book
Set up as a resource guide, this book acts as a how-to manual for fostering collaboration between classroom teachers and school library media specialists in the 21st century. The book will be divided into two sections: the main book and the field guide. There will be 10-15 chapters highlighting best practices in school library media specialist/teacher collaborations using real world examples.
This publication, built on the theoretical concepts of case based learning, knowledge repositories, collaborative coaching, professional learning communities, teacher mentors and situated cognition, will use real-world examples and stories collected from the field to demonstrate what collaboration looks like in the 21st century school. It will build on the ALA’s "Empowering Learners" by guiding teachers and school library media specialists through the process of beginning, nurturing and maintaining collaborative instructional partnerships using new and emerging digital technologies.
Target Audience
This book explores current collaborative relationships between school library media specialists and classroom teachers. It will be used as a practical guide for professional development, higher education course development, joint lesson planning, and the development of online collaborative units. The target audience includes P-12 school library media specialists, teachers, professional development specialists, and administrators, as well as teacher educators, school library media educators, and researchers.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Meeting NCATE-ALA/AASL standards
Content-focused Collaborations (Case Studies)
Information Literacy & Research Collaborations (Research/Inquiry Real-World Cases)
Collaboration for Community Development
The Role of Technology in Collaboration
Virtual Collaboration
Collaboration for Professional Development
Best Practices
Fostering Administrative Support
Establishing procedures for collaborative planning
Collaboration and Advocacy
Contributors may also select to submit to the workbook section in the following topics:
Universal Design for Learning Templates
Collaborative Lesson Plan Templates
Information Literacy Lesson Plan Templates
Online Module Templates
School Librarians as Online Course Designers
Student Needs Assessments
Teacher Survey Templates
Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before March 30th, 2012, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by April 21st, 2012, about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by July 20th, 2012. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind peer review basis. Chapters should be written in the 6th edition of APA format and submitted via email to both kmkennedy@georgiasouthern.edu andlgreen@georgiasouthern.edu.
Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2013.
Important Dates
March 30th, 2012: Proposal Submission Deadline
April 21st, 2012: Notification of Acceptance
July 20th, 2012: Full Chapter Submission
Sept 14th, 2012: Review Results Returned
Dec 7th, 2012: Final Chapter Submission
--
Lucy Green, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Leadership,
Technology, and Human
Development
Georgia Southern University
P.O. Box 8131
Statesboro, GA 30460-8131
lgreen@georgiasouthern.edu
http://bradandlucygreen.com
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Leadership,
Technology, and Human
Development
Georgia Southern University
P.O. Box 8131
Statesboro, GA 30460-8131
lgreen@georgiasouthern.edu
http://bradandlucygreen.com
Thursday, October 13, 2011
on innovation, technological revolution, digital evolution & one Googler's rant
As many of you have seen now there was a public G+ post from a Google staff person; it has now been taken down and "leaked" (some are wondering whether it was intentionally leaked since there are claims that they have permission to republish it).
Anyhow, these are just my thoughts after reading it yesterday. The post itself is rather long and obviously not meant to be a formal piece of writing, but it is interesting with some very valid discussion points. If nothing else, it is an opinion piece on 2 different companies with very different workplaces and philosophies.
While it mostly focuses on his time spent at Amazon and more recently, Google, the more interesting bits are the thoughts on innovation. He talks about how Amazon made a commitment from the top to change how it worked. Amazon has become a very innovative company (in spite of my feelings about the confusing and unfriendly world of ebooks; I do love my kindle and shop regularly at amazon). I'm just one of millions. He also talks a bit about the culture of working for Amazon at the time (micromanaging, cubeville). The second part covers his time at Google, especially in terms of product development. One thing he talks about is a lack of awareness of user experience/needs in terms of technology - Google looks for products vs. services. He also talked some about the good of Google - their work environment, community service, etc.
