Circulating Ideas

Steve chats with Stephanie Chase and Hillary Ostlund from Hillsboro (OR) Public Library, about their paths to librarianship, working with a diverse community, going deskless, and blowing up their organizational structure. Read the transcript. Stephanie Chase is the Director of Libraries for the City of Hillsboro, Oregon.  With more than twenty years of experience in … Continue reading 166: Stephanie Chase and Hillary Ostlund

Steve chats with Sari Feldman, newly-retired Executive Director of Cuyahoga County Public Library and former president of the Public Library Association and the American Library Association, about lessons learned as ALA President, the current library ebook landscape, her legacy at Cuyahoga County, and how she will continue to work within the profession. In August 2019, … Continue reading 165: Sari Feldman

Steve chats with Cicely Lewis, library media specialist at Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, GA, about Read Woke and other projects she has created for her students, her path from teaching to libraries, and how it feels to win so many awards in such a short period of time. Cicely Lewis is the library media … Continue reading 164: Read Woke, with Cicely Lewis

Steve chats with Rebecca Vnuk, Executive Director of LibraryReads, about her current favorite reads, what LibraryReads is, and how library staff can get involved. Rebecca Vnuk is the Executive Director of LibraryReads. She has an MLIS from Dominican University and worked as a public librarian before becoming the editor for Collection Management and Library Outreach … Continue reading 163: LibraryReads Executive Director Rebecca Vnuk

Steve chats with Dr. R. David Lankes, director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science, about the current state of New Librarianship, Big Data and privacy concerns, and defining library science as distinct to information science. R. David Lankes is a professor and the director of the University of South Carolina’s … Continue reading 162: David Lankes

Steve chats with bestselling horror author Grady Hendrix and Readers’ Advisory Specialist Becky Spratford about how Grady grew up with libraries, the legitimacy of genre fiction, lessons learned from Stephen King, and the Summer Scares program. Grady Hendrix is a best selling author whose novels include Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism – which he describes … Continue reading 161: Grady Hendrix and Becky Spratford

Steve chats with Roy Tennant, digital librarian (now retired), about how he first saw the link between libraries and technology, his work at the University of California, creating one of the longest-running web publications in Current Cites, and what technological challenges still face libraries today. Roy Tennant is an internationally recognized digital librarian, now retired. … Continue reading 160: Roy Tennant

Steve chats with Becky Yoose, founder and Library Data Privacy Consultant for LDH Consulting Services, about how libraries do (and don’t) keep data private and secure and why they should. Becky Yoose is the founder and Library Data Privacy Consultant for LDH Consulting Services, a consultancy that guides libraries and their vendors in protecting patron data … Continue reading 159: Becky Yoose

Steve chats with Molly Schwartz, host and producer of Preserve This Podcast and archivist and audio producer at the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), about how she started working with libraries and archives, the importance and challenges of preserving born-digital media, and the details of the Preserve This Podcast project. Molly Schwartz is a … Continue reading 158: Molly Schwartz

Guest host Thomas Maluck chats with Tim Smyth, MS Reading Specialist, about how comics can be a powerful tool in education. Tim Smyth, MS Reading Specialist, has been teaching social studies at Wissahickon High School in Pennsylvania since 2001 and travels the United States giving professional development on the use of comics in education. His … Continue reading 157: Tim Smyth

Steve chats with Deb Takahashi, branch librarian for Pasadena Public Library and author of Serving Teens with Mental Illness in the Library, about why she wrote the book, how to work with teens with mental illnesses in your library, and why self-care is important. Deborah K. Takahashi is a branch librarian for Pasadena Public Library who … Continue reading 156: Deborah Takahashi

Steve chats with Ann Ewbank, and author of Political Advocacy for School Librarians: Leveraging Your Influence, about her path to librarianship, why political advocacy is essential for school librarians, the importance of building relationships with stakeholders, and her time as an inaugural member of the ALA Policy Corps. Ann Dutton Ewbank, PhD, is associate professor … Continue reading 155: Ann Ewbank

Steve chats with Jim Lynch, editor of TechSoup for Libraries, about TechSoup’s background and mission, how its programs and services work, and how your library can get involved. Jim Lynch is the editor of TechSoup for Libraries and also a senior writer on nonprofit technology at TechSoup. Over his long career at TechSoup, Jim has … Continue reading 154: Jim Lynch

Steve chats with MK Czerwiec about her career as the Comic Nurse, what graphic medicine is, and why libraries should have it in their collections. MK Czerwiec is a Senior Fellow of the George Washington School of Nursing Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement (Washington, DC) and the Artist-in- Residence at Northwestern Feinberg School … Continue reading 153: MK Czerwiec

Steve chats with Julius Jefferson and Lance Werner, the two 2019 candidates for President of the American Library Association, about why they want to be President, how to promote and advocate for more diversity and inclusion in the profession, how the association can be more open to virtual participation, and why libraries are still important … Continue reading 152: ALA Presidential Candidates (2019)