In their latest podcast of Thinking Out Loud, George Needham & Joan Frye Williams take a look at the Public Library Association's 2008 conference (it was paperless, so as G&J point out, it is a very rich website!). Some highlights: the exhibit hall (ChiliFresh.com, STImaging.com, MusicPump) and the Minneapolis Public Library's Game Center. They cover a lot of ground, so be sure to tune in!
In the latest Thinking Out Loud podcast, George and Joan take a look at the report Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future (PDF format). This report was conducted by the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER) in the UK.
The report looks at the information seeking behavior of young people and what that means for libraries in the next 10-15 years. As George says, demographics are destiny so it's important to look at how young people are looking for information.
Needless to say, George and Joan have a lot of thoughts on the report and its findings, so be sure to listen! This podcast is 19 minutes long.
In this latest session of Thinking Out Loud, our intrepid podcasters George & Joan look at TIME magazine's issue from Mar 24, 2008, 10 Ideas That Are Changing the World (among the ideas: the end of customer service and the new austerity) and they also talk about the Extinction Timeline, found on Ross Dawson's blog, rossdawsonblog.com, and created jointly by What’s Next and the Future Exploration Network. Of special interest to libraries: the year 2019, in which Dawson predicts the extinction of libraries! It's well worth a listen.
UPDATE: Sorry, folks. I seem incapable of typing (or for that matter, pasting, a file name correctly today. I have finally, absolutely, fixed the link to that latest G&J podcast. Sorry for any inconvenience! --Eileen the bad typist
Everybody has an opinion! Michael Cart weighed in on the state of reading today in his last podcast, and now in their latest edition of Thinking Out Loud, George Needham and Joan Frye Williams continue their take on the state of reading, a conversation that they started in their last podcast. This time out the look at the recent NEA report, To Read or Not to Read, and other trends affecting how and what people read. Also mentioned in this podcast: Book Glutton and Bibliocommons.
In this episode of Thinking Out Loud, George Needham and Joan Frye Williams take a look at current trends in reading. Specifically, George talks about his Kindle and they both riff on what the Kindle and other e-book readers of its ilk affect how and what we read.
For those of you who listen closely, you'll hear Joan reference something called the "ImaginoTransferenceDevice" and if you're like me, you're wondering what the heck that is. It's a term/concept coined by Jasper Fforde, and you can read more about it here.
Next up: they look at the NEA report, To Read or Not to Read - so stay tuned!
Can leadership be taught? In the latest edition of Thinking Out Loud, George Needham & Joan Frye Williams examine this question. George talks about the leadership academies in which he has participated (as a mentor). They also look at the differences between management and leadership, and the never-gets-old debate about nature versus nurture.
It all makes great food for thought!
Using the book, Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant, George Needham and Joan Frye Williams look at the six attributes and discuss how those practices might be applied in libraries.
This 28-minute podcast is part two of a two-part series. If you missed part one, you can catch it here.
Using the book, Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant, George Needham and Joan Frye Williams look at the six attributes and discuss how those practices might be applied in libraries in this 22 minute podcast.
This is part one of a two-part podcast.
In this edition of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan take a look at the state of library education. Is it worth all of the time and effort people put into it? George advocates a serious rethinking of MLS programs and what they teach.
It's food for thought!
In their latest podcast, George Needham and Joan Frye Williams discuss how librarians refer to their...customers? patrons? users? and what those words mean, and how all of those terms have different connotations. As Joan says, it's more than just nomenclature.
In this podcast, George Needham and Joan Frye Williams discuss George's trip to South Africa for the 2007 IFLA Conference, and the global library community in general.
In their fourth podcast, George and Joan examine some sacred cows of librarianship, like the Dewey Decimal System, that are being challenged in libraries today.
In their third podcast, George and Joan discuss how change in libraries is often viewed with resistance and suspicion. And in honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day,be sure to take note of their likening of the bringers of change to pirates boarding a ship. Arrrrr!!
In their second podcast George Needham and Joan Frye Williams take a look at libraries that are doing new, exciting, and/or innovative things.
Update on 8/21: Sorry about the lack of a link there, folks! As you can see, it's corrected now.
I thought I'd share some information about our new podcast series, George and Joan: Thinking Out Loud. If you use a newsreader you can subscribe to the George and Joan feed using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/InfoblogGeorgeAndJoan. Just copy or click on the link, and pop it into your aggregator, and you'll know as soon as the next podcast is posted! The George and Joan podcasts will be appearing monthly. You can also find them in iTunes - just search for "Infopeople" and you'll find all of our podcasts listed.
Infopeople is pleased to announce a new series of podcasts: "George and Joan, Thinking Out Loud." Perspicacious pundits George Needham (OCLC) and Joan Frye Williams (library consultant) will compare notes - in their own inimitable style - on some of the hottest topics in libraries today. First on their list of conversation starters: Do trendy new service models amount to ‘dumbing down’ the library? Don’t miss the opportunity to listen in as Joan and George mix it up in a freewheeling format that’s sure to leave you with plenty to ponder.
If you like this one, stay tuned, because George and Joan will be Thinking Out Loud on the Infopeople site on a monthly basis. Upcoming topics include change and libraries, libraries getting it right, and the decline of deference.
Remember, you can listen to podcasts directly on your computer as long as it has speakers and is running any application that can play MP3 files, including Windows Media Player, WinAmp, and Real Player. Of course, if you have an iPod or any other type of MP3 player, you can download the files and take them with you to listen to wherever you happen to be.
If you have any difficulty accessing this or any other Infopeople podcast, you can get help from the Peep Geeks at ipweb@infopeople.org.