What I got from reading this post is that Google culture (& not necessarily individuals although individuals in leadership positions do drive culture or conversely, stagnant it) does not really grasp the why of community driven content (such as social media). I said recently of G+ that unlike Facebook which has a centralized upload for photos, videos, posts, etc. ; for G+, it's picassa for photos, youtube for video, _____ ? (perhaps G buzz?) for posts. Not having an API makes it nearly impossible to push content from G+ to other social media networks. For alot of us, that is CRUCIAL.
Thinking about all of that, it seems that a lot of companies and organizations are struggling with adapting their workflows to new technology products (such as software) in the information age. Rather than trying to think about things in a new way, old thinking and understandings of the world are applied to the new workflow. Leadership (& others) do not grasp the fundamental point: our culture has changed. The way we do things should change - and it's not just the product being developed or the service being offered. It's not about taking our workflow and bending it around a new thing. While some would argue why fix (or break!) what's working - innovation NEVER comes out of stagnation. I would also argue that just because you can make a workflow (or worse - a WORK AROUND) work, does not make it a good, efficient, or productive workflow.
So, it really is a cultural shift - yes, Michael Wesch really did know what he was talking about almost 5 years ago when he posted the Machine is Us/ing Us on Youtube:
...and this is where we are. Digital advocates (fundamentalists? I hate the term digital natives and technological stereotyping based upon age, btw) don't see technology as something that is frivalous (ok, maybe the Xbox is); technology just is. Having technology at hand (& connected - egads the U.S. needs more wifi) is an expectation. Creating content is part of life now -- and that act of creating content and sharing it is driving new ways of looking at work, new workflows - community sourced knowledge.
It's easy to create one post and post to many automatically; to "mashup" (who says mashup anymore? nobody) multiple formats to create a new digital object; to repackage, repurpose, reuse (recycle). One of the biggest fundamental changes that technology has delivered is the shift of power - creative power, especially. Anyone can take a photo and upload it Flickr. Anyone can create a website. So, if your everyday foundation involves using technology to create content and contribute (reviews, writings, etc.) and the tools support creating automatic linked paths (linking data), how can a workflow structured as a line from point A>E work? How can a business or organization SUCCEED as a traditional hierarchy with traditional linear workflows? Because after all, there is a big difference between succeeding and existing. ;-)
Looking at our history, the 2nd Industrial Revolution was focused on science and innovation and lasted until some time after WWII (I would say up through the 1960s and the peak of the space race). A lot of our corporate (but especially higher ed and govermental) workflows were put into place during that time.
For libraries and many information organizations, the 1970s were the beginning of the digital revolution (although it is usually dated as beginning in the 80s with the rise of PCs) and we saw the rise of automation in the 1970s-80s, moving from printed card catalogs to some sort of automated system (database) using MARC language. Nothing really has changed for libraries from the 1970s until the mid 2000s, except our platforms and databases got better (more integrated and powerful; data more portable; reduction of manual work).
As a whole, as the digital revolution became more fully realized, we saw the true beginning of the information revolution (focusing on service rather than products). We're now in the Information Age, with the rise of social media and mobile, community created content, "citizen" journalism, and immediacy of information (real time). WE all are creative collaborative -- well -- creators. As whole, we have moved fully into a service based culture focused with a dependence on technological tools; other members of our society are either catching up, will be forced to adapt once the culture changes around them entirely, OR will be left behind.
...and that is where many libraries and organizations got stuck. Due to budget cuts and an assortment of other issues (aging networks, outdated hardware, hierarchical structures, a lack of understanding of how cultural shifts impact organizations), the leap across from the digital revolution to the information revolution seems at times, nearly impossible. It involves a dedicated vision - not just a migration or conversion (both of which would leave behind remnants of old thinking, but a complete re-envisioning from the ground up. That's not to say that libraries (& others) should throw out all of their products (such as books) or their services (such as circulating those books), but that there are different ways of doing things (self check, ebooks sent automatically to account when available, etc.) but without addressing fundamental problems from a holistic view, the institution or library will never be truly innovative.
of course, some folks get this. Maybe everyone will one day.
