My year in books
Growing up, I was a voracious reader. What a surprise, right? Gee, a librarian who likes to read. But something happened to me between college and grad school where I lost…
Posted inabout me blogging social software
A decade of blogging
It has been exactly 10 years today since I started Information Wants to be Free. My life has changed in so many ways since then. I'm not sure I really had…
Posted inabout me career instruction libraries
A weight off my shoulders
I know it's been a while since I last posted. I've almost written a few posts on the vitriol I've been seeing from librarians on social media over the past couple…
Posted inWork-life balance
Living essentially
“What do I feel deeply inspired by?” and “What am I particularly talented at?” and “What meets a significant need in the world?” ― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less…
Posted ininstruction speaking tech trends
Free and Cheap Technologies to Supercharge Your Teaching
Just gave a fun whirlwind instructional technology talk and I wanted to provide the slides and links below for the attendees (and anyone else who's interested). Slides: Links: Tools for…
Posted inassessment free the information! instruction knowledge management librarianship libraries our digital future research speaking
Reflections on library assessment and the Library Assessment Conference
I wanted to write about the Library Assessment Conference as soon as I returned, but unfortunately, life got in the way. I got barely a week and a half before…
Posted inabout me librarianship Work
On tenure, after three years on the tenure track
Way back in 2005, I wrote a post about tenure for librarians in which I argued against it. Since then, I've spent six years as a librarian with faculty rank and…
Taking a new path in a familiar place
Lisa Hinchliffe and I are currently analyzing data from a survey looking at factors that facilitate the creation of an assessment culture in community college libraries (it's a sister study…
Posted infree the information! libraries
Is your big deal a good deal?
We've all suspected it. We've all talked about it. Some have even written and spoken at conferences about it. But now we have hard evidence that there is incredible variation…
Posted inhi
We contain multitudes
I've been thinking a lot about how people choose to define themselves and what happens when things in their world challenge that definition. This is probably because I spent the…
Posted inassessment
Come hear me talk assessment at a free C&RL online event
I was pleased to see that the latest Ithaka S+R U.S. Library Survey looked at how libraries are conducting assessment and how useful their results have been. Even better, they…
Getting into the gray areas with the draft Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education
This semester, I'm teaching I new course I developed for San Jose State's MLIS program entitled "Embedded Librarians/Embedded Libraries: Embedding the Library into the Fabric of Higher Education." It's been…
Posted inhi
Library DIY infrastructure has been open sourced!
I wanted to let everyone know that we have just open sourced the Drupal-based Library DIY infrastructure. You can find it at https://github.com/pdxlibrary/Library-DIY We have documentation on how to get…
Posted inhi
Library DIY (and my team!) honored with the ACRL IS Innovation Award
At the end of my last post was a little love letter to the "pocket of wonderful" at my work; a group of librarians I think of as my learning…
Don’t go it alone. On the benefits of collaboration.
I don't have all the answers. There, I said it! I'm a pretty smart person who did well in school and has been relatively successful in her career, but I…
Posted inALA intellectual freedom libraries
Creating safe spaces vs. freedom of expression
I don't really think of myself as a victim. I feel exceptionally lucky when I think of the life I've had so far. I grew up in an upper middle…
