Falon Ballard is the author of Just My Type and Lease on Love. When she’s not writing fictional love stories, she’s helping real-life couples celebrate, working as a wedding planner in Southern California.
Robin Bradford has earned a BA and MA in English, an MS in Library Science, and a JD, but has found a home in building reader-focused, popular collections in public libraries. She was recognized as RWA’s 2016 Librarian of the Year, and Emerald City Library Conference’s Librarian of the Year in 2022. She is addicted to books and dedicated to helping others discover a love of reading. She has worked with authors to help get their titles into these collections, and wrote the forthcoming ALA’s Guide to Romance Fiction to further help libraries with their romance collection. She also worked with libraries to push for equal treatment of genre fiction, and worked with readers so that they can find their favorite authors on their library’s shelves.
Jacoby Cochran is a writer, educator, and storyteller. He is the award winning host of City Cast Chicago, which was named Best of 2021 by the Chicago Reader and Chicago Magazine calls it “the essential Chicago podcast.” You can also catch Jacoby discussing news, sports, culture and events on Chicago’s NPR and PBS stations. As a performer, keynote speaker, and workshop leader, Jacoby has partnered with corporate clients (Google, Spotify, AT&T, Chicago Bulls, Best Buy, Kohl’s); academic institutions (DePaul University, City Colleges, Syracuse University); and non-profits (The Moth, Boys & Girls Club, American Writers Museum).
Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian and Library Department Chair at Moraine Valley Community College. He is also the President of the Moraine Valley Faculty Association. Troy is the author or editor of several books and articles including co-editor of Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information which received the Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award from ARCL’s Instruction Section. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the management of technology policy in higher education. He served on ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force which issued the Framework for Information Literacy. Over his tenure as a librarian and educator, Troy has won his campuses Master Teacher and Innovation of the Year awards, as well as the Proquest Innovation in College Librarianship award from ACRL.
SPONSOR:
Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing. Today’s show is brought to you by Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing. Syndetics Unbound helps public and academic libraries enrich their catalogs and discovery systems with high-interest elements, including reader’s advisory, cover images, summaries, author profiles, similar books, reviews, and more. Syndetics Unbound encourages serendipitous discovery and higher collection usage, and was awarded Platinum distinction in the LibraryWorks 2021 Modern Library Awards
To learn more about Syndetics Unbound, visit Syndetics.com. While there, be sure to visit the Syndetics Unbound Blog for news and analysis, including a break-down of libraries’ top titles and other stories of interest to the library community. Again, that’s Syndetics.com, to learn more about today’s sponsor, Syndetics Unbound.
Dr. Virginia Campbell is an experienced Emergency and Palliative Medicine physician with a long-standing interest in the brain and consciousness. For over 15 years, she has hosted the Brain Science podcast where she has interviewed leading neuroscientists sharing recent discoveries and exploring ideas from the frontlines of research. The Brain Science podcast has been one of the top-ranking podcasts in Medicine on iTunes enjoying over 12 million downloads.
Dr. Campbell believes that understanding how the brain works gives us insight into what makes us human. She is also committed to showing how the scientific method has unraveled many long-standing mysteries.
Paul Signorelli, author of Change the World Using Social Media (Rowman & Littlefield, January 2021), is an Arizona State University ShapingEDU Storyteller-in-Residence and serves on the organizing committee of ShapingEDU’s “Connecting for Work & Learning” universal broadband access initiative. He earned his MLIS from UNT in 2009. Paul can be reached at paul@paulsignorelli.com.
SPONSORS:
Book Buddies: Ivy Lost and Found, from Candlewick Press Ivy Lost and Found, the first of a charming new early chapter book series about library toys and the children who borrow them, written by Newbery Honoree Cynthia Lord and illustrated by Stephanie Graegin. In a starred review, Booklist called Ivy Lost and Found “an engaging story of insecurity overcome by hop, courage, and love.” Ivy is the library’s newest book buddy —a toy that can be checked out just like a book—but she’d rather go back to being what she was before: the librarian’s favorite childhood doll. So when Fern—a child with a new stepfamily who also wishes she could go back to the way things were—takes Ivy home, they embark on an adventure together that helps both of them find confidence and belonging in their changing worlds. Ivy Lost and Found is available now, and look for upcoming books in the Book Buddies series coming in Spring 2022!
Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing Syndetics Unbound helps public and academic libraries enrich their catalogs and discovery systems with high-interest elements, including cover images, summaries, author profiles, similar books, reviews, and more. Syndetics Unbound encourages serendipitous discovery and higher collection usage, and was recently awarded Platinum distinction in the LibraryWorks 2021 Modern Library Awards. To learn more about Syndetics Unbound, visit Syndetics.com. While there, be sure to visit their “News” tab to check out the Syndetics Unbound Blog for news and analysis, including a break-down of 2020’s most popular titles in public and academic libraries.
Gene Ambaum is a library guy who lives in the Pacific Northwest. In his spare time he reads and dreams of having more spare time. He co-created and wrote Unshelved.
Willow Payne is a Florida-based artist who has worked with Gene on Unshelved Book Club comics and their as-yet incomplete epic Barbarian Girl: The Burning Blade of the Badlands. She graduated from The Center for Cartooning Studies in 2014 and will inevitably take over the comics world. Her favorite authors include Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams, and Philip Pullman. She took over as the artist for Library Comic in June of 2019 with strip 581.
