Lassen College

Lassen’s