#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Jan 8 2018 - 8:30pm ET

via geralt at Pixabay

TOPIC

Net Neutrality and Libraries

What a relevant topic right now, and not just in the US (thanks to the farcical efforts of Ajit Pai), but in Canada and Europe as well. Leigh has pulled together some great resources for the chat including a Verge article on what public libraries stand to lose without net neutrality; a piece from Hello Giggles which is also about net neutrality and public libraries; and a what do we do now article from the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE'VE CHANGED THE TIME TO 8:30PM ET!

While you're here please consider checking out our new feature for 2018: #LISPROCHAT Reads, our professional development book club.

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1 What are your thoughts on net neutrality in reference to libraries?

Q2 Are you getting any questions/comments from patrons about net neutrality, how are you handling?

Q3 What are you doing as a librarian to advocate on the issue of net neutrality?

Q4 What resources are out there/can be shared on the topic of libraries and net neutrality?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 8:30 PM ET NEXT MONDAY, JANUARY 8 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

LISProchat Reads the #LISprochat #BookClub - NEW FEATURE ALERT! - Starting January 2018!

book image via Dave Dugdale

As mentioned at the end of last night's chat, Leigh and I will be introducing a new feature starting with a trial run in January. We're hosting a book club! And you're all welcome to join us!

WHAT?

A book club! On Twitter! Where we read and discuss books to help us with our professional development in library land!

WHERE?

On Twitter, using the same hashtag we use for our chats! #LISprochat.

WHEN?

We'll announce the upcoming book in the last chat of the previous month and then have the discussion on the last Monday of the month regardless of whether it's a normal #LISprochat day or not.

WHY?

For a few reasons, Leigh and I thought it would be fun to have a book club. I mentioned that I was giving myself a new reading goal to try and read 1 professional book a month, and this is a good way for me to motivate myself to meet that goal through accountability!

January 2018 Book Selection

This will be our inaugural book and discussion, the chat will take place on Monday, January 29, 2018, at 8:30 pm.

Title: Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for LGBTQ Librarians
Editor/Author: Tracy Nectoux (Editor)

Publisher: Litwin Books, LLC

Date Published: 2010/1
No. of Pages: 294

WorldCat link: http://www.worldcat.org/title/out-behind-the-desk-workplace-issues-for-lgbtq-librarians/oclc/957634734?loc=

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for LGBTQ Librarians is an anthology of personal accounts by librarians and library workers relating experiences of being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or queer at work. A broad spectrum of orientations and gender identities are represented, highlighting a range of experiences of being and/or coming out at work.

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Dec 11 2017 - 8:30pm ET

via Jukka Pennanen

TOPIC

Library advocacy - what does that mean and what does it do?

I'm two weeks into a new volunteer role that I took on in the evenings when I get home from work. I volunteered to become the new Library Advocacy Researcher for the Harry Potter Alliance. So this topic is definitely informed by that new gig. I've been doing a lot of thinking about what library advocacy actually is, what library advocates do, and where to find any resources that exist for them. Especially outside of America, most of the advocacy efforts I see and hear about relate to American libraries and/or the ALA - EveryLibrary comes to mind immediately when I think of library advocacy for example. There's a great primer article from June of this year by Shannon Maughan on Publishers Weekly called Library Advocacy Efforts Gain Steam.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE'VE CHANGED THE TIME TO 8:30PM ET!

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1 What does library advocacy mean to you? What are some areas of library land we need to specifically advocate for?

Q2 What are your go-to resources for finding out information about library advocacy issues and activities?

Q3 Have you ever been directly involved in library advocacy? How? Where? What did you do?

Q4 What library advocacy communities if any are you a part of?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 8:30 PM ET NEXT MONDAY, DECEMBER 11 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Nov 27 2017 - 8:30pm ET - #GivingTuesday

via Penn State on Flickr

TOPIC

#GivingTuesday and Libraries & Literacy with a special guest chatter

Personally, I love the idea of Giving Tuesday (which is the day after the chat!). I'm a donator anyway, but I like to do it on Giving Tuesday because there's almost guaranteed to be a great matching program going on at one or all of the charities I choose. Leigh has invited #LISprochat regular Amanpreet Kaur (@akaur0) to be our guest chatter for this philanthropic topic to help promote the Community Outreach Initiatives she has been working on with SLA Philly.

Amanpreet is currently and newly the Community Health and Engineering Librarian at the University of Penn. She was the 2015 - 2017 Eugene Garfield Resident in Science Librarianship at the University of Penn as well. Aman (for short), has devoted the last stretch of her residency to Community Health Outreach and will be piloting an information prescription program to encourage credible health information seeking behaviors among patients in Sayre Health Center in West Philadelphia. This pilot program builds upon the existing health corners initiative, the Biomedical Library's partnership with the School of Nursing and the Free Library of Philadelphia. In addition, Aman serves as the 2017 Special Libraries Association (SLA) Philadelphia Chapter Community Outreach Committee Chair.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE'VE CHANGED THE TIME TO 8:30PM ET!