Today’s show is brought to you by Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing. Syndetics Unbound helps public and academic libraries enrich their catalogs and discovery systems with high-interest elements, including cover images, summaries, author profiles, similar books, reviews, and more. Syndetics Unbound encourages serendipitous discovery and higher collection usage, and was recently awarded Platinum distinction in the LibraryWorks 2021 Modern Library Awards. To learn more about Syndetics Unbound, visit Syndetics.com. While there, be sure to visit their “News” tab to check out the Syndetics Unbound Blog for news and analysis, including a break-down of 2020’s most popular titles in public and academic libraries.
Mark Ramsey is a podcast producer, media strategist and writer. He is the writer, producer, and host of the podcast series Inside Star Wars, Inside Jaws, Inside the Exorcist, and Inside Psycho. As the head of Mark Ramsey Media, he is a media strategist and consultant who has written several books and has worked in radio and television.
Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian and Library Department Chair at Moraine Valley Community College. Troy is the author or editor of several books and articles including co-editor of Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information which received the Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award from ARCL’s Instruction Section.
Molly Schwartz is a trained archivist and audio producer at the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO). She is the host and producer of Preserve This Podcast. She is also a freelance tech journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Public Radio International’s America Abroad.
This episode of Circulating Ideas is brought to you with support from Mometrix. Through their eLibrary portal, Mometrix offers study guides and practice questions for over 1800 different exams covering college entrance, graduate school, nursing, medical, teacher certification, civil service, and many other careers or fields of study, all fully customizable and at a fraction of the cost of printed books. It’s like having an entire library of test prep materials…. all at your fingertips. So, save space, save paper, and save money; with Mometrix eLibrary. To learn more, visit GOeLibrary.com and use promo code PODCAST to get a free demo and save 10% on your first purchase.
R. David Lankes is a professor and Dean’s Scholar for the New Librarianship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and director of the Information Institute of Syracuse. Lankes has always been interested in combining theory and practice to create active research projects that make a difference. Past projects include the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology, the Gateway to Education Materials, AskERIC and the Virtual Reference Desk. Lankes’ more recent work involves how participatory concepts can reshape libraries and credibility. You can hear earlier Circulating Ideas interviews with Dr. Lankes here and here. Jill Hurst-Wahl, MLS, is a digitization consultant and owner of Hurst Associates, Ltd. She also an Associate Professor of Practice in Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and the director of the iSchool’s Library and Information Science Program. She is a member of the SLA Board of Directors (2011-2013). Jill’s interests include digitization, digital libraries, copyright, web 2.0 and social media. Cori Dickerson is an absentee MLS student and a part-time librarian in the great state of Texas. Her art and English degrees keep her in the lap of luxury, and the high school students keep her from making any progress on her To Read list. Cori’s trying very hard not to be a responsible adult, and spends far too much time playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. (Star Trek is her one true love, however!) She can generally be spotted on Twitter and Pinterest, scavenging ideas from much cooler people.
R. David Lankes is a professor and Dean’s Scholar for the New Librarianship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and director of the Information Institute of Syracuse. Lankes has always been interested in combining theory and practice to create active research projects that make a difference. Past projects include the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology, the Gateway to Education Materials, AskERIC and the Virtual Reference Desk. Lankes’ more recent work involves how participatory concepts can reshape libraries and credibility. You can hear earlier Circulating Ideas interviews with Dr. Lankes here and here.
Jill Hurst-Wahl, MLS, is a digitization consultant and owner of Hurst Associates, Ltd. She also an Associate Professor of Practice in Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and the director of the iSchool’s Library and Information Science Program. She is a member of the SLA Board of Directors (2011-2013). Jill’s interests include digitization, digital libraries, copyright, web 2.0 and social media.
Cori Dickerson is an absentee MLS student and a part-time librarian in the great state of Texas. Her art and English degrees keep her in the lap of luxury, and the high school students keep her from making any progress on her To Read list. Cori’s trying very hard not to be a responsible adult, and spends far too much time playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. (Star Trek is her one true love, however!) She can generally be spotted on Twitter and Pinterest, scavenging ideas from much cooler people.
My favorite magazine and newspaper articles are interviews. My favorite podcasts are interviews (Teri Gross’s Fresh Air and Dan Benjamin’s The Pipeline have been among my favs). My favorite blog posts are interviews. Best of all is when the interview is presented Q&A style; I don’t like when it’s streamed together as a narrative because it seems like a cheat, like it’s falsely presenting the information. I want to know the questions that prompted the answers. I want transparency from my interviewer.
I also want transparency in my profession. Being a librarian means that I have an insatiable curiosity, and I’m especially curious as to how the profession is making its way into the future. As the world moves into new digital territories, librarians will keep up (we’re organizing and filtering information same as we always have, just in a different format). I don’t think there are any people within the profession who genuinely believe that libraries are going the way of the dodo, or if there are, they’re a dying breed. However, I do think there are people – too many people – outside the profession who believe that.
But maybe those people just don’t understand what we’re doing. Maybe they haven’t been in a library in years so don’t understand the innovative things we have going on, from public libraries to school libraries, academic libraries to special libraries. Is that their fault or is it our fault for not marketing ourselves better? I’d say there’s blame to be shared.
This show is my meager attempt to get the word out on what we’re doing as a profession to remain relevant and to push the boundaries of learning and collating information, getting our ideas out there in the world, circulating them like we circulate our collections. I hope it will also be enlightening to my fellow librarians to learn more about what other librarians are doing to push the profession forward. I’ll be interviewing librarians and other people relevant to the profession and getting their points of view out to you, the listeners, and I hope that they spark discussions, whether you agree with the interview subject’s views or not.
I hope you enjoy the show and that it inspires you to keep circulating your ideas.
Circulating Ideas 