joan frye williams

In this episode of Thinking Out Loud, George & Joan talk with Fred Baerkircher, Adult Public Services Manager at Twinsburg Public Library
in Ohio. Fred spearheaded an ambitious gaming program for his library and he did it on a shoestring! Find out all about it in this podcast. Be warned: it may make you want to start a gaming program at YOUR library!

There's no denying that changes in technology, information availability, and the deference paid (or not!) to experts have changed the face of reference forever. That's a good thing!

We had a lively webinar today with George Needham and Joan Frye Williams doing a two-hour presentation on "Resurrecting Reference." If you missed the live event, the archive is available.
The text chat had lots of really good information and discussion, so I thought I'd extract some of the links for folks who may have missed them as they whizzed by.

Update (08-06-08): Yikes! The last part of this podcast was cut off (editor's blunder, mea culpa!). The link is now to a full and complete version.

When I’m deeply immersed in creative writing, I love having the opportunity to attend or watch one of novelist-essayist Anne Lamott’s presentations or interviews; it’s a bit like going to church—being calmed and having my faith in the creative process reaffirmed.

In this episode of Thinking Out Loud, George and Joan and their guest Jennifer Baker take a hard look at what libraries count, how they do it, why they do it, and ask whether the info we gather is accomplishing what it should.

In this latest edition of Thinking Out Loud, our intrepid pundits explore issues raised by Barbara Fister in her April 15, 2008 article in Library Journal entitled, What If You Ran Your Bookstore Like a Library? Key thoughts they examine: The erosion of distinctions between enterprises; How can libraries approach some of the issues affecting bookstores these days?

In their latest podcast, George and Joan take a look at the future and they see a lot of good stuff happening! What they're talking about:

In their latest podcast of Thinking Out Loud, George Needham & Joan Frye Williams take a look at the Public Library Association's 2008 conference (it was paperless, so as G&J point out, it is a very rich website!).