The Library Pros

In this installment, Chris speaks to Luna Westish, self published author of Meet Me at the Ruins to talk about the journey of self publishing. Luna discusses the process, marketing and even audiobook creation! She touches on the demise of Baker and Taylor, how to get your self published work in libraries and Hoopla!

Lisa Kropp, a friend of the podcast joined the podcast. Lisa has done so many things. She is a Library Journal Mover and Shaker. Director of Lindenhurst Memorial Library. Past New York Library Association president. Advisory Board member of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative. Her expertise in leadership and her knowledge of sustainability seems endless and she joined us to talk about all of these things and more.

The podcast returned again to the Long Island Library Resources Council’s Conference on Libraries and the Future. Everyone is talking about AI and change in our field and these next two guests are both on the cutting edge. Dr. Sanda Hirsh, Special Assistant to the Provost for AI Initiatives at San José State University and author of the book iLbrary 2035: Imagining the Next Generation of Libraries chats with Chris about artificial intelligence, how libraries can adapt and use it as an effective tool and about embracing change as a concept. After the break, Chris was joined by Dr. Rajesh Singh, professor at St. John’s University. Dr. Singh spoke about change, how AI is reshaping the profession and his optimistic outlook for the future!

Episode 120! In this episode we speak with Joseph Furnari, Trustee of the Mastics Moriches Shirley Community Library in Shirley New York. Joe speaks about inspiration, life as a Library Trustee, entrepreneurship and inspiration! Joe has many “oars in the water” and shares what his definition of “Community” is along with living in a family connected to libraries!

Madi Mullen from Libro.fm joins the podcast to talk about audiobooks for local bookstores! Libro.fm works with local bookstores to offer audiobooks.Madi talks about the passion behind the project, Libro.fm embraces the local bookstores and their supporters with providing those booksellers with a way to expand their offerings with audiobooks. She also talks about what it is like to be a “Social Purpose Corporation”. There is also a great discussion about artificial intelligence and how you still need people to curate collections because Algorithms Libro.fm also provides free audiobooks for librarians! The human touch is always best. Shout out to our local bookstore Tiny Raccoon Books in Sayville NY! LIBRO.FM National Library Week Program

This installment of the podcast features Kristen Gwinn-Becker from History IT. The fellas speak with Kristen about the love of history, how rare it is to find someone who is a “history nerd” and a “tech nerd” all rolled into one and passion for preservation. Digitization is so much more than documents and even 3D scanning doesn’t involve “scanning” (one of the dirtiest words in archiving). Kristen also talks about how she considers herself and people like her as “History Savers”! FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM LINKEDIN

In this installment, Chris speaks with Tim Ribaric from Brock Univeristy in Ontario. Tim talks about digital librarianship, whether he sleeps, what a “Computational Notebook” is along with working with Google Colab. We also talked about “spark”, bringing the abstract of ideas to life, the “Software Carpentry Organization“, python for libraries and a wonderful organization called Library Juice Academy. If you want to “geek out”, this is the episode for you!!

In this episode, Chris speaks with Katie Ester, Director of the Shelby Township Library in the suburban Detroit Michigan area along with Dennis Janer from Bluewater Technologies Group. Katie and Dennis talk to us about Shelby’s amazing transformation, what Bluewater is all about (and it is a very unique and creative company), and Magic Book, which is a collaborative product dreamed up by Katie and brought to live by Bluewater. Magic Book is a large digital display in the form of a book with a cover children can open. Describing it here will not do it justice. Look at the photos below and have a listen to this amazing story!

Want to laugh and learn at the same time? Then this is the episode for you. Megan Lotts, an Art Librarian at Rutgers talks and laughs about so many great things she is doing. She is a Maker, Author, Artist, Librarian and INNOVATOR!! We talk about the “spark”, the concept of “play”, unleashing the concept of play with colleagues and yes, Chris’ favorite concept of “Failing Forward”. You will love her story regarding adults getting along better after playing together! Chris also talks about how to keep the grind of the day and those who are not creative from brining you down at work. Check out her books!

On this installment, Chris and Bob speak with Beth Bayley from Karger Publishers. Beth joins us from Switzerland to talk about public access to information, Creative Commons Licensing, how librarians can assist in supporting open access, misconceptions about open access and the role artificial intelligence has in open access. Beth was such a good sport and she even shares her earliest memory of the library with an article featuring her in a photo!