Steve chats with John Hubbard, librarian at Washington University in St. Louis and creator of Library Link of the Day, about change management, library vendor consolidation, discovery layers, keeping up with professional news (and why it’s the same topics over and over again), and what the final Library Link of the Day will be. Read the transcript! John Hubbard is a librarian at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is excited to be leading the development of the main search interface: a ...
Feb 01, 2023
Steve chats with Robin Bradford and Becky Spratford, creators of the Actively Anti-Racist Service to Leisure Readers course for Learn with NoveList, about how they got started doing anti-racism training, the difference between “not racist” and “anti-racist”, working with NoveList to adapt their in-person presentations to a virtual self-paced format, and why they provide serious answers to non-serious questions. Read the transcript! Robin Bradford has earned a BA and MA in English, an MS in Libra...
Jan 19, 2023
Steve chats with Angela Hursh, Manager of Engagement and Marketing for NoveList, author of the blog SuperLibraryMarketing.com, and host of the YouTube series The Library Marketing Show, about her path from television journalism to libraries, how libraries can do better marketing without spending a lot, her work at NoveList, and a special online project from her past! Read the transcript! Angela Hursh is Manager of Engagement and Marketing for NoveList. She helps libraries create effective and en...
Jan 04, 2023
Steve chats with Sarah Voels, director of Vogel Library at Wartburg College and author of Auditing Diversity in Library Collections, about her path through librarianship, why diversity audits are an essential tool for library collections, how to find diverse materials to add to collections, and how to get started in conducting a diversity audit. Read the transcript! Sarah Voels is the director of Vogel Library at Wartburg College. She previously worked in collection development, where she began ...
Dec 20, 2022
Guest host Troy Swanson chats with Dr. Alison J. Head, founder and director of Project Information Literacy, about PIL’s early days, PIL’s unique place in the information literacy research field, the importance of student and information agency, and what’s next for the PIL group! Read the transcript! Alison J. Head, Ph.D. is an information scientist and social science researcher. She is the founder and director of Project Information Literacy (PIL), a national research institute that studies wha...
Dec 01, 2022
Steve chats with Madeline Martin, author of The Librarian Spy, about her childhood experiences with libraries, her love of history and historical fiction, how she does her research, and the wonder of visiting the Library of Congress! Read the transcript! Madeline Martin is a New York Times and International Bestselling author of historical fiction and historical romance. She lives in sunny Florida with her two daughters (known collectively as the minions), one incredibly spoiled cat and a man so...
Nov 08, 2022
Guest host Troy Swanson chats with Jacoby Cochran, host of City Cast Chicago, about the joys and challenges of covering local community news, the future of journalism, upcoming Chicago elections, and managing misinformation. Read the transcript! 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 discus...
Oct 21, 2022
Steve chats with library historian Wayne Wiegand about how he came to the library profession, how to view historical figures and actions honestly (warts and all), the history of American libraries, the life and times of Melvil Dewey, and the vital places coffee and cats hold in American library history. Read the transcript! Wayne A. Wiegand is the F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies Emeritus at Florida State University. He is the author of Irrepressible Reformer: A Bi...
Sep 20, 2022
Steve chats with Jeanie Austin, Jail and Reentry Services Librarian with San Francisco Public Library and author of Library Services and Incarceration: Recognizing Barriers, Strengthening Access, about their path to librarianship, the history and present state of library service to incarcerated persons, and why libraries should focus services on incarcerated persons and those experiencing re-entry. Read the transcript! Jeanie Austin earned their PhD in library and information science at the Univ...
Aug 30, 2022
Steve chats with Addison Armstrong, author of The War Librarian and The Light of Luna Park, about her experiences with libraries, what she likes about writing historical fiction and dual timelines, finding story ideas in her historical research, and how her love of school supplies and ants fueled her writing life as a young girl! Read the transcript! Addison Armstrong graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2020 with degrees in elementary education and language and literacy studies and received ...
