Forty Years of Dr. Linda C. Smith – A Tribute to Her Living Legacy

The following was written to be included in a memory book offered to Dr. Linda C. Smith on the occasion of her 40th anniversary at the iSchool at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (formerly known as the Graduate School of Library and Information Science). She received her memory book at a recent faculty… Continue reading Forty Years of Dr. Linda C. Smith – A Tribute to Her Living Legacy

Spotlight on “Analog Gaming in Libraries”

ubiquity75 "I had an empty shelf when I started this class and now it's full of games." --student in #lis9371 Analog Games in Libraries @westernuFIMS 2/26/16, 3:50 PM This term, students in FIMS' Master's in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) program have the opportunity to participate in a new class I am teaching, offered as… Continue reading Spotlight on “Analog Gaming in Libraries”

Information Privacy and Libraries: Alison Macrina Visits FIMS

On Wednesday, February 3rd, FIMS welcomed Alison Macrina, of the Library Freedom Project, for an exciting and provocative afternoon of events focused on information and data privacy and library practice. Macrina, an MLIS-trained librarian, is a Knight Foundation grant recipient who devotes her time and energies to training librarians - and their patrons - in… Continue reading Information Privacy and Libraries: Alison Macrina Visits FIMS

Now available: New Publications on CCM; Google Glass, Race and Class; LIS, Diversity as Social Justice and Calls to Action;Digital Literacy

In the spirit of making academic work, so often cloistered in esoteric journals or inaccessible behind paywalls, accessible to all and in a timely fashion, I have begun the process of creating pre-production files of my upcoming publication. I have deposited these files in our open access institutional repository, Scholarship@Western. I intend to negotiate for… Continue reading Now available: New Publications on CCM; Google Glass, Race and Class; LIS, Diversity as Social Justice and Calls to Action;Digital Literacy

The Battle for Justice in Evanston? Abunimah Book Talk Back On at Evanston Public Library

Yesterday morning, after reading a tweet from Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada describing how his book talk at the Evanston Public Library on August 11th had been summarily cancelled, I drafted a letter to the EPL's director, Karen Danzcak Lyons. In it, I expressed my concerns about this cancellation, which appeared to be without… Continue reading The Battle for Justice in Evanston? Abunimah Book Talk Back On at Evanston Public Library

A Visit to Palestine

I'm back stateside after a remarkable 12-day trip in Palestine with a group of nine other incredible and amazing scholars. During that time, I visited five Palestinian universities, met numerous professors and students and administrators, went to several incredible research and cultural organizations, met with people in their homes, visited amazing holy sites such as… Continue reading A Visit to Palestine

FIMS CLA-SLA 2014 Conference: Humans of New Librarianship

Many, many thanks to those wonderful FIMS students who created and participated in the joint CLA-SLA conference today, Humans of New Librarianship. I greatly enjoyed presenting my talk, "Human Traces: Searching for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Digital System" to this group of engaged future leaders of the field. In this talk, I encouraged… Continue reading FIMS CLA-SLA 2014 Conference: Humans of New Librarianship

“Out of the Attic and into the Stacks: The Feminism in LIS Unconference” at UW-M – and Why We Desperately Need It

This Friday, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Information Studies (SOIS), along with co-conveners School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS), UW-Madison, and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will come together to present, "Out of the Attic and into the Stacks: Feminism in LIS,"… Continue reading “Out of the Attic and into the Stacks: The Feminism in LIS Unconference” at UW-M – and Why We Desperately Need It

The Wisconsin Uprising Archive and the Importance of Digital Media Curation in Resistance

The paradox of digital material is its ability to disappear: despite a potentially infinite lifetime and no degredation of quality as suffered over time by their analog media counterparts, digital objects are only as good as the ability to find them - to avoid, in essence, digital ephemerality.  These are themes that are not unfamiliar… Continue reading The Wisconsin Uprising Archive and the Importance of Digital Media Curation in Resistance