Starting a Circulating Board Game Collection: Things to Consider
There’s been a lot of buzz in the past few years about libraries starting or refreshing circulating board game collections for their patrons. (Check out a previous HLS post from […]
Self-checkout in Libraries: Why We’re Different than Retail
Recently a local for-profit business in my community declared on social media their upcoming addition of self-checkouts, to mixed feedback. The thoughts and concerns raised by community members had me […]
Low-demand High-need Collections, Programs and Services: Beyond the Numbers
I get it; at first glance of this post’s title, you may be thinking why would libraries cater to anything that is in low-demand? Our budgets only stretch so far, […]
The Power of Zines
I’ve discovered a new obsession lately: the zine. In this post, I will get into a brief history and examination of what zines are and how they pertain to libraries. […]
Shelved: Hopes and Expectations
It’s being described “like The Office, but in a Library”. Never have I been so excited for an upcoming TV series. Anthony Q. Farrell (who worked as a writer on […]
Just 15 Funny Library Tweets
Hi all. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting to the point in the semester where I’m rapidly running out of gas. I’m swamped with work and only have […]
Archives for the People: Notes from a Visit to Archives+
My library experience so far has been a battle of two passions – I love archives, and I could see myself spending the rest of my life holed up in […]
ALA’s Library History Round Table
When I went back to college to finish my bachelor’s degree as a prelude to going to library school, I had to pick a major. The first time around in […]
Passivity in Library School
Midway through my first quarter in library school, I sat in class with twenty or so of my classmates and potential future colleagues as they conducted a lively conversation about […]
Reading Recommendations for the Pandemic Summer
Hello, readers! I’ve been writing for Hack Library School for over a year now, and my biggest struggle has been thinking of new topics to write about each month. All […]
Playing Tourist in Libraries
If you read my last post, you know I went on a study abroad trip to the Netherlands with my MLIS program. I also traveled on my own for fun; […]
Studying Abroad as an MLIS Student
I just finished a study abroad program in the Netherlands with my school, the University of Washington. The course topic was innovation in the cultural heritage sector with both honors […]
3 Librarian Lessons Inspired by Grandma
I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves […]
MLIS Degree: Now What?
I did it! I got my MLIS! Now what?
Game On: Circulating Video Games at the Library
With the popularity of video games and more libraries circulating non-traditional materials, Burlingame Public Library experiments with offering a video game collection.
Resources Beyond the Library
I recently had the pleasure of writing a post about some topic modeling research I did for a Digital Humanities class I took last year for our fellow library blog […]
5 Inspiring Interviews to Make You Excited to Become a Librarian
When you’re in the thick of the semester with a mound of reading and assignments ahead of you, you sometimes need a little inspiration. Amidst a polarized political climate, school […]
What’s the IFLA Trend Report and Why You Should Care
As ubiquitous as the ALA was to me even before starting library school, the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) was something I only learned about through a […]
Beyond Sir and Ma’am: Gender Inclusive Libraries
Take a look at your library. What works in the collection are from LGBTQ+ authors? Are the public restrooms gender-inclusive? Is gender a category on your library card application, and if so, are there options beyond M/F?
These are just a handful of the gender diversity issues for libraries that we explored in a recent gender diversity training for public library staff.
The Knockoff: Perspectives Beyond Library World
Summer breaks from library school are made for trying to recharge from a busy school year and enjoy non-library-related fiction. But a library-minded student cannot help but find the connections […]
Human Library: Forming Community one “Book” at a Time
In September, the Human Library Champaign-Urbana had it’s inaugural event! Here are the experiences of the event and how it relates to libraries written by two of HLS’ writers. Nisha […]
What’s Mine is Yours: A Love Letter to Interlibrary Loan
When I started working in interlibrary loan two years ago, my experience with the system was limited to getting one book on vintage hairstyles through my public library and frantically […]
Libri Prohibiti: Library of Banned Books
Many readers and contributors of the Hack Library School blog are passionate about librarianship and committed to providing enriching and rewarding experiences to their patrons. Those of us in the […]
History of LIS Education
When we talk about LIS education, we’re talking about providing education for a professional career in libraries, with all the traits the word ‘profession’ implies: professionalism, prolonged training, and formal education. This […]
Grounding Academic Librarianship and Elitism
Less than four months into my MLIS, I have already become immersed in the library world within academia. Not only do I wish to be an academic librarian after I […]
HLS Holiday Gift Guide 2015
We haven’t featured a librarian gift guide since 2013, so I figured it was high time to give some updated ideas for great gifts for your friends, coworkers, and of […]
Reaching out to politicians about LIS issues
I’m sure many of you saw the distressing news last week: the budget resolution for 2016 released by the U.S. House Budget Committee and then passed by the House of […]
Cuts to Higher Education: Consequences for Libraries and Future Librarians
Today I’m going to scale back a little bit to talk about graduate school more generally, and some events that have been affecting my own university in particular. These last few weeks have been tough for my school, UW-Milwaukee, as the governor of Wisconsin has announced that his proposed budget […]
Designing Library Spaces
A review of The New Downtown Library: Designing With Communities. The book covers a lot of ground and leaves many loose ends, making it an excellent candidate for a teaching text in a studio course on library architecture.