-- just my thoughts (as always)
Anyhow, these are just my thoughts after reading it yesterday. The post itself is rather long and obviously not meant to be a formal piece of writing, but it is interesting with some very valid discussion points. If nothing else, it is an opinion piece on 2 different companies with very different workplaces and philosophies.
While it mostly focuses on his time spent at Amazon and more recently, Google, the more interesting bits are the thoughts on innovation. He talks about how Amazon made a commitment from the top to change how it worked. Amazon has become a very innovative company (in spite of my feelings about the confusing and unfriendly world of ebooks; I do love my kindle and shop regularly at amazon). I'm just one of millions. He also talks a bit about the culture of working for Amazon at the time (micromanaging, cubeville). The second part covers his time at Google, especially in terms of product development. One thing he talks about is a lack of awareness of user experience/needs in terms of technology - Google looks for products vs. services. He also talked some about the good of Google - their work environment, community service, etc.
What I got from reading this post is that Google culture (& not necessarily individuals although individuals in leadership positions do drive culture or conversely, stagnant it) does not really grasp the why of community driven content (such as social media). I said recently of G+ that unlike Facebook which has a centralized upload for photos, videos, posts, etc. ; for G+, it's picassa for photos, youtube for video, _____ ? (perhaps G buzz?) for posts. Not having an API makes it nearly impossible to push content from G+ to other social media networks. For alot of us, that is CRUCIAL.
Thinking about all of that, it seems that a lot of companies and organizations are struggling with adapting their workflows to new technology products (such as software) in the information age. Rather than trying to think about things in a new way, old thinking and understandings of the world are applied to the new workflow. Leadership (& others) do not grasp the fundamental point: our culture has changed. The way we do things should change - and it's not just the product being developed or the service being offered. It's not about taking our workflow and bending it around a new thing. While some would argue why fix (or break!) what's working - innovation NEVER comes out of stagnation. I would also argue that just because you can make a workflow (or worse - a WORK AROUND) work, does not make it a good, efficient, or productive workflow.
So, it really is a cultural shift - yes, Michael Wesch really did know what he was talking about almost 5 years ago when he posted the Machine is Us/ing Us on Youtube:
...and this is where we are. Digital advocates (fundamentalists? I hate the term digital natives and technological stereotyping based upon age, btw) don't see technology as something that is frivalous (ok, maybe the Xbox is); technology just is. Having technology at hand (& connected - egads the U.S. needs more wifi) is an expectation. Creating content is part of life now -- and that act of creating content and sharing it is driving new ways of looking at work, new workflows - community sourced knowledge.
It's easy to create one post and post to many automatically; to "mashup" (who says mashup anymore? nobody) multiple formats to create a new digital object; to repackage, repurpose, reuse (recycle). One of the biggest fundamental changes that technology has delivered is the shift of power - creative power, especially. Anyone can take a photo and upload it Flickr. Anyone can create a website. So, if your everyday foundation involves using technology to create content and contribute (reviews, writings, etc.) and the tools support creating automatic linked paths (linking data), how can a workflow structured as a line from point A>E work? How can a business or organization SUCCEED as a traditional hierarchy with traditional linear workflows? Because after all, there is a big difference between succeeding and existing. ;-)
Looking at our history, the 2nd Industrial Revolution was focused on science and innovation and lasted until some time after WWII (I would say up through the 1960s and the peak of the space race). A lot of our corporate (but especially higher ed and govermental) workflows were put into place during that time.
For libraries and many information organizations, the 1970s were the beginning of the digital revolution (although it is usually dated as beginning in the 80s with the rise of PCs) and we saw the rise of automation in the 1970s-80s, moving from printed card catalogs to some sort of automated system (database) using MARC language. Nothing really has changed for libraries from the 1970s until the mid 2000s, except our platforms and databases got better (more integrated and powerful; data more portable; reduction of manual work).
