Friday 30 March 2018

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Apr 2 2018 - 8:30pm ET

TOPIC

Career regrets and how to avoid them


Regrets suck, so let's talk about career regrets and some strategies for avoiding them, or dealing with them after the fact. This week's chat is inspired by Ms Career Girl's How to avoid the 5 biggest career regrets article. And here are a few other articles on the topic:

Coping with Career Regret by Priscilla Claman over at Life Hacker
5 Common Career Regrets To Avoid by Glenn Llopis at Forbes
Why We Have Career Regrets, And What To Do About Them by Caroline Beaton on HuffPost


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. The next book club session will be running next Monday, March 23, at 8:30 pm 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 found yourself having a regret in your LIS career? If so, share that with us if you don't mind.

Q2 Did you overcome that regret? If so, how? What strategies and tools did you use? If not, why don't you think you did?

Q3 What are your suggestions to people for avoiding regrets in their LIS careers?

Q4 What do you think some of the biggest dangers for regret are in the LIS industry?


PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 8:30 PM ET NEXT MONDAY, APRIL 2 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

Monday 19 March 2018

LISProchat Reads the #LISprochat #BookClub - APRIL, JUNE & AUGUST book picks!

LISprochat book club header
book image via Dave Dugdale

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!


April 2018 Book Selection




The chat will take place on Monday, April 30, 2018, at 8:30 pm. In recognition of the annual Creative Commons Global Summit on April 13-14, and World Book and Copyright Day on April 23, I thought I'd pick a relevant book.

Title: The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz
Editor/Author: Aaron Swartz
Publisher: New Press
Date Published: 2016
No. of Pages: 359
Synopsis via Goodreads:

In his too-short life, Aaron Swartz reshaped the Internet, questioned our assumptions about intellectual property, and touched all of us in ways that we may not even realize. His tragic suicide in 2013 at the age of twenty-six after being aggressively prosecuted for copyright infringement shocked the nation and the world.

Here for the first time in print is revealed the quintessential Aaron Swartz: besides being a technical genius and a passionate activist, he was also an insightful, compelling, and cutting essayist. With a technical understanding of the Internet and of intellectual property law surpassing that of many seasoned professionals, he wrote thoughtfully and humorously about intellectual property, copyright, and the architecture of the Internet. He wrote as well about unexpected topics such as pop culture, politics both electoral and idealistic, dieting, and lifehacking. Including three in-depth and previously unpublished essays about education, governance, and cities, The Boy Who Could Change the World contains the life’s work of one of the most original minds of our time.

June 2018 Book Selection




The chat will take place on Monday, June 25, 2018, at 8:30 pm. During our chat on Leadership back in February it was suggested that we might like to read a book on leadership in libraries for LISprochat Reads, so we will!

Title: "Leading from the Middle," and Other Contrarian Essays on Library Leadership
Editor/Author: John Lubans Jr.
Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
Date Published: 2010
No. of Pages: 298
Synopsis via Goodreads:

In "Leading from the Middle," and Other Contrarian Essays on Library Leadership, John Lubans, Jr., argues for democratic library organizations with shared leadership and decision making by leaders and followers. His book distills 15 years worth of leadership essays to advance a theory of a collaborative and empowering leadership, touching on such subjects as teamwork, empowerment, "followership," challenges, values, coaching, self-management, collaboration, communication, and techniques and tools.

Lubans's 36 essays draw new and insightful perspectives on leadership from disparate realms: travel, sports, music, retail businesses, and airlines. All of the essays have been edited and revised for this book and many have been extensively updated with new material and epilogues. The essays flow from the author's experience as a manager/leader, his teaching of the topic, and his research into and experimentation with organizational leadership. Insights and suggestions are tempered by a candid reflection on successes achieved and mistakes made.

August 2018 Book Selection




The chat will take place on Monday, August 27, 2018, at 8:30 pm. June marks the start of Summer Reading in a lot of libraries, so I thought we'd look at a book that could apply to that AND help us all broaden our own reading horizons.

Title: The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Blends
Editor/Author: Megan M. McArdle
Publisher: Editions
Date Published: 2014
No. of Pages: 209
Synopsis via Goodreads:

Genre fiction has always been a complex mixture of themes and elements. The increasing popularity of genre blends, or fiction that straddles the traditional labels, means greater pleasure for readers but a greater challenge for readers' advisory. In this informative and entertaining book McArdle gets library staff up to speed on these engaging titles, showing how such crossover fiction appeals to fanbases of multiple genres. Complete with booklists, summaries, read-alikes, and thorough indexes, this guide *Covers suspense, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, and science fiction, as well as non-genre titles that don't neatly fit into any categories *Offers guidance for shelving, displaying, and marketing genre blends *Shows how to make the most of online discovery tools in cataloging these titles *Includes Blend MVPs, a section of spotlighting several popular authors who regularly move between genres, and a useful bibliography of additional resources Providing a unique look at how common genres are often combined, this guide will open up new worlds of fiction to readers' advisors and those whom they serve. 

Friday 16 March 2018

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Mar 19 2018 - 8:30pm ET

TOPIC

MLIS vs. Non-MLIS, the debate over the ALA ED and beyond in Library Leadership


Since everyone in LibraryLand is currently talking about the issue of whether or not an MLIS should be required for the ALA Executive Director position, we thought now would be a great time to have a chat about that, and about the MLIS vs. no MLIS within library leadership in general. Here are a couple of sources to get up to speed on the debate about the Executive Director:

Publishers Weekly's "Who should lead ALA?"
Hedgehog Librarian's "My hopes for a new ALA Executive Director"
The Facebook Group "ALA Executive Director Search Restore the MLIS Petition"


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. The next book club session will be running next Monday, March 26, at 8:30 pm 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 think it is necessary to have an MLIS to be able to work and lead in libraries? Why or why not?

Q2 Where are you with the MLIS vs. Non-MLIS debate that has been going on with ALA  election and what are your thoughts?

Q3 Do you think leaders of library associations need to carry and MLIS, why or why not?

Q4 What sources are you turning to get versed on this topic MLIS vs. Non-MLIS?


PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 8:30 PM ET NEXT MONDAY, MARCH 19 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

Thursday 1 March 2018

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Mar 5 2018 - 8:30pm ET

TOPIC

LISprochat's anniversary & feedback chat!


#LISprochat has been #LISprochat for 2 years now, our 2nd anniversary was in February. In celebration of that, we wanted to have a special session of the chat.


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. The next book club session will be running next Monday, March 26, at 8:30 pm 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 In the last 2 years of LISprochat what was your favorite chat topic and why?

Q2 What do you like best about #LISprochat?

Q3 What do you think of the new #LISprochat reads?

Q4 What do we need to improve on with #LISprochat?

Q5 What chat topics would you like to see in the future? Or can you recommend a guest chatter or a book for #LISprochat reads?


PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 8:30 PM ET NEXT MONDAY, MARCH 5 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG.