My talk at TEDx

January 28th, 2010 Comments(0)

If you read It’s All Good, I apologize for the cross-posting, but I wanted to share this with LBC readers as well.

I have been shy about publishing this, but not for the reasons you might think. Last October I had the huge pleasure of speaking at TEDx Columbus, a local TED event organized by local folk. I was invited, at least one of the reasons, because I work at OCLC and they were interested in highlighting ideas and work from local organizations. This was my first time talking with a non-library audience about some of these ideas and I had a great time.

You can decide for yourself how you think it went - the whole 18 minutes are posted here. But the reason why I have been shy about showing it has less to do with the content of my actual speech and so I’ll just come clean…
I had this very cute little skirt and top to wear for my speech. When I arrived the day before, the organizers shared that I should not wear black. Seriously? I almost died. And so here I am on a TEDx video wearing boring pants and a sweater. (And now you know real the extent of my vanity!)

If you have a chance to review, I would love to have your feedback. This experience definitely drove home for me that we need to be out in the communities we serve talking about our work (and not just talking back and forth to each other). I hope to have more opportunities to talk to non-library audiences … this was such a good time. Note to self: always pack a cute color dress, just in case!

Welcome LIS 5937 - Libraries and Community Building

September 11th, 2009 Comments(23)

Welcome, Libraries and Community Building (LIS 5937) students from USF!

This is a special welcome to the students currently taking Kathleen de la Pena McCook’s course on community building and libraries. If you can believe it, Kathleen is using my book as her required text for the class, and this is such an honor for me because it is her book, A Place at the Table, that inspired me to pursue community building as library practice in the first place!

Kathleen has been in close communications as the class has started and then worked through the first few chapters of the text, and I’m just thrilled to have received some of the thoughtful comments that Kathleen has shared from her students. *Continuing* the dialog in our profession about community building was my primary ambition with this project, and I am so glad to see that happening in Kathleen’s class! Can I go so far as to say “mission accomplished”? I don’t think so. We need to keep the conversation going.

I would very much like to meet some of you (online or in person), and invite you to post questions, comments, or ideas on the blog here in the comments section, or send me an email to chrystie(at)itgirlconsulting(dot)com. I am thrilled to have you all engaged in the work and look forward to hearing from you.