As a whole, as the digital revolution became more fully realized, we saw the true beginning of the information revolution (focusing on service rather than products). We're now in the Information Age, with the rise of social media and mobile, community created content, "citizen" journalism, and immediacy of information (real time). WE all are creative collaborative -- well -- creators. As whole, we have moved fully into a service based culture focused with a dependence on technological tools; other members of our society are either catching up, will be forced to adapt once the culture changes around them entirely, OR will be left behind.
...and that is where many libraries and organizations got stuck. Due to budget cuts and an assortment of other issues (aging networks, outdated hardware, hierarchical structures, a lack of understanding of how cultural shifts impact organizations), the leap across from the digital revolution to the information revolution seems at times, nearly impossible. It involves a dedicated vision - not just a migration or conversion (both of which would leave behind remnants of old thinking, but a complete re-envisioning from the ground up. That's not to say that libraries (& others) should throw out all of their products (such as books) or their services (such as circulating those books), but that there are different ways of doing things (self check, ebooks sent automatically to account when available, etc.) but without addressing fundamental problems from a holistic view, the institution or library will never be truly innovative.
of course, some folks get this. Maybe everyone will one day.
-- just my thoughts (as always)
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Seeking conference proposals (library conference)
Have you been looking for an opportunity to present at a national conference? If so, the 2nd Joint Conference of Librarians of Color, a conference for EVERYONE, is seeking proposals. It's not too late for you to submit a proposal, but time is running out! The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2011.
This historic conference, which will be held in Kansas City, Missouri in September 2012, will be an excellent opportunity for you to share your knowledge and expertise in one of the following areas:
Advocacy, Outreach and Collaboration
Marketing; outreach to diverse populations; community collaborations; user spaces; public policy; health education; using census data and other government information; cultural programming; services to and rebuilding of communities hit with disaster; research; undocumented, urban, rural and low-income communities; etc.
Collections, Programs and Services
Ethnic and multicultural collections; film and music; information literacy; children’s, youth and adult programming; programs for diverse populations; reference; instruction; grant funded programs; technical services; archives; preservation; documenting traditional knowledge; research; cataloging/subject headings/controlled vocabulary; etc.
Deep Diversity and Cultural Exchange (understanding and valuing differences)
Increasing awareness and tolerance of “minorities”; disabilities; gender; celebrating elders; religion; sexual orientation/LGBT populations; nationality; sharing traditional knowledge; serving the incarcerated; immigrant and refugees; cross cultural issues; transnational communities; multiculturalism; best practices and model programs; etc.
Leadership, Management and Organizational Development
Administration; staff development/training; recruitment and retention; leadership; organizational culture; management; cultural competencies; mentoring; assessment; mid-career strategies; staff and paraprofessional issues; conflict resolution and mediation; re-organization and re-structuring; leading during tight economic times; institutional change; research; fundraising; etc.
Technology and Innovation
Teaching and learning; emerging technologies; e-repositories; social networking applications; digitization; equal access for users; library tools; e-books; mobile devices; widgets; mashups; online learning and collaboration; open access movements; social aspects of technology and implications for use; videos; etc.
All sessions will be 75 minutes long and may take one of the following formats:
· Panel
· Individual Paper/Presentation
· Roundtable
· Workshop
· Poster Session
**JCLC will also accept proposals in different formats (other than those listed above) that will excite, engage and create a new learning environment for conference attendees**
All proposals must be submitted to the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color website at: http://www.jclc-conference.org by midnight PST on September 15, 2011. No late submissions will be accepted.
All proposals will be blind reviewed (without author identification) by the JCLC Program Committee. Proposals are evaluated on quality and clarity of content, uniqueness of topic, relevance to conference attendees, ability to engage the audience, and the relationship of the proposal to the mission of the conference.
