Steven M. Cohen

Steven M. Cohen is senior librarian at Law Library Management, Inc.  He is the creator of Library Stuff (http://www.librarystuff.net/), a weblog dedicated to keeping current and professional development for librarians, which has been live since August, 2000. He has been the contributing editor of the Internet Spotlight column for Public Libraries magazine since 2001 and a columnist for Information Today magazine since 2006. He has spoken at numerous conferences and workshops in the United States and Canada on such topics as Weblogs, RSS, keeping current, search engines, social networking, and readers advisory. Cohen is also the co-manager of the Public Library Association weblog (http://www.plablog.org). Cohen was one of 55 recipients of Library Journal’s Movers and Shakers award in 2004 and is the author of the book Keeping Current: Advanced Internet Strategies to Meet Librarian and Patron Needs, published by ALA in 2003.  His undergraduate degree is from SUNY Stonybrook, holds an MA in Mental Health Counseling from Long Island University, and an MLS from Queens College. He lives in Smithtown, NY with his wife Barbie, daughter Hallie, and Ezra and EJ, their cats. 
 

Presentation:  Community Building and Health Librarianship: The Center of Care

Are you a librarian focused on building community, wherever you are?  Have you worked on a library program or service that was particularly successful with partners, patrons, or staff? Would you like to become an integral part of the community you serve? Steven Cohen is currently working with a colleague to uncover the many hundreds of ways librarians all over the county relate to and build communities (both online and off). Their goal is to break down the process of community building into a process we can all think about and reuse, and spur a community building outlook through which we can push everything we do in libraries. Steven will talk about this work and what he considers to be the key components of community building: Assessment, Communication, Service/Program Development, Evaluation, and Sustainability. To get more information on Steven's work, check out his blog, "Libraries Build Communities" at http://librariesbuildcommunities.org/