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1 What are you planning to do for #GivingTuesday? What have you done in the past?

Q2 What creative ideas do you have for #GivingTuesday? Please share!

Q3 What resources do you turn to when trying to locate a library related charity or non-profit to support?

Q4 What advice do you have for supporting charities/Non-Profits?

For this chat, please submit any questions that you have Aman to be asked during the chat as well as any topics regarding Supporting library and literacy-oriented organizations as well as other non-profit organizations you would like to see covered to LISprochat@gmail.com  Or feel free to ask your questions during the chat and share your ideas/experiences.

Also Aman created this awesome editable and shareable Google Doc of #GivingTuesday Suggestions, add some more ideas here!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WPPf9XdC0mN7LnoYoCEEQ0nuj_9rR2bg-I3cn7Vr2SA/edit

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 8:30 PM ET NEXT MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Nov 13 2017 - 8:30pm ET

via geralt at Pixabay

TOPIC

Overcommitting yourself on the job and in the library field and learning how to say NO

This is something both Leigh and I have had to learn the hard way, and I'm sure many of you have too. So let's chat about it and see if we can help others avoid this pitfall. Check out Diana Kander's Help Your Team Stop Overcommitting by Empowering Them to Say No article over at Harvard Business Review (if you've got any free views for the month left, or want to pay $8.95...oh HBR...) or Emily Ford's How do you say no? over at In the Library with the Lead Pipe (free!) for a few takes on this topic.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE'RE CHANGING THE TIME TO 8:30PM ET!

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1 Have you ever overcommitted yourself? Please share your experience.

Q2 What strategies do you take when deciding what to say yes or no to at work or in the field?

Q3 What resources do you turn to when dealing with overcommittment?

Q4 What advice do you have to share for those who deal with overcommittment and saying no on the job and/or in the field?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 8:30 PM ET NEXT MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Oct 30 2017 - 8:30pm ET

via Flickr by Alan Levine

TOPIC

Imposter Syndrome in the Library Industry

It's a popular frequently written on topic that I am sure we have all heard of, and may even all of us have experienced at this point as well. I am talking about imposter syndrome. We see and hear about it more and more often lately. So that's the topic of the upcoming #LISProchat. Our main inspiration article is Jumping into the Deep: Imposter Syndrome, Defining Success, and the New Librarian by Sajni Lacey in Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research.

I've also compiled another list of relatively recent articles on the topic:

1. Impostor Phenomenon and Graduate Students from the University of Waterloo
2. The Five Types Of Impostor Syndrome And How To Beat Them by Melanie Wilding at The Muse
3. Is impostor syndrome holding you back at work? by Marilisa Racco at Global News
4. 19 People With Impostor Syndrome Told Us What It Feels Like by Kelly Oakes at BuzzFeed
5. Breaking out of the imposter syndrome mentality by Emily Waitson in The Cord (the student Newspaper at the University where I work)

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE'RE CHANGING THE TIME TO 8:30PM ET!

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1 Tell us about a time when you experienced imposter syndrome.

Q2 What external triggers do you think cause imposter syndrome? How about internal triggers?

Q3 How do you personally deal with overcoming your bouts of imposter syndrome?

Q4 What are your go-to resources for information and support related to overcoming imposter syndrome?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 8:30 PM ET NEXT MONDAY, OCTOBER 30 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Oct 16 2017 - 8:30pm ET

via IDEO

TOPIC

Neutrality and the Library Industry

In the wake of everything that's happening in the US under the 45th President neutrality is a hot topic right now. I feel like this is especially true in the Library industry. David Lee King does a really good job of discussing the issue in his article Ugly Beliefs, Free Speech, and Libraries. I think the best part of the article is the quote from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

“Protecting free speech is not something we do because we agree with all of the speech that gets protected. We do it because we believe that no one—not the government and not private commercial enterprises—should decide who gets to speak and who doesn’t.”

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE'RE CHANGING THE TIME TO 8:30PM ET!

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1 Do you agree that libraries should be completely neutral as per the library bill of rights? How are we doing with that?

Q2 Do you ever have trouble keeping your personal biases out of your professional decisions? How do you handle that?

Q3 How do you handle promoting and supporting materials/questions that make you feel morally uneasy?

Q4 What ideas/thoughts do you have about how we as a whole can do better at keeping our libraries neutral?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 8:30 PM ET NEXT MONDAY, OCTOBER 16 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG.