Angie Manfredi is the Head of Youth Services for the Los Alamos County Library System in Los Alamos, New Mexico, a position she has held for the past 6.5 years. She graduated with her MLIS from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2007. She has been an active member of ALA and served on various selection and process committees for both ALSC and YALSA. She loves presenting about library services, particularly library services for children and teens, and has done so at nationwide conferences and in several states. She can’t imagine a more exquisite, fun, amazing, and challenging job than being a youth services librarian. In her spare time, she watches far too many movies. You can read more of her writing at www.fatgirlreading.com and follow her every, incessant thought on Twitter @misskubelik (yes, a movie reference).
Dr. Michael Stephens is an Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. His research focuses on use of emerging technologies in libraries and technology learning programs. He currently writes the monthly column “Office Hours” in Library Journal exploring issues, ideas and emerging trends in library and information science education. Stephens has spoken about emerging technologies, innovation, and libraries to national and international audiences. He is fascinated by library buildings and virtual spaces that center around users, participation, creating content, and encouraging the heart. Michael’s Tame the Web blog is here: http://tametheweb.com.
Michael Casey is currently the Information Technology Director for the Gwinnett County Public Library in metropolitan Atlanta. Named a Mover & Shaker by Library Journal in March 2007, he co-authored (with Laura Savastinuk) Library 2.0: A Guide to Participatory Library Service and is a contributor to Library 2.0 and Beyond. He and Michael Stephens co-authored a monthly column in Library Journal titled “The Transparent Library“. He has written and spoken extensively on the subject of modern library services. Michael holds an MLS from Southern Connecticut State, an MA in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University, and a BA from Duquesne University. His family, friends, travel and hobbies can all be seen in his photos on Flickr.
Anna Haase Krueger is a children’s librarian, blogger, and reviewer for School Library Journal. You can find her making jokes on twitter as @opinionsbyanna or blogging about library life at Future Librarian Superhero.
Anne Clark has been presenting storytimes for 6 years and is known for her creative storytelling including puppets, flannel boards, props, and draw and tell stories. She has been blogging for her entire career at So Tomorrow and has presented at the Michigan Library Association’s Spring Institute conference for youth services librarian on blogging as well as programming ideas for librarians in a time-crunch. She has also written for Library Media Connection on using Pinterest in a professional capacity. Her most prized possession is a stuffed Pete the Cat signed by Eric Litwin.
Julie Jurgens is the School Services Coordinator at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. Prior to receiving her MLIS from Dominican University in 2008, Julie spent five years working in the field of Early Childhood Education, experience that has proved invaluable in her library career. You can read more about her opinions and experiences at Hi Miss Julie!, and follow her on twitter at–you guessed it– @himissjulie.
Kendra Jones is a toddler wrangling, twitter obsessed Children’s Librarian in Vancouver, WA. She blogs about her work at Read Sing Play and is a Joint Chief of Storytime Underground.
Amy Koester works at a medium-size branch library in Missouri. She likes fresh-squeezed orange juice, mashed potatoes, and going bananas every now and then.
Cory Eckert is the idea genius behind Guerrilla Storytime. She is in job transition between being a Youth Services Manager and a branch manager at 2 branches in a totally different place. She believes Youth Services is the backbone of public libraries and that the Detroit Red Wings are the greatest hockey team in history.
Lindsey Krabbenhoft graduated from the University of British Columbia with her MLIS in April 2013. She works as an On Call Children’s Librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, West Vancouver Memorial Library, and Surrey Libraries. As an MLIS student, Lindsey worked as part of a research team tracing the historical development of Tinkerbell and her relationship to children’s media.
Dana Horrocks also completed her MLIS at the University of British Columbia in April 2013 (in fact, it’s where she met Lindsey!) She has worked at Surrey Libraries as a Computer Trainer and SRC assistant, the Vancouver Public Library as a student librarian as well as a bookseller at the delightful Vancouver Kidsbooks. She currently works at the Vancouver Public Library and West Vancouver Memorial Library.
This episode wraps up the string of episodes promised as part of the Kickstarter campaign back in the Spring. One of the stretch goals was an opportunity to ask me (Steve, the regular host of the show) questions, and regular contributor Leah White conducted that interview at the ALA Annual Conference this summer (we neglected to get a photo together, sorry!). SHOW NOTES: Fresh Air 5by5 Young Librarian Series | “Intersection” (Steve’s essay)
This is the last of the interviews Allison and I did for the Librarians are ROCKSTARS! series at this summer’s ALA conference. We hope you enjoyed them, and we hope to be back with another round soon! Let us know if you have suggestions for authors you’d like to hear featured.
Around the time of the ALA Midwinter conference last year, I teamed up with Allison and Michelle from Authors are ROCKSTARS! to produce a series of interviews we called Librarians are ROCKSTARS!, where we spoke with authors about their experiences with libraries. Since Allison and I were both attending the ALA conference in Chicago this summer (Michelle couldn’t make it, sadly), we wanted to do some more interviews with authors. Last week, you heard our chat with Gene Luen Yang and this week, we’re proud to let you hear our insightful interview with Cory Doctorow. Even though he had a busy conference, Cory graciously gave us his time and shared his thoughts on how librarians remain relevant in the 21st century, his support for fair ebook terms for libraries, and spoiled the end of Homeland (not really). Stay tuned to Authors are ROCKSTARS! next week for our final joint interview from ALA. SHOW NOTES:
Collaboration is one of my favorite things to do. I love working with other librarians to accomplish bigger and better things, and I’m happy to say that I was able to connect with Allison Tran from the Authors are ROCKSTARS! podcast once again for our semi-regular Librarians are ROCKSTARS series (we spoke with Kirby Larson and Tom Angleberger earlier, along with her regular co-host Michelle). When Allison wasn’t busy trying to recruit me into YALSA like Sam Jackson recruiting superheroes into the Avengers, we were chatting with a number of great authors.
First up in this series is Gene Luen Yang, Printz Award winning author and artist of AMERICAN BORN CHINESE and the new BOXERS & SAINTS. Visit the Authors are ROCKSTARS site for more info on this interview and stay tuned throughout August for more great author interviews!
Circulating Ideas 