Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) Associate Professor R. David Lankes released his book “The Atlas of New Librarianship” at the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference on Thursday, March 31, 2011.
“The Atlas of New Librarianship” was jointly published by MIT Press and ACRL and is based on the idea that librarianship goes beyond the cataloging, books, building and committees. According to Lankes, librarianship should not be based on books and artifacts, but knowledge and learning. His ideas create a new mission for librarians: to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities.
“The Atlas is not a book; it is a manifesto, a set of principles and convictions aimed at shaking new life and belief into a field that too often fears for its own future,” said Andrew Dillon, Dean and Louis T. Yule Regents Professor of Information, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. “Read it and be prepared to act.”
Accompanying the book, Lankes also debuted an iPad app in the iTunes App store, also entitled “The Atlas of New Librarianship.”
“The app has a two-fold purpose,” Lankes said. “Not only do we want people to interact and see the latest blog posts, videos, and news about new librarianship, we want to show that libraries and librarians can build these apps.”
In addition to his role as associate professor, Lankes is the director of the Information Institute of Syracuse, a co-founder of the award-winning AskERIC project, and founder of Virtual Reference Desk project responsible for building a national network of education expertise. He is a passionate advocate for libraries and their essential role in today’s society, and seeks to understand how information approaches and technologies can be used to transform industries. In this capacity, he has served on advisory boards and study teams in the fields of libraries, telecommunications, education, and transportation, including at the National Academies. Lankes holds a BFA in multimedia designs, an MS in telecommunications and a Ph.D., all from Syracuse University.