Information Wants To Be Free – Page 5 – A librarian, writer and educator reflecting on the profession and the tools we use to serve our patrons

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…

about 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…

about me Work

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…

free 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…

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…

assessment

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…

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…

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…

free the information! instruction librarianship libraries Work

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…

ALA 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…

instruction librarianship libraries

Why I Teach Freshman

In September, I went to a lecture given by Allison Head of Project Information Literacy fame at a local university. During the lecture, she offered a preview of the research…

free the information! libraries

I hate to say “I told you so.” Drawing the line with HBR.

Over four years ago, I wrote a post about how EBSCO had shut off my institution's links to all Harvard Business Review articles after we declined their "generous" offer to…

speaking

Aloha Hawaii Library Association!

This week I'm in stunning Oahu speaking at the Hawaii Library Association. I'm super thrilled to have been invited to this amazing place and to have been lucky enough to…

free the information! librarianship libraries open access research tenure track writing

Opening up knowledge on the tenure track

I'm not a hero. I'm not an open access warrior. I'm not one of those people who would risk their career on the cross of Open Access. I'm not a…

free the information! instruction librarianship libraries MPOW reference Work

Library DIY has been released!

This is just a quick note to say that Library DIY (which I wrote about in a previous post) has been released! I am so very proud of this project.…

assessment instruction librarianship libraries

Understanding why errors happen is more important than spotting them

People incorrectly using "big words" has always been one of my pet peeves. When I see a fancy word used incorrectly in a cover letter (and I have seen way…

hi instruction librarianship libraries reference tech trends Work

Good for what? Considering context in building learning objects.

I'm working with a colleague of mine (Amy Hofer of Threshold Concepts fame) to create a suite of tutorials that are going to be integrated into online University Studies (think…

librarianship libraries management

Managing the “whole person”

I've been wanting to write about managing people for a long time. This post has been marinating in my head for years and a few things managed to knock it…

instruction librarianship management

Our new model for Freshman instruction and how it went

One year ago, I became our General Education Instruction Coordinator, which meant that I was in charge of our instruction to Freshman Inquiry and Sophomore Inquiry (our first and second…