Finding Ways to Learn On The Cheap
With another fall semester looming, I wanted to take some time to advocate for a few easy-access, low-cost ways to do some self-directed learning. As exciting as our LIS classes, practicums, and internships can be it is easy to forget that our grad student status grants us access to a variety […]
The Power of Story
Stories are everywhere: on our shelves, on our screens, and in our conversations. They compose the shows we stream and the ads we tolerate, the news we read and the news we share. As Jonathan Safran Foer wrote, “We live in a world made up more of story than stuff.” […]
Hack Your Image of Libraries as Place
Last semester, members of my ALA Student Chapter joined a public tour of the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s an extraordinary facility with a growing list of accolades, including the 2014 Stanford Prize for Innovation in Research Libraries. I was […]
Library Buildings
This semester I’m taking a class on library buildings. “Library buildings? Is that a class?” you ask? Indeed it is! Taught by Fred Schlipf, an LIS professor, library buildings consultant, and former public library director, the course is an introduction to the physical spaces that LIS institutions occupy. One of the […]
Top 8 Reasons to go to an International Library Conference
I recently traveled to Barcelona, Spain for BOBCATSSS, a library conference organized by European library science students. Upon returning I realized that many of my peers were unaware of the variety of international library conference opportunities that students can take advantage of. As LIS students, we are frequently encouraged to […]
Creating and Curating Your Digital Professional Learning Network
Hello, hackers! Do you have a digital PLN? If not, this post will explain the concept and share some tips for success. I discovered the concept of the digital PLN (a web-based personal or professional learning network) through an information literacy instruction class I took in Fall 2013. One of […]
Service Learning: Friend or Foe?
One of my courses this semester (Community Informatics) required a sizable amount of “service learning” (for those who don’t know, service learning is basically community service/volunteering activities that are incorporated into a course). When I mentioned the extensive, unpaid time commitment that the service learning represented to a friend of […]
When You Need a Little Inspiration
I have a confession: I don’t always love library school. I know I want to be a librarian, and library school is helping me to achieve that, but the fact is, it isn’t always rainbows and smiles. Sometimes you have to take classes you don’t enjoy, do assignments that don’t […]
Staying Current on Library World News
In part, what it means to be a library professional is staying current with developments in the field of librarianship at large and not just focusing on your specific job duties at your institution. While you are in library school, this task is often easier because your classes encourage you […]
ALA Student to Staff Program
This weekend I’ll be travelling to Chicago and attending ALA Annual as part of the Student to Staff (S2S) program. S2S is an opportunity provided by ALA wherein individual student representatives from 40 of the ALA-accredited library schools are selected by their institutions and then sent to ALA Annual. S2S provides […]
Start reading job ads now
One piece of advice that multiple people gave me around the time I started library school is: it is never too early to start reading library job ads (especially if you’ve already started library school). Of course the library hiring process is not so lengthy that you need to start actually […]
Questionable Promotion/Advocacy
I recently received an ALA Store catalog in the mail and was happily flipping through the pages, considering whether or not I should order my own supply of Love My Library buttons, when I stumbled across this t-shirt: It has pictures of endangered animals (a giant panda, a mountain gorilla, a […]
Presenting Your Best Self
Library school is full of presentations. Whether it’s a short, informal talk or a long, detailed speech, I’ve had to give some kind of presentation for almost every library school class I’ve taken. Partly just a given in academia, frequent presentations will also be a reality for many of us in our […]
[Series] So What Do You Do? My Practicum Experience at a Small Academic Archive
This post is part of a new series called “So What Do You Do?” in which LIS students talk about their experiences as interns. We want to showcase the wide range of things people are doing in the world of library and information science. Tell us a bit about yourself. […]
Digitizing Our Stories: Why Narrative Matters Most in Libraries
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Kelly Minta. The concept of librarians creating content and using grassroots promotional techniques to present libraries to the public isn’t a new idea, but it is happening in more innovative ways today. The creation of content, whether on interactive user-generated sites or […]
Wikipedia, Libraries and the GLAM Project
How often do you use Wikipedia? If you’re anything like me, probably a lot! I’ve been interested in exploring the relationship between libraries and what I’m pretty sure it’s the only encyclopedia I’ve ever used for a long time (giant physical copies were already on their way out by the […]
Introducing EveryLibrary!
