Choose your own professional involvement adventure
Last month, I had lunch with two friends who are also in academia. We talked a lot about professional ambitions and "extracurricular" professional involvement. One of them is starting a…
Posted inlibraries management Work
Bias in climbing the career ladder and Hillary Clinton
This race must be familiar for many women: she’s overqualified for the promotion, he’s unqualified, and yet it’s still a contest.— (((Touré))) (@Toure) July 29, 2016 I had lunch with…
Generous hearts and social media shaming
When I was young and bold and strong, Oh, right was right, and wrong was wrong! My plume on high, my flag unfurled, I rode away to right the world.…
Posted infree the information! librarianship speaking
Appreciate your speakers
I have been very fortunate to address librarians nationally and internationally as a speaker. I love sharing my ideas, experiences, and things I’ve learned and meeting other librarians. I have…
Posted inabout me libraries Work Work-life balance
Playing the super-productive librarian. My #LISMentalHealth Week post
I know a lot of librarians who've suffered with depression or anxiety, take psychotropics, or who go to therapy. It makes me wonder if people with mental illness are drawn…
Posted inALA american libraries librarianship writing
Reputation is everything: On problematic editing and sponsored content
First, full disclosure: I am a columnist for American Libraries. They pay me to write columns every other month in which I state my opinion on various things relating somewhat…
Posted inabout me
My year in reading, 2015
I've learned over time that work/life balance not only looks different for every person, but looks very different for an individual from one moment to the next. The needs you…
Posted inabout me career free the information! job search librarianship libraries library school management Work
Should the horrible first job search be seen as a rite-of-passage?
I felt really sad when I read Kyle Shockey's post on the Librarian Burnout blog about feeling burnout after library school and being in the midst of the job hunt.…
Posted inALA free the information! intellectual freedom librarianship libraries management open access
The Next Librarian of Congress?
Late last week, I received an email from the culture editor at the New Republic about writing an article on the next Librarian of Congress. It was the first offer…
Posted inlibrarianship libraries management Work
The insidious nature of “fit” in hiring and the workplace
Organizational culture is a very real and a very powerful force in every organization. I have worked in a variety of different organizations and each had had its own rituals, norms,…
Are online MLIS degree-holders “less than?”
When I graduated from library school, I worried about anti-online-degree bias. I worried that people would think my degree was somehow "less than" because I'd done it fully online. I…
Posted inassessment community college libraries community colleges free the information! instruction librarianship libraries open access
You could learn a lot from us: community college librarians at ACRL
ACRL was ridiculously amazing this year. I feel energized, affirmed, and hopeful (and completely exhausted and sick since it ended). The programming was so high-quality and relevant that, in most…
Posted inabout me classic blunders libraries Work
True confessions
When my brain was completely full on Thursday at the ACRL Conference, Jad Abumrad's keynote felt like a spa for my brain. For those who don't know, he is the…
Posted infree the information! open access
Read your contract: Being OA isn’t enough
So, I missed writing this for Open Access Week, or Fair Use Week, or Open Education Week, but I think these are topics that we should be focusing on every day…
Framework? Standards? I’m keeping it local.
I'm sure most of you have already heard that the ACRL Board has decided to adopt the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. What I think is more interesting…
Posted inhi
Sorry Springshare, but also not sorry
So I probably didn't make a lot of friends at Springshare with my blog post about LibGuides this morning (if you haven't already, take a look at the update I…
LibGuides, you’re not “Web 2.0” without an open API
Update: I've been in touch with a Springshare representative who tells me that things like the contextually aware D2L widget from Portland State University will work in LibGuides 2.0 and…
Peer learning in library instruction
Teaching is such a solitary thing. Sure, you're up in front of a bunch of students, and maybe an instructor if you're doing course-integrated instruction, but the act still feels…
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…