Infoblog

Archive for the ‘George and Joan Podcasts’ Category

In this edition of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan share their thoughts about some of the discussions they participated in during ALA Midwinter in Boston. One of the big topics of conversation: alternative revenue streams for libraries. Some of the ideas discussed: ways you can generate income from your excess space, change out how you do book sales, participating in local green initiatives, alternative ways to pay fines, mobile giving (also known as mobile donating), and off-hours parking. Lots of food for thought, so give it a listen!

In this year’s end (or year’s beginning) podcast, George and Joan contemplate how the top ten New Year’s resolutions can be applied to libraries. Among their ideas: spend more time this coming year being more customer-focused or try something new (a new service, a new technology). Do you have other ideas for resolutions? Let’s hear them!

Happy New Year!

In this special edition of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan offer up “A Visit to the Library,” with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore.

On behalf of George and Joan, and all the folks at Infopeople we wish you and yours a safe, healthy and happy holiday season!

In this edition of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan take a look at best practices. George read an article in the Harvard Business Review’s free e-mail newsletter that got him thinking about the wisdom of always thinking best practices are, in fact, the best practices. In the library world there is often an assumption that if it’s a best practice, then it should be adopted – or alternatively that even if you have a great idea, it shouldn’t be implemented until it’s an accepted best practice. They discuss these ideas and more in this intriguing podcast.

In this podcast George and Joan talk about the concept of place – not just library as place, but the very basic idea of locality and how we develop a sense of community – and of course, how it ties into libraries. This conversation was prompted by their experience at the Eureka! Leadership Institute where they had the opportunity to hear a talk by Richard Rodriguez.

In this podcast, George and Joan talk live from Nashville where they’re attending a library consultants conference. The conference prompted them to start wondering how libraries approach training in hard times. When budgets get cut, how do you stay current and up-to-date? They ask lots of thought-provoking questions.

In this edition of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan discuss how the little details of customer service can make all the difference. George kicks it off talking about Best Buy’s Geek Squad and an experience his co-worker Andy Havens (the voice of the narrator in George and Joan’s Library Carol podcast) related to him recently. Joan has stories to tell about recent expeditions to IKEA and the California DMV and what went right and what went wrong. Are there lessons in their tales for libraries? Absolutely!

In this edition of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan continue the conversation about Taiga Forum that they started in their last podcast. This time around they focus on the Forum statements that look at what the library as an institution may be like in the future. And exactly how do you pronounce Taiga?

In this edition of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan talk about the Taiga Forum’s latest statements. The Taiga Forum is a group of academic librarians who meet once a year and create a series of “provocative statements” about libraries, the information environment and the possible future of the library world. As George and Joan point out, the Forum doesn’t make predictions – they weave plausible futures. Intriguing!

Barnes & Noble recently opened the (virtual) doors of their eBook Store. Is this new player a Kindle-killer? Is it a library-killer? It’s too soon to tell, but in their latest podcast, George & Joan do see implications for libraries. As Joan points out, the former conversation was about the container (the iPod, the Kindle, etc) – the B&N eBook Store makes it about the content, getting it fast however you want it. How can libraries cope? Listen and learn!