Author Archives

Kate Gukeisen

I am an elementary Teacher Librarian in Northern New York. I love learning, reading, exploring new places, creating and viewing art, hiking (especially in the ADK!), and life in general.

I Will Never Leave a Fallen Comrade

In the final Thread of R. David Lankes’ The Atlas of New Librarianship (2011), we finally get to the librarian. In amongst the descriptions of skill sets, teamwork, processes, and curriculum, there is a statement which stops me in my tracks. Lankes proposes that in the case of […]

We Happy Few

“This time, this information age? This is our age.”   -R. David Lankes, The Atlas of New Librarianship, p.135 I am a sucker for a good call-to-arms style speech. My favorite movies (which mostly come from great books) all contain rousing pre-battle speeches. William Wallace rallying his fellow Scotsmen […]

Azimuth Check

Or, How Reading About Community Got Me Ruminating Over Collection Development Ironically, after writing my last few posts about how individuals, people, and communities must remain at the center of every thing we do as librarians, I read through Lankes’ entire Community Thread thinking about books. It may […]

Power to the People

Librarians don’t own public libraries, communities don’t own public libraries, the individuals who make up our communities own public libraries. That ownership comes with privilege, and it comes with responsibility. Have I mentioned yet my conviction that libraries are about people? They are not about buildings or collections […]

Something to Talk About

If librarians are going to facilitate knowledge creation, we’d better learn the process through which knowledge is created. Throughout the Knowledge Creation Thread of The Atlas of New Librarianship, R. David Lankes focuses on Conversation Theory as a means of fostering knowledge creation. Conversation Theory, in my own […]

My Mission, Should I Choose to Accept It

I like having a mission. I like a solid foundation from which to spring into action and a bright goal toward which to work. The mission that R. David Lankes proposes in his recently published book, The Atlas of New Librarianship is right up my alley. According to […]