Circulating Ideas

Steve chats with Paula Willey, co-author (with Andria Amaral) of The Passive Programming Playbook: 101 Ways to Get Library Customers Off the Sidelines, about what passive programming is, why libraries should be doing it, some creative examples, and why candy corn divides Paula and Andria’s friendship. Read the transcript! Paula Willey is a librarian at … Continue reading 219: Passive Programming Playbook

Steve chats with the 2022 candidates for President of the American Library Association: Emily Drabinski, Critical Pedagogy Librarian and Interim Chief Librarian at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Kelvin Watson, executive director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. Read the transcript! Emily Drabinski is Critical Pedagogy Librarian and Interim Chief … Continue reading 218: ALA Presidential Candidates (2022)

Steve chats with Dion Graham, actor and audiobook narrator, about his love of libraries from an early age, how he approaches books he’s going to be narrating, representation in audio work, and some of the recent books he’s narrated. Read the transcript! Dion Graham, from HBO’s The Wire, also narrates The First 48 on A&E. A multiple Audie Award–winning … Continue reading 217: Dion Graham

Guest host Troy Swanson chats with Lisa Feldman Barrett, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, about her background, her neuroscience beach read, Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain, mindfulness, and why your brain is not for thinking. Read the transcript! Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett is the University Distinguished Professor of Psychology … Continue reading 216: Lisa Feldman Barrett

Steve chats with William Ottens, author of Librarian Tales: Funny, Strange, and Inspiring Dispatches from the Stacks, about his path to librarianship, starting Librarian Problems on Tumblr way back when, and fun / maddening librarian stereotypes. Read the transcript! William Ottens is a librarian and the creator of the library-centric Librarian Problems Tumblr. Described by Library Journal‘s Tumblr-in-Chief, … Continue reading 215: William Ottens

Steve chats with Elena Lopez, Bharat Mehra, and Maggie Caspe, editors of A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families in Learning, about how they first got involved with libraries, the benefits of family engagement, and adapting in times of crisis. Read the transcript! M. Elena Lopez is an independent researcher whose work focuses on the ecology of … Continue reading 214: A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families in Learning

Steve chats with Meredith Farkas, faculty librarian at Portland Community College in Oregon, about her path to librarianship, the concept of slow librarianship, avoiding techno-saviorism, and why she ended her long-running American Libraries column. Read the transcript! Meredith Farkas (she/her) is a faculty librarian at Portland Community College in Oregon, a perpetual beginner, and a … Continue reading 213: Meredith Farkas – Slow Librarianship

Steve chats with Donald Cohen, co-author of The Privatization of Everything: How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back, about how he defines privatization, why public goods are vital to a functioning democracy, public-private partnerships that work, and what individuals can do to fight back against privatization. Read the … Continue reading 212: Donald Cohen

Steve chats with Shannon M. Oltmann, author of Practicing Intellectual Freedom in Libraries, about the definition of intellectual freedom, why intellectual freedom is important to the library profession, how to handle materials challenges, and how intellectual freedom overlaps with the right to privacy. Read the transcript! Shannon M. Oltmann is an Associate Professor in the … Continue reading 211: Shannon M. Oltmann

Steve chats with Paul Signorelli, author of Change the World Using Social Media, about his background in libraries, why librarians should be activists, avoiding the traps of negativity and leveraging social media for good, and his contributions to the T is for Training podcast. Read the transcript! Paul Signorelli, author of Change the World Using … Continue reading 210: Paul Signorelli

Steve chats with Matt Finch and Bronwen Gamble about facilitating scenario planning during a pandemic, involving all staff members in important decision-making, learning to live with uncertainty, and Bronwen’s plans (or lack thereof) for retirement. Read the transcript! Dr. Matt Finch is an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, … Continue reading 209: Matt Finch and Bronwen Gamble

Steve chats with Julie Ann Winkelstein, author of Homelessness and Libraries: an Action Guide, about her path to librarianship, terminology when discussing homelessness, compassion fatigue, and creating an action plan. Read the transcript! Julie Ann Winkelstein, MLIS, PhD, is a librarian, writer, activist and teacher. She is the author of Libraries and Homelessness: An Action Guide (Libraries … Continue reading 208: Julie Ann Winkelstein

Guest host Troy Swanson chats with Dr. Hugo Mercier, research scientist and author of Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe, about cognitive science, how humans think they make decisions (and how they actually do), intuition, and why we aren’t as easily fooled as we think (…or are we?). … Continue reading 207: Hugo Mercier

Steve chats with Becky Spratford, author of The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, about RA for All’s origin story, why people read scary books, the importance of promoting diversity in the horror genre, and which book Steve should read next to scare the bejesus out of him. Read the transcript! Today’s show is brought to … Continue reading 206: Becky Spratford

Steve chats with Lori Berezovsky, vice-president / president-elect of the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services, about her path to librarianship, their upcoming virtual conference, and how outreach has changed in COVID times. Read the transcript! Lori Berezovsky is the outreach Librarian at Salina Public Library, Salina, KS and is the current Vice President/President-Elect of … Continue reading 205: Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services

Steve chats with Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, authors of The Personal Librarian, about their early childhood experiences in libraries, why they found Belle da Costa Greene’s story so compelling and relevant to our modern times, and why they’re writing soulmates. Read the transcript! Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years’ … Continue reading 204: Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Steve chats with Judi Moreillon, editor of Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage, about why equity, diversity, inclusion, and intellectual freedom are core values for school librarians, the work of her contributors, and why this is her last book. Judi Moreillon, PhD, is an editor, author, literacies and libraries consultant, and a … Continue reading 203: Judi Moreillon

Steve chats with Gene Ambaum and Willow Payne, the writer and artist of Library Comic, about the transition from Unshelved to Library Comic, integrating spiders into the strip as much as possible, creative Kickstarter merch ideas, and Gene’s terrible taste in books and movies (according to Willow). Gene Ambaum is a library guy who lives … Continue reading 202: Library Comic – Gene Ambaum and Willow Payne

Steve chats with David Lankes, author of Forged in War: How a Century of War Created Today’s Information Society, about his new position at the University of Texas at Austin, whether or not libraries are neutral (spoiler: they’re not), knowledge infrastructure, and how the wars of the 20th century shaped propaganda, how data is collected and used, and … Continue reading 201: David Lankes – Forged in War

Steve chats with Tracie D. Hall, Executive Director of the American Library Association, about her path to librarianship, her role as ALA’s Executive Director, what ALA has done and can do for library workers, libraries working for social justice, and accepting ourselves as members of the human race. In February 2020, Tracie D. Hall was … Continue reading 200: Tracie D. Hall