Dog-eared & Overdue

Category: New Libarianship

  • QR Codes? Really? Yes, Really.

    QR Codes often get a bad rap, and often for good reason. When I first encountered QR Codes, I downloaded a QR Code Reader app with some excitement and began to scan. I was immediately, and then repeatedly, underwhelmed. It seemed every QR Code I scanned led me to an online page with the exact…

  • Death To (Assigned) Summer Reading! Long Live Summer Reading!

    Alexander Nazaryan’s article Trust Me, Assigning Summer Reading Is Totally Pointless has set off a rather passionate discussion about summer reading among book-lovers and library-types. I’ve been baffled to see Nazaryan’s article characterized as anti-summer reading. I found the opposite in the article. I think the way to encourage summer reading, and the love of reading in…

  • 3D Printers, Creativity, and Innovation

    Creativity and innovation are at the heart of my library school experience at Syracuse University. 3D Printing is an innovative technology being adopted by some public and school libraries as a tool to foster innovation and creativity. In my Motivating 21st Century Learners course, we were asked to think of ways 3D printers could encourage…

  • This is a Library

       What’s a library? This is about the Carthage Free Library. I’d love to hear about your public, academic, or special library. My library is located in a charming building on Budd Street, but its services are at the Farmer’s Market, the school gym, and anywhere the community gathers. My library is summer reading, water balloon…

  • Seizing the Teachable Moment in "What’s a Library?"

    Over the weekend, video producer Michael Rosenblum’s Huffington Post blog “What’s a Library?” generated quite a bit of discussion in my library-loving world. Mr. Rosenblum, who admits to never having gone inside the now-demolished library that inspired his post, questions the need for libraries in a world where he says everything can be found on…

  • Shifting the Balance

    It seems silly not to mention the fact that my last post here was eleven months ago. The last year has found me, and my household, adjusting to stay balanced to the many changes that have come our way in the last eleven months. Our Vagabond family moved from Virginia back to Northern New York…

  • 10 Things I Learned at Library Boot Camp

    The following are my personal Top Ten Take Aways from my first week on the road to New Librarianship. I’ll explore a few of these topics my next blog posts. 1.   New Librarians embrace body art. 2.   Mints invigorate students. 3.   Librarians do not need to prove we are relevent. 4.   Militant idealists…