Recently, library-land has been buzzing about the soft launch of EveryLibrary, a non-partisan , national organization dedicated to helping libraries at the ballot box. As we move towards election time, I’m sure we’re all reading about what measures and initiatives we’ll be voting for and against (because we’re all responsible […]
Pinning for the Patrons
A few months ago a co-worker introduced me to Pinterest with the disclaimer that I would waste massive amounts of time on the platform once engaged. And they were right. I’ve spent a great deal of time collecting recipes I’ll never cook, outfits I’ll never buy and ideas to repurpose […]
HackLibSchool on Occupy Wall Street: Part II
A few weeks ago we wrote about how libraries fit into the Occupy Wall Street movement. In the comments there was a discussion of emergency plans so I wanted to write a bit of an update on what has happened with the Audre Lorde to Howard Zinn (A-Z) Library at Occupy […]
HackLibSchool on Occupy Wall Street: How Do Libraries Fit In?
“I learned that the most important thing about teaching is not what you do in the classroom but what you do outside the classroom. You go outside the classroom yourself, bring your students outside, or have them bring you outside the classroom, because very often they do it first and […]
iPads, and Kindles, and nooks! Oh, My!
There has always been a hesitation to fully embrace the new. This existed when the codex,or books, with pages that you turn, took the place of scrolls that you roll, as illustrated by this hilarious video. Next, came the invention of movable type, in particular Gutenberg’s printing press. That was […]
Banned Books Week: A Discussion on Intellectual Freedom for Kids
In honor of Banned and Challenged Books Week, Britt and Rebecca want to discuss the assumptions, implications, and consequences of challenging and banning books in public and school libraries, particularly for youth. We think that library school is the best time to explore these topics so you can develop intellectual […]
The Elevator Speech
As soon as you start library school (or maybe before) people will ask you— “Why?” Besides asking why you specifically are going to grad school to get your MLS they will ask questions like: “Why does a librarian need a master’s degree to check out books to people?” or “Why […]
Book Review: No Shelf Required
Polanka, Su, ed. No Shelf Required: E-Books in Libraries. American Library Association, 2011. I have to be up front with you guys: I don’t have a Kindle. I’m certainly not a luddite and I’ve spent most of my life around computers. I remember first getting dial-up AOL at my house […]
Rumble in the Stacks: The Technical and User Services Divide & its Future in Libraries
Lauren Bradley is in her final semester at the Pratt School of Information & Library Science in Manhattan. She works part-time at the Leo Baeck Institute and part-time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She enjoys costume librarianship, database searching, and government documents. Although her experience is exclusively in technical […]
From Print to Digital- the Future of the Book
“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” -Walter Benjamin I work with digital collections and part of what I do at my job is digitize […]
Language in the Stacks
Welcome and thank you to another guest blogger, Zachary Frazier. Zachary Frazier is in his second term with the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information. His focus is Academic Libraries. He’s originally from Seattle and now lives in Columbia, SC. Don’t tell the King County Library System […]
The Name Game
{I originally posted this thought on my blog, but I began conversation with several readers through email and Twitter after it was posted. I hope that you’ll continue to share your thoughts by commenting, too.} When I began my MLIS education, I took a class about Information Behavior. The behavior […]
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