The Library Pros

In Part 2 of this episode, an old friend of Chris’, Dr. David Jank, Dean of the Palmer School of Library and Information Science chat about a number of things, including the state of library science brick and mortar schools vs online learning, the profession and our journey in Libraryland.

Welcome to our New York Library Association Conference Episode. This is our second year podcasting from the conference and because we had so many great guests, we are posting 3 parts to this episode. In episode 1, our old friends Barron Angell from the Florida Public Library, Melissa Tidd, now academic librarian at the SUNY Orange Campus and Goshen Library and her husband Camron Tidd software engineer and Goshen Library IT volunteer visit and give us an update.

Chris and Bob returned to the Long Island Library Resources Council’s Conference on Libraries and the Future. This year we had some great guests and because there was so much to talk about, we are splitting this episode into 3 parts.

In this third portion of the episode, we sit with Chris Jelley, the Information Technology Coordinator at the North Merrick Library, here on Long Island. Chris talked to the guys about so many topics that would make any technophile excited. A large part of the discussion centers around utilizing Raspberry Pi’s as OPAC’s and for other uses as well. Chris was a great guest and we hope he returns to talk more tech soon!

Chris and Bob returned to the Long Island Library Resources Council’s Conference on Libraries and the Future. This year we had some great guests and because there was so much to talk about, we are splitting this episode into 3 parts.

Part 1 was an interesting conversation with James Vorbach, Dean of the Library and Information Science program at St. John’s University. We spoke about cultivating new librarians, their management training symposium and why library schools place such an emphasis on archiving.

We also spoke with Edward Tenner, who works at the Smithsonian and Rutgers University. We had a lengthy discussion about learning using print materials vs. digital materials and even spoke about shepardizing. You can learn more about Edward at his website edwardtenner.com

Chris and Bob returned to the Long Island Library Resources Council’s Conference on Libraries and the Future. This year we had some great guests and because there was so much to talk about, we are splitting this episode into 3 parts.

Part 2 features Lee Rainie, the Director of Internet and Technology at Pew Research. If you live in Libraryland, then you know how important Pew’s statistical analysis is to the future of libraries. Lee Rainie, a proud Long Island native, took some time to talk about what libraries are doing well and what the future holds for libraries based on the historical statistical analysis. Speaking with Lee was a pleasure and we thank LILRC for making him available to us!

Lara Marshall, Manager of the Hillingdon Borough of the London Public Library joined the podcast via Google Hangouts to talk about Hillingdon and the exciting things happening with coding and the Culture Bite Festival which is now a monthly occurrence. We had LOTS of laughs talking about all the wonderful things happening at Hillingdon!

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Rocco Cassano, Assistant Director at the East Meadow Public Library and Joe Perito, the resident Information Technology guru joined the podcast via Google Hangouts (thank goodness we received a reprieve from Google keeping it alive!). We spoke to Rocco about what he has seen in his long career in Libraryland and we spoke to both about their tech innovations, including the LISA System, which is a portable circulation solution. Lots of laughs with this partnership, including the inside joke of blowing on a component to make it work!

The podcast went on the road to the Brentwood Public Library to talk to some amazing friends. Tara Kohles, Head of Youth Services, Michele Nevola, Teen Librarian, Maggie Utset, Head of Publicity and Outreach and Andres Posada Youth Services Clerk all welcomed us to Brentwood to talk about the Average Brentwood Teens podcast and how it has affected the lives of the teens that participate in it. We were also fortunate to have some of the teens with us to get their point of view. It is an uplifting episode!! And don’t forget to listen to Andres singing “Maria”

We were excited to have on Maxine Bleiweis, retired Director of the Westport Library in Westport Connecticut. We learn about how the “Library of Things” got its start in the 1970’s, and how it evolved at Westport into arguably one of the first (if not the first) makerspaces in the United States. Although retired from her job as Director of the Westport Library, she also is a consultant and public speaker and you can see more about her current and future endeavors by visiting her website maxinebleiweiss.com. We laughed with Maxine and would love to have her back because her passion is contagious!

In this episode we again head to Ontario virtually and speak with Linda Hazzan who is the Director of Communications, Programming and Customer Engagement at the Toronto Public Library. Linda spoke to the guys about marketing, reaching beyond the everyday library user and the Bridge Technology Services Assessment Toolkit which is a customizable web-based solution for libraries to capture and analyze performance and outcome data on technology services and informs decision-making on the use and outcomes of technology services offered by public library systems in Ontario.