I’m Busy Today-- Go Listen to Circulating Ideas

Yeah, what that post title says.

No seriously, I am putting the finishing touches on my bi-annual horror take-over of Neal Wyatt’s Reader’s Shelf column in Library Journal today so I don’t have to work a lot over the holiday weekend.  It will feature 6 fantastic horror novels that you can suggest to patrons. 

While I am immersed in haunted houses, vicious, attacking rats, bio-engineered, killer parasites, a near future where opening your eyes equals death, vampires in 19th Century London, and neo-noir stories [Yes that was a teaser of the six titles that will be included in the list], you should be checking out the fantastic librarian interview podcast...Circulating Ideas.

Why?

Well, first, did you read my above sentence?  He interviews librarians...about what they are doing. If you read this blog, you are almost definitely someone who would find that interesting.

Second, as much as librarians love to share, it is very easy for us to get caught up in our own little world.  Even I get that way.  I often think, why should I care what the youth librarians are doing; I don’t work with the little kids.  Or, who cares what a special librarian at a corporation is doing, I work with the public.  But this thinking is wrong!  All librarians have things we can learn from each other.  We have enough obstacles against us in the wider world [bad pay, bad stereotypes, etc...], we don’t need to turn against each other too.  I love that Steve goes out of his way to interview librarians from all areas of the profession even though he works in a public library himself.  Take the most recent episode [which I just listened to as I took a short writing break to do some laundry], where he interviews Elizabeth Keathley, author of Digital Asset Management: Content Architectures, Project Management, and Creating Order out of Media Chaos. I never really thought about DAMS before, but Elizabeth got me thinking about the entire issue and how and why it is relevant to me. Go listen for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Third, Circulating Ideas is a great example of how librarians can work together to market ourselves and our relevance to the larger world.  We are not just there to provide reference and suggest books.  We all do so much else.  Reminding us, and the wider world, of our ubiquity and importance to all is one of the best things about Circulating Ideas.

Finally, I convinced Steve to bring the magic of Circulating Ideas to the ILA Annual Conference in Springfield, IL this October.  He will presenting 2 programs.  One on running a successful Kickstarter   and another on the basics of podcasting for librarians.  Click here and search by Steve’s last name, “Thomas,” to pull up the details.

You can access Circulating Ideas on the website, on Twitter, or subscribe through iTunes [which is what I do].

Okay, back to work for me, or I will be working all weekend.

The horror is waiting..................