Jennifer Baxmeyer and Gladys Smiley Bell
This historic conference, which will be held in Kansas City, Missouri in September 2012, will be an excellent opportunity for you to share your knowledge and expertise in one of the following areas:
Advocacy, Outreach and Collaboration
Marketing; outreach to diverse populations; community collaborations; user spaces; public policy; health education; using census data and other government information; cultural programming; services to and rebuilding of communities hit with disaster; research; undocumented, urban, rural and low-income communities; etc.
Collections, Programs and Services
Ethnic and multicultural collections; film and music; information literacy; children’s, youth and adult programming; programs for diverse populations; reference; instruction; grant funded programs; technical services; archives; preservation; documenting traditional knowledge; research; cataloging/subject headings/controlled vocabulary; etc.
Deep Diversity and Cultural Exchange (understanding and valuing differences)
Increasing awareness and tolerance of “minorities”; disabilities; gender; celebrating elders; religion; sexual orientation/LGBT populations; nationality; sharing traditional knowledge; serving the incarcerated; immigrant and refugees; cross cultural issues; transnational communities; multiculturalism; best practices and model programs; etc.
Leadership, Management and Organizational Development
Administration; staff development/training; recruitment and retention; leadership; organizational culture; management; cultural competencies; mentoring; assessment; mid-career strategies; staff and paraprofessional issues; conflict resolution and mediation; re-organization and re-structuring; leading during tight economic times; institutional change; research; fundraising; etc.
Technology and Innovation
Teaching and learning; emerging technologies; e-repositories; social networking applications; digitization; equal access for users; library tools; e-books; mobile devices; widgets; mashups; online learning and collaboration; open access movements; social aspects of technology and implications for use; videos; etc.
All sessions will be 75 minutes long and may take one of the following formats:
· Panel
· Individual Paper/Presentation
· Roundtable
· Workshop
· Poster Session
**JCLC will also accept proposals in different formats (other than those listed above) that will excite, engage and create a new learning environment for conference attendees**
All proposals must be submitted to the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color website at: http://www.jclc-conference.org by midnight PST on September 15, 2011. No late submissions will be accepted.
All proposals will be blind reviewed (without author identification) by the JCLC Program Committee. Proposals are evaluated on quality and clarity of content, uniqueness of topic, relevance to conference attendees, ability to engage the audience, and the relationship of the proposal to the mission of the conference.
Jennifer Baxmeyer and Gladys Smiley Bell
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Getting through organizational layers to get social media started
How do you get through multiple layers (organizational levels) to get social media started?
- Personnel policy -- clearly let staff know what they can do and can't
- Address security issues upfront (IT related)
- Talk about the value of social media
- Talk about productivity impact
- Look to peer organizations -- i.e., positive peer pressure
- Leadership from top -- leadership should support and model appropriate social media use
- Archiving -- if your content falls under open records make sure to consider archiving of social media if your content is not already posted elsewhere on an archived site (e.g., your domain)
- Just get started -- somehow
- Start small! Pilot projects
- Education/training -- help staff learn how to use social media and education yourself on issues in sm
- Staff time/job priority -- if no dedicated sm participants then make it part of staff responsibilities
- Cultivate resistors; make team players
- Form organizational task form with resotors and all levels
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Today! Academic Webinar in SecondLIfe
I just found out about this and I'm going to try to attend (if I can find my avatar....)
Please join us for Carolina Conversations. Carolina conversations is a series of live interviews with members of the UNC-Chapel Hill community conducted in the virtual world, Second Life. Our guests discuss their work and interests and will also respond to questions from the Second Life audience attending in-world.
Guest: Gary Marchionini, Professor in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina.
