The Library is Open

We are pleased to announce our newest session of The Library is Open Podcast! This session features an interview with Mark Noble, Aspen Discovery Team Lead at ByWater Solutions. Mark and Jessie talk about the future of open-source discovery, the global community and what’s on the roadmap for Aspen Discovery in this episode!

About Mark Noble

Mark graduated with a degree in Architectural Engineering, but moved immediately into software development. More than half his career has been spent building software for libraries with the majority of the time spent working on Discovery software. He enjoys creating innovative new functionality to make library software work better for patrons and staff. In his spare time, Mark enjoys being outdoors running and hiking, traveling, and hanging out with his kids.

About Aspen Discovery

Aspen is a full-featured Discovery System that integrates with e-content and other 3rd party providers, giving your patrons comprehensive access to all of your materials in one place. Aspen combines your library catalog with e-content, digital archives and enrichment from all major third-party providers, improves relevancy and ease of use, provides native reading recommendations, displays all formats of titles within one result (FRBR) and much more. Aspen was created to give users an improved experience over other Discovery systems with less of an impact on library budgets.

Learn more about Aspen Discovery.

We are pleased to announce our newest session of The Library is Open Podcast! This session features an interview with Angie Drobnic Holan, editor-in-chief at PolitiFact. Angie and Jessie talk about misinformation, tools to organize and keep accurate records, partnerships to help stop the spread of misinformation online, and educating people to distinguish between truth and rumors.

About Angie Drobnic Holan

Angie has extensive experience fact-checking the presidency, Congress and political campaigns, and was a reporter on the PolitiFact team that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She serves on the advisory board of the International Fact-Checking Network.

She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and a master’s of library science from the University of South Florida. Her undergraduate degree is from the Plan II liberal arts program at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a native of Louisiana and attended the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts.

Read more about Angie on the Politifact site.

About Politifact

Fact-checking journalism is the heart of PolitiFact. Their core principles are independence, transparency, fairness, thorough reporting and clear writing. The reason they publish is to give citizens the information they need to govern themselves in a democracy.

Read more about Politifact.

We are pleased to announce our newest session of The Library is Open Podcast! This session features an interview with JP Porcaro, Director, Free Public Library & Cultural Center of Bayonne. JP and Jessie talk about everything libraries, lifelong learning, communities, and just why libraries are the cornerstone of a child’s learning process.

About JP Porcaro

JP was an American Library Association Presidential Candidate in 2016-2017 and serves as an EveryLibrary Senior Advisor.

Follow JP on Twiiter

About the Bayonne Public Library

The Bayonne Public Library is the free public library of Bayonne, New Jersey. Incorporated in 1890, it serves a population of approximately 62,000. Read more at Bayonne Public Library

The New Jersey Library Construction Bond Actpassed both the Assembly and the Senate unanimously on November 16, 2020. It was then signed by the Governor on November 20, 2020.

We are pleased to announce our newest session of The Library is Open Podcast! This session features an interview with R. David Lankes, he is the director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Information Science, and recipient of the American Library Association’s 2016 Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship.

About R. David Lankes

R. David Lankes is a professor and the director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Information Science. Lankes has always been interested in combining theory and practice to create active research projects that make a difference. His work has been funded by organizations such as The MacArthur Foundation, The Institute for Library and Museum Services, NASA, The U.S. Department of Education, The U.S. Department of Defense, The National Science Foundation, The U.S. State Department, and The American Library Association.

Lankes is a passionate advocate for libraries and their essential role in today’s society earning him the American Library Association’s Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship in 2016. He also seeks to understand how information approaches and technologies can be used to transform industries. In this capacity he has served on advisory boards and study teams in the fields of libraries, telecommunications, education, and transportation including at the National Academies. He has been a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada, The Harvard School of Education, and was the first fellow of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy. His book,The Atlas of New Librarianship won the 2012 ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Award for the Best Book in Library Literature.

Read more about David on his website!

We are pleased to announce our newest session of The Library is Open Podcast! This session features an interview with Jessamyn West, a librarian and community technologist living in central Vermont. Jessamyn returns to the Library is Open Podcast to chat about how librarians are adapting during the pandemic, tools she uses to help with technology needs in her community, what skills librarians need to adapt to the environment we are currently living in, and finding your personal center.

What’s Jessamyn Reading

A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order by Judith Flanders

Ancestral Night (White Space # 1) by Elizabeth Bear

What’s Jessamyn Listening to

QI Podcast

About Jessamyn West

Jessamyn Charity West is a library technologist and writer known for her activism and work on the digital divide.

Checkout her blog librarian.net putting the rarin back in librarian since 1999.

Read more about Jessamyn on her website!

We are pleased to announce our newest session of The Library is Open Podcast! This session features an interview with Michael Sauers, Director of Technology and Allison Sillik, Director of Community Learning at Do Space, a community technology library in Omaha, Nebraska. Listen as Michael, Allison and Jessie discuss their digital presence and how they are spreading the technology learning experience to their community.

About Do Space

The future belongs to those who understand technology, and the only way to ensure we’ll be part of this future is to dramatically change technology access and education in Omaha. Do Space is a one-of-a-kind concept: It’s a community technology library, a digital workshop, and an innovation playground filled with new opportunities to learn, grow, explore and create. Explore more at https://dospace.org/about/.

We are pleased to announce our newest session of The Library is Open Podcast! Today’s session features an interview with David Lee King. David is the Digital Services Director at Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. Listen as David and Jessie discuss digital experiences during the pandemic, emerging technologies and what they see the library digital experience being in 2030.

About David Lee King

David Lee King is the Digital Services Director at Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, where he plans, implements, and experiments with emerging technology trends. He speaks internationally about emerging trends, website management, digital experience, and social media, and has been published in many library-related journals. David is a Library Journal Mover and Shaker. His newest book is Face2Face: Using Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Tools to Create Great Customer Connections. David blogs at http://www.davidleeking.com.

We are happy to announce our newest session of The Library is Open Podcast! Today’s session features an interview with Cheryl Gould, learning facilitator and training consultant with Fully Engaged Libraries. Listen as Jessie, Nate and Cheryl discuss change management, communication methods, invigorating organizational culture and preparing for the unexpected.

About Cheryl Gould

Cheryl Gould is a learning facilitator and training consultant who believes in the transformative role libraries can play in their communities. Cheryl’s professional role is to help libraries with the culture shift required to move from an institution that provides access to resources to one that promotes conversation, learning and engagement at all levels. Cheryl’s ability to connect people and ideas, to facilitate conversation and to enhance learning has been demonstrated through 17 years of working with libraries in thousands of hours of consulting,mentoring and training. Her passion for learning, crossed with current developments in neuroscience and her involvement with Applied Improvisation to create library cultures of “Yes, And…” defines her work.

You can read more about Cheryl through her website, Fully Engaged Libraries

We are happy to announce our newest session of The Library is Open Podcast! Today’s session features an interview with Nancy Pearl, a best-selling author, librarian, literary critic and READING ENTHUSIAST. Listen as Jessie and Nancy discuss the different facets of reading, why libraries matter, and of course her love of books.

About Nancy Pearl

Nancy Pearl regularly speaks about the importance and pleasure of reading at libraries, literacy organizations, and community groups around the world. She can be found on NPR’s Morning Edition and KWGS-FM in Tulsa, Oklahoma talking about her favorite books. Her monthly television show on the Seattle Channel, Book Lust with Nancy Pearl, features interviews with authors, poets, and other literary figures.

Read more about Nancy Pearl at About Nancy