I’m excited to join my friend and colleague, Claudia Șerbănuță for the first in a series of engaging discussions on “Libraries in a democratic ecosystem” hosted by Acesso Cultura. As the website explains (also below):Online debates5, 12, 19 May (Tuesdays) and 25 May (Monday)7-9pm CETThe debates will be held in English. They will not be…
Future of Libraries
Embracing LIS Values in Digital Equity Initiatives
Hosted by the University of Washington Information School, the LIS Forward initiative funded by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) sought to respond to the following urgent question: As the field of library and information science (LIS) evolves “within the context of iSchools, how do we best position our…
#SaveIMLS: How the IMLS Shaped My Career and Why We Must Save The Agency
On Friday night, the President released yet another Executive Order, titled “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.” Section 1 of the order states that the following “elements” of our U.S. government are “unnecessary” and orders that the “head of each government entity” in the list below has 7 days to submit a report to…
Missing Pieces: How the FCC’s Broadband Map Misrepresents Public Libraries
Back in December, I responded to an open invitation from John Windhausen, Executive Director of the Schools, Health, & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, during the monthly SHLB Coalition member policy call, to take a closer look at how the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Broadband Map represents community anchor institutions (CAIs). I thought this would be a…
New Article in Information Technology and Libraries
My colleagues, Chris Ritzo, Jie Jiang, and I have a new article, titled “Measuring Library Broadband Networks to Address Knowledge Gaps and Data Caps” that was just published in the journal, Information Technology and Libraries. The journal is part of the American Library Association’s Core: Leadership, Infrastructures, Futures division. Here is the abstract for the paper…
MLBN Explainer Video
Here is a fantastic video, produced by Carson and Jessikha Block, that provides an overview of our Measuring Library Broadband Networks (MLBN) project. It’s a wonderful description of our research, which is funded by a two-year grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (award #LG-71-18-0110-18). to learn more about our research, please…
Investigating Rural Library Hotspot Lending Programs
I am excited to announce that my colleagues, Dr. Sharon Strover (University of Texas at Austin), Dr. Brian Whitacre (Oklahoma State University) and I received a $496,586 grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services for our research project, titled “At the Edges of the National Digital Platform: Rural Library Hotspot Lending Programs.”…
Beyond Library Walls
I’m excited to announce that Chris Ritzo and I have submitted a proposal to the Knight News Challenge, which is focused on the following question “How might we leverage libraries as platform to build more knowledgeable communities?” Please read our proposal, entitled Beyond Library Walls introduced below and, if you like it, consider applauding the…