Aug 09, 2022
Guest host Natalia Estrada chats with Liladhar Pendse, librarian for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies and the Caribbean and Latin American Studies at the University of California-Berkeley, about the concept of Area Studies, his work archiving Afghanistan’s digital and cultural content after the US withdrawal, the challenges of archiving war-torn areas such as Ukraine, and his advice for new librarians looking to enter his field. Read the transcript! Liladhar R. Pendse is a librarian f...
Jul 31, 2022
Steve chats with Allison Waukau, Native Community Liaison at Hennepin County Library, about her work connecting the library with the Native community, how libraries can better hire and retain Native staff, how publishing is (slowly) improving at telling authentic Native stories, and the importance of land acknowledgements. Read the transcript! Allison Waukau (Menominee/Navajo) resides in Minneapolis, MN and works in Community Engagement. Allison currently is a Member at Large with the American I...
Jun 27, 2022
Guest host Troy Swanson chats with Dr. Virginia Campbell, host of the Brain Science Podcast and author of Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty , about why she created and continues the podcast, the hidden layer of the brain, how cognition differs from knowing, and why science is not just a set of boring facts you learn in school. Read the transcript! Dr. Virginia Campbell is an experienced Emergency and Palliative Medicine physician with a long-standing interest in the brain and co...
Jun 01, 2022
Steve chats with Marshall Breeding, longtime library technologist and writer of the annual Library Systems Report, about the history of library automation, putting together the data for the Library Systems Report, proprietary and open source ILS systems, and how vendors work well with each other (and sometimes don’t). Read the transcript! Marshall Breeding is an independent consultant, speaker, and author. He is the creator and editor of Library Technology Guides and the libraries.org online dir...
May 11, 2022
Steve chats with researcher and writer Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson, and John Chrastka, Executive Director of EveryLibrary, about Dr. Magnusson’s Book Censorship Database and why EveryLibrary Institute wanted to support and promote it, the integrity of the book challenge process and how it’s often hijacked and corrupted, and why Steve and John will never get email addresses with just their first names. Read the transcript! Tasslyn Magnusson is a researcher, writer, and poet living in Prescott, WI. She ...
Apr 19, 2022
Steve chats with Paula Willey, co-author (with Andria Amaral) of The Passive Programming Playbook: 101 Ways to Get Library Customers Off the Sidelines , about what passive programming is, why libraries should be doing it, some creative examples, and why candy corn divides Paula and Andria’s friendship. Read the transcript! Paula Willey is a librarian at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. She has written about children’s literature and family engagement for publications such as School Library...
Mar 30, 2022
Steve chats with the 2022 candidates for President of the American Library Association: Emily Drabinski, Critical Pedagogy Librarian and Interim Chief Librarian at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Kelvin Watson, executive director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. Read the transcript! Emily Drabinski is Critical Pedagogy Librarian and Interim Chief Librarian at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She has been an academic librarian for two decades,...
Mar 07, 2022
Steve chats with Dion Graham, actor and audiobook narrator, about his love of libraries from an early age, how he approaches books he’s going to be narrating, representation in audio work, and some of the recent books he’s narrated. Read the transcript! photo by: JoAnna Perrin Dion Graham , from HBO’s The Wire , also narrates The First 48 on A&E. A multiple Audie Award–winning and critically acclaimed actor and narrator, he has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, internationally, in films, ...
Feb 15, 2022
Guest host Troy Swanson chats with Lisa Feldman Barrett, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, about her background, her neuroscience beach read, Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain , mindfulness, and why your brain is not for thinking. Read the transcript! Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett is the University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University. She also holds appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital,...
Jan 25, 2022
Steve chats with William Ottens, author of Librarian Tales: Funny, Strange, and Inspiring Dispatches from the Stacks, about his path to librarianship, starting Librarian Problems on Tumblr way back when, and fun / maddening librarian stereotypes. Read the transcript! 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 ...
Jan 04, 2022
Steve chats with Elena Lopez, Bharat Mehra, and Maggie Caspe, editors of A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families in Learning, about how they first got involved with libraries, the benefits of family engagement, and adapting in times of crisis. Read the transcript! M. Elena Lopez is an independent researcher whose work focuses on the ecology of learning, which includes the home, school, and community. She has published extensively on family and community engagement in learning and has served on ...
Dec 14, 2021
Steve chats with Meredith Farkas, faculty librarian at Portland Community College in Oregon, about her path to librarianship, the concept of slow librarianship, avoiding techno-saviorism, and why she ended her long-running American Libraries column. Read the transcript! Meredith Farkas (she/her) is a faculty librarian at Portland Community College in Oregon, a perpetual beginner, and a recovering workaholic. From 2007-2021, she wrote the “In Practice” column for American Libraries , focusing on ...
Nov 30, 2021
Steve chats with Donald Cohen, co-author of The Privatization of Everything: How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back, about how he defines privatization, why public goods are vital to a functioning democracy, public-private partnerships that work, and what individuals can do to fight back against privatization. Read the transcript! Donald Cohen is the founder and executive director of In the Public Interest (ITPI,) a national research and policy center that ...
Nov 16, 2021
Steve chats with Shannon M. Oltmann, author of Practicing Intellectual Freedom in Libraries, about the definition of intellectual freedom, why intellectual freedom is important to the library profession, how to handle materials challenges, and how intellectual freedom overlaps with the right to privacy. Read the transcript! Shannon M. Oltmann is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Science at the University of Kentucky. She obtained her Ph.D. from Indiana University. Her research ...
Nov 02, 2021
Steve chats with Paul Signorelli, author of Change the World Using Social Media, about his background in libraries, why librarians should be activists, avoiding the traps of negativity and leveraging social media for good, and his contributions to the T is for Training podcast. Read the transcript! 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 organizin...
Oct 19, 2021
Steve chats with Matt Finch and Bronwen Gamble about facilitating scenario planning during a pandemic, involving all staff members in important decision-making, learning to live with uncertainty, and Bronwen’s plans (or lack thereof) for retirement. Read the transcript! 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 ...
Oct 05, 2021
Steve chats with Julie Ann Winkelstein, author of Homelessness and Libraries: an Action Guide, about her path to librarianship, terminology when discussing homelessness, compassion fatigue, and creating an action plan. Read the transcript! Julie Ann Winkelstein , MLIS, PhD, is a librarian, writer, activist and teacher. She is the author of Libraries and Homelessness: An Action Guide (Libraries Unlimited), as well as several book chapters and journal articles, and was a contributing author and pr...
Sep 21, 2021
Guest host Troy Swanson chats with Dr. Hugo Mercier, research scientist and author of Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe , about cognitive science, how humans think they make decisions (and how they actually do), intuition, and why we aren’t as easily fooled as we think (…or are we?). Read the transcript! Hugo Mercier who holds the PhD in cognitive sciences and is a research scientist at the Institut Jean Nicod, Paris where he works as part of the Evolution and S...
Sep 08, 2021
Steve chats with Becky Spratford, author of The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, about RA for All’s origin story, why people read scary books, the importance of promoting diversity in the horror genre, and which book Steve should read next to scare the bejesus out of him. Read the transcript! Becky Spratford [MLIS] is a Readers’ Advisor in Illinois specializing in serving patrons ages 13 and up. She trains library staff all over the world on how to match books with readers through the local pu...
Aug 24, 2021
Steve chats with Lori Berezovsky, vice-president / president-elect of the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services, about her path to librarianship, their upcoming virtual conference, and how outreach has changed in COVID times. Read the transcript! Lori Berezovsky is the outreach Librarian at Salina Public Library, Salina, KS and is the current Vice President/President-Elect of the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services. Today’s show is brought to you by Syndetics Unbound , from...
Aug 10, 2021