Live at 3:30 p.m. EDT, on Tuesday, October 7, 2008
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/UNC%20CH%20II/222/28/40
Gary Marchionini Bio:
Gary Marchionini is Cary C. Boshamer Professor in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina, where he teaches courses in human-information interaction, interface design and testing, and digital libraries, and heads the Interaction Design Laboratory. He received an IBM Faculty Research Award for 2006-07 to work on digital video surrogate creation and metadata evaluation. He leads the development of a digital video repository, The Open Video Project, and was principal investigator for a National Science Foundation-funded project to develop and test interfaces for video retrieval and browsing. He is also the principal investigator for a Library of Congress grant to develop strategies for preserving digital video content. He is active in the leadership of several professional associations, has published more than 150 articles, chapters, and reports, is author of Information Seeking in Electronic Environments (Cambridge University Press), and serves on the editorial boards of numerous information science and technology publications. His Ph.D. is from Wayne State University in mathematics education, with an emphasis on educational computing.
Please join us for Carolina Conversations. Carolina conversations is a series of live interviews with members of the UNC-Chapel Hill community conducted in the virtual world, Second Life. Our guests discuss their work and interests and will also respond to questions from the Second Life audience attending in-world.
Guest: Gary Marchionini, Professor in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina.
Live at 3:30 p.m. EDT, on Tuesday, October 7, 2008
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/UNC%20CH%20II/222/28/40
Gary Marchionini Bio:
Gary Marchionini is Cary C. Boshamer Professor in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina, where he teaches courses in human-information interaction, interface design and testing, and digital libraries, and heads the Interaction Design Laboratory. He received an IBM Faculty Research Award for 2006-07 to work on digital video surrogate creation and metadata evaluation. He leads the development of a digital video repository, The Open Video Project, and was principal investigator for a National Science Foundation-funded project to develop and test interfaces for video retrieval and browsing. He is also the principal investigator for a Library of Congress grant to develop strategies for preserving digital video content. He is active in the leadership of several professional associations, has published more than 150 articles, chapters, and reports, is author of Information Seeking in Electronic Environments (Cambridge University Press), and serves on the editorial boards of numerous information science and technology publications. His Ph.D. is from Wayne State University in mathematics education, with an emphasis on educational computing.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Friday, November 30, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
5000 resources to do just about anything online
5000 resources to do just about anything online
I love mashable and I can't possibly summarize everything in this article, but if you are looking for new things to do with your blog/website, or just to have a little fun on the 'net, do take a look. You can find things such as 30 widgets for a wordpress blog, 70+ podcasting tools, 12+ twitter tools, etc. Lots and lots of wordpress stuff. ;-)
I love mashable and I can't possibly summarize everything in this article, but if you are looking for new things to do with your blog/website, or just to have a little fun on the 'net, do take a look. You can find things such as 30 widgets for a wordpress blog, 70+ podcasting tools, 12+ twitter tools, etc. Lots and lots of wordpress stuff. ;-)
Saturday, July 21, 2007
the internet crashes! (humor)
Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash
oh, I just couldn't stop laughing! excellent.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
day of silence for internet radio
day of silence for internet radio
http://www.savenetradio.org
including...
Yahoo!
Live365 stations,
Rhapsody,
MTV Online,
AccuRadio,
KCRW (Santa Moncia, CA),
Pandora...
many more.
http://www.savenetradio.org
including...
Yahoo!
Live365 stations,
Rhapsody,
MTV Online,
AccuRadio,
KCRW (Santa Moncia, CA),
Pandora...
many more.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Stake your claim on your identity on the web
...an interesting idea....
Will it become important in the future?
http://claimid.com/
Will it become important in the future?
http://claimid.com/
Saturday, April 7, 2007
10 biggest flops in technology and 50 best inventions
From the apple newton to e books!
Not the format, but you know those portable devices to load ebooks on!
10 biggest flops in technology
...and the 50 best inventions...
50 best inventions
Not the format, but you know those portable devices to load ebooks on!
10 biggest flops in technology
...and the 50 best inventions...
50 best inventions
Monday, March 26, 2007
what is web 2.0?
a good and brief overview of what web 2.0 means and how the whole thing happened.
what is web 2.0?
what is web 2.0?
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Doomsday CLock
interesting overview of the doomsday clock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_clock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_clock
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