Infoblog

George and Joan, Thinking Out Loud About Place

eileen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:05:55 +0000

In this podcast George and Joan talk about the concept of place – not just library as place, but the very basic idea of locality and how we develop a sense of community – and of course, how it ties into libraries. This conversation was prompted by their experience at the Eureka! Leadership Institute where they had the opportunity to hear a talk by Richard Rodriguez.

Archive of “Best Practices in Helping Job Seekers in the Library” webinar available

eileen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:33:19 +0000

Attendance was great at today’s Infopeople webinar on Best Practices in Helping Job Seekers in the Library. But if you missed the live event, you can listen to the archive and access the text chat transcript and other handouts here. Thanks to presenters Bernice Kao, Raye Oldham, and Megan Pittsley for a fascinating presentation!

If your library is doing exciting things for job seekers, let us know: we’d like to do a follow-up webinar in a few months!

Michael Cart talks about “The Lost Symbol” and other book reviews

eileen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:43:31 +0000

In this podcast, Infopeople’s resident book maven Michael Cart talks about books, book reviews, and Dan Brown’s new and breathlessly awaited (by some but not by him!) novel The Lost Symbol. Oh, what does it all mean?! Favorite quote: “plot makes perverts of us all.”

Citations from this podcast are here.

Happy birthday Sesame Street!

eileen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:13:20 +0000

If you go to google.com today, you’ll see a special Google graphic. It’s in honor of Sesame Street’s 40th birthday! Check out some great video clips from episodes throughout the years or read this Wikipedia article for more background on this children’s television classic.

George and Joan, Thinking Out Loud about Learning in Hard Times

eileen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:28:00 +0000

In this podcast, George and Joan talk live from Nashville where they’re attending a library consultants conference. The conference prompted them to start wondering how libraries approach training in hard times. When budgets get cut, how do you stay current and up-to-date? They ask lots of thought-provoking questions.

George and Joan, Thinking Out Loud: How Small Things Really Do Matter!

eileen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:23:20 +0000

In this edition of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan discuss how the little details of customer service can make all the difference. George kicks it off talking about Best Buy’s Geek Squad and an experience his co-worker Andy Havens (the voice of the narrator in George and Joan’s Library Carol podcast) related to him recently. Joan has stories to tell about recent expeditions to IKEA and the California DMV and what went right and what went wrong. Are there lessons in their tales for libraries? Absolutely!

2009 Eureka! Leadership Institute

eileen — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:56:21 +0000

The 2009 Eureka! Leadership Institute is underway at the Dolce Hayes Mansion in San Jose, and we have some links to share. The keynote address by Mary Catherine Bateson is available in MP3 format, and we have photos of the Institute on Flickr (more are being added).

George and Joan, Thinking Out Loud: Talking About the Taiga Forum, Part Two

eileen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:00:11 +0000

In this edition of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan continue the conversation about Taiga Forum that they started in their last podcast. This time around they focus on the Forum statements that look at what the library as an institution may be like in the future. And exactly how do you pronounce Taiga?

Michael Cart on the current condition of pop culture

eileen — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:04:22 +0000

In his latest podcast, Infopeople’s book guy Michael Cart muses about the current condition of pop-culture, Dan Brown, “Twilight,” old-time radio, and makes a case (sort of) for Tarzan of the Apes being the greatest literary pop culture icon of them all. Does he try to do Tarzan’s savage war cry, too? Take a listen.

Here is a list of cites mentioned in the podcast.

IMLS Grant Will Help Libraries Help the Unemployed

eileen — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:27:58 +0000

From the press release:

Through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), WebJunction, the online learning community for library staff created by OCLC, a nonprofit library service and research organization; and the State Library of North Carolina (SLNC) have launched a one-year initiative to gather and share best practices for providing library-based employment services and programs to the unemployed.

Read all about it here.

For some good ideas now, listen to these podcasts from Libraries to the Rescue on ideas for helping your patrons in tough times. Be sure to check out Infopeople’s workshop, Helping Your Job-Seeking Patrons Thrive During Challenging Times, as well (an online version of this workshop is in development!).