William Ottens is a librarian and the creator of the library-centric Librarian Problems Tumblr. Described by Library Journal‘s Tumblr-in-Chief, Molly McArdle, as the GIF-king of all librarian tumblrs, William’s Librarian Problems blog pairs common librarian situations, frustrations, and stereotypes with animated reaction GIFs. His public library experience includes work in reference, administration, cataloging, and collection development. He served as Director of the Oskaloosa Public Library in Oskaloosa, Iowa from 2012 to 2015, and is currently a Youth Services Associate with the Mid-Continent Public Library in Kansas City, MO.
Dr. Matt Finch is an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, where he teaches scenario planning and serves as Lead Facilitator on the award-winning Oxford Scenarios programme. He is a strategist and writer who helps companies, communities, and institutions to prepare for tomorrow and make better decisions today. He is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and was 2016-2017 Creative in Residence at the State Library of Queensland in that country. See more at www.mechanicaldolphin.com
Bronwen Gamble is the Executive Director of Reading Public Library in southeast Pennsylvania. She is the first woman to be named as director since its beginning in 1763. As a vital link for city and county residents, the library is known for a wide array of digital media, a dedicated RPL2GO app, outreach service with two grant-funded Mobile Technology Vans, and robust early literacy and workforce development programs. In 2018 Reading Public Library was named an Institute of Museum and Library Services gold medal winner for Outstanding Community Service, one of five winning libraries nationwide.
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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.
Stacey Aldrich has more than 20 years of library experience, and is currently the State Librarian of Hawaii. Prior to Hawaii, she served as the Deputy Secretary for the Office of Commonwealth Libraries in Pennsylvania and State Librarian of California. Stacey has also worked in public and academic libraries. In between, she took a detour to work as a Senior Associate at the futuring think tank of Coates & Jarratt, Inc., where she began to sharpen her futurist thinking skills. She was selected as a Mover and Shaker in the 2003 Library Journal Annual Movers and Shakers edition, and she received a LINK AMERICAS Foundation Knowledge Award for vision and leadership in the area of Digital Literacy in 2012. Always curious and always learning, she believes we all should have a little futurist in us so that we can create our preferred futures. Visit her Instagram to learn more about her campaign.
Ed Garcia is the Library Director at the Cranston Public Library in Cranston, RI, a position he has held since 2012. Ed is a proud graduate of the University of Rhode Island and received his MLIS in 2008. He is currently serving as a member of the Executive Board of the American Library Association and is a 3 term Councilor-at-Large on the ALA Council. He is a former ALA Emerging Leader (2010) and Library Journal Mover & Shaker (2010). Ed is very involved in library advocacy and is the current Legislative Action Chair for the Rhode Island Library Association. He is happily married with 16 year old twin sons. To learn more about his candidacy for ALA President visit www.edforala.com.
Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada is the Adult Services Assistant Manager at the Palos Verdes Library District in Southern California. She serves as the Executive Director and is a Past President of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA). Much of her professional work focuses on services to youth and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in libraries, librarianship, and her local community. She lives in San Pedro, California with her poet husband, Chrisitan Hanz Lozada and their menagerie of pets. Find out more about Lessa and her vision for ALA at lessaforlibraries.com.
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.
Thane Benson is a librarian for Denver Public Library. He works with teens to create original programming that fosters creativity and encourages expression among young people. He is the author of the book Murder Mystery, Graphic Novels, and More: Innovative Programs for Engaging Teens in Your Library, published by ABC-CLIO. When he is not at the library, Thane moonlights as an independent comic book and graphic novel creator. His work is online at www.thanebenson.com.
Greg Peverill-Conti and Adam Zand are the founders and patrons of the Library Land Project. They are also the founders of SharpOrange, a strategic PR and communications agency. Library Land is an unexpected offshoot of SharpOrange. When the duo needed a place to meet and work, they went to the library – and the rest, as they say, is history with over 300 libraries visited and always more to come. Adam and Greg visit, document, rate, review, photograph, and – most of all – love libraries.
Greg has spent his career helping all kinds of organizations imagine and tell their stories. From his days as a park ranger on Alcatraz, to more than 25 years in public relations, to the Library Land Project, Greg has brought curiosity, creativity, and enthusiasm to his work. Since starting Library Land with Adam, Greg has become increasingly inspired by libraries and is planning to begin studying for his Master’s in Library Science in the fall of 2020.
Adam is a connector and strategic communicator. His career path has spanned from service industries and non-profit management to public relations and marketing for agencies, companies and individuals. The common thread is energy and excitement for reaching positive outcomes. He tends to think about business opportunities as a collaborative process that can benefit from his analysis, insight, planning, and action.
Amie Wright is a Public History Graduate student at Concordia studying how educators use comics books and graphic novels to teach history; formerly, she was the Manager of School Outreach at the New York Public Library and has more than 15+ years experience in Canadian and US libraries. A recipient of Library Journal’s Mover and Shaker Award in 2017, Amie is the first President of the American Library Association’s newly formed Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table. Follow Amie @librarylandia for the ongoing tales of a nomadic comics librarian/historian-in-training.
Stephanie Chase is the Director of Libraries for the City of Hillsboro, Oregon.
With more than twenty years of experience in local and municipal government, serving communities ranging from the small and rural in New England, resort communities, and some of our largest urban centers on both the east and west coasts, Stephanie is an accomplished innovator and change leader, with significant experience leading organizational design and effectiveness and community engagement initiatives.
Prior to Hillsboro, Stephanie coordinated service strategies to libraries for BiblioCommons, was the Director of Library Programs and Services for The Seattle Public Library, a founding member and inaugural chair of national advocacy organization LibraryReads, and founded the Green Mountain (VT) Library Consortium, a statewide consortium serving 150 member libraries. In addition, Stephanie currently serves on the Public Library Association’ Board of Directors and the American Library Association’s governing Council.
Hillary Ostlund is a Manager for the City of Hillsboro’s Library department. She currently leads the library’s Cultivate team, focused on staff development, training, and employee engagement. A continuous learner with a background in design thinking, Hillary is always looking for ways to bring inspiration and ideas into the workplace while matching people’s strengths to their work.
Hillary is extremely passionate about public services – especially the role libraries play in communities – with notable training in leadership and development. She is excited to hold a leadership position at the City of Hillsboro’s Library and loves being part of an innovative and inspiring municipal government.
This episode of Circulating Ideas is brought to you with support from Becky Spratford and RA for All. Readers’ advisory is a core concept for libraries and you want your staff trained by the best. Back in 2007, librarian Becky Spratford was working at a public library and teaching the readers advisory class at Dominican University but wanted to do more to compile her best ideas and save the very best of her students work, so she started a blog, RA for Allas a way to showcase and catalog it all. The blog is now one of the most trusted and respected RA tools available. After 15 years of public service, Becky transitioned into being a full time consultant in 2015 and provides RA training to library workers all over the world. If you are interested in hiring Becky to present at your library’s staff day, your state library conference, or wherever library workers are learning (either in person or virtually), go to raforall.blogspot.com to preview sample past programs, see her current schedule of events, listen to Becky talk about RA service, and obtain basic pricing. Click the RA for All logo at the top of the blog to find her contact information and if you mention Circulating Ideas, you will get 10% off if you book by the end of 2019.
In August 2019, Sari Feldman retired as Executive Director of Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL), a position she held since 2003. Under her leadership, CCPL was recognized as one of the nation’s best and busiest public library systems, earning the Library Journal 5-Star recognition for ten consecutive years.
Sari is a past president of the American Library Association. During her term as president, Sari initiated a national public awareness campaign called Libraries Transform that was designed to increase awareness of and support for libraries of all types. She also is a past president of the Public Library Association (2009-2010).
Sari received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from State University of New York at Binghamton and a Master’s in Library Science degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She previously served as an adjunct faculty member at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, teaching graduate courses in library management, reference services, policy, and grant writing for more than 20 years. She was honored in 1995 with the Vice President’s Award for Teacher of the Year.
In 2013, Sari was honored with the Public Library Association’s Charlie Robinson Award for innovation in library service. She was named a Woman of Note by Crain’s Cleveland Business in 2011 and received the 2008 Jane Donelson Player of the Year Award from the USA Toy Library Association, the 2005 YWCA Woman of Achievement award, the David C. Sweet Leadership Academy Alumni Community Leadership Award, and the Leadership Academy’s 2002 Community Impact Award. Sari is a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2004.
Sari currently writes a regular column for Publishers Weekly and presents on library transformation and innovation to audiences around the world.
This episode of Circulating Ideas is brought to you with support from Becky Spratford and RA for All. Readers’ advisory is a core concept for libraries and you want your staff trained by the best. Back in 2007, librarian Becky Spratford was working at a public library and teaching the readers advisory class at Dominican University but wanted to do more to compile her best ideas and save the very best of her students work, so she started a blog, RA for Allas a way to showcase and catalog it all. The blog is now one of the most trusted and respected RA tools available. After 15 years of public service, Becky transitioned into being a full time consultant in 2015 and provides RA training to library workers all over the world. If you are interested in hiring Becky to present at your library’s staff day, your state library conference, or wherever library workers are learning (either in person or virtually), go to raforall.blogspot.com to preview sample past programs, see her current schedule of events, listen to Becky talk about RA service, and obtain basic pricing. Click the RA for All logo at the top of the blog to find her contact information and if you mention Circulating Ideas, you will get 10% off if you book by the end of 2019.
Deborah K. Takahashi is a branch librarian for Pasadena Public Library who specializes in Youth Services. She holds an MLS degree and is certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid. She is a 2009 ALA Spectrum and 2010 CLA Edna Yelland scholar. She served as the 2015–2017 Social Media Co-Chair for the CLA Youth Services Interest Group and was a member of the Mental Health Advisory Committee for the 2016-2017 California State Library (CSL) Mental Health Initiative. She writes for ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) blog.
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.
Gwyneth Stupar is an Adult Services Librarian at the Barrington Area Library. Gwyneth received her Masters in Library and Information Science from Dominican University in 2006, and currently serves on the board of the LACONI (Library Administrators Conference of Northern Illinois)technology section. Gwyneth’s favorite quote? “No matter how successful you become, someone always helps you.” Check out her website at http://www.gwynethstupar.com or @gwynonite on Twitter.
Barbara Alvarez has been working libraries for 4 years. She received her Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign in May 2012. Currently she is the Resource Guide Coordinator for iREAD Committee through ILA, is completing Synergy, a grant-funded leadership opportunity through the Illinois State Library and ILMS, and writes regularly for Public Libraries Online. Stay in touch at barbaralvarez.com and @the_barbrarian.
Leah White is the Head of Popular Materials at the Ela Area Public Library in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago and the author of The Library Innovation Toolkit. She graduated from Dominican University with her MLIS in 2008 and won the Library Journal Movers & Shakers Award in 2012 for her work on building community engagement. You can find her on Twitter: @leahlibrarian or check out her website: www.leahlwhite.com.
Circulating Ideas 