Circulating Ideas

Steve chats with Allison Waukau, Native Community Liaison at Hennepin County Library, about her work connecting the library with the Native community, how libraries can better hire and retain Native staff, how publishing is (slowly) improving at telling authentic Native stories, and the importance of land acknowledgements. Read the transcript! Allison Waukau (Menominee/Navajo) resides in … Continue reading 223: Allison Waukau

Guest host Troy Swanson chats with Dr. Virginia Campbell, host of the Brain Science Podcast and author of Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty, about why she created and continues the podcast, the hidden layer of the brain, how cognition differs from knowing, and why science is not just a set of boring … Continue reading 222: Brain Science – Dr. Virginia Campbell

Steve chats with Marshall Breeding, longtime library technologist and writer of the annual Library Systems Report, about the history of library automation, putting together the data for the Library Systems Report, proprietary and open source ILS systems, and how vendors work well with each other (and sometimes don’t). Marshall Breeding is an independent consultant, speaker, … Continue reading 221: Library Systems Report 2022 – Marshall Breeding

Steve chats with researcher and writer Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson, and John Chrastka, Executive Director of EveryLibrary, about Dr. Magnusson’s Book Censorship Database and why EveryLibrary Institute wanted to support and promote it, the integrity of the book challenge process and how it’s often hijacked and corrupted, and why Steve and John will never get email … Continue reading 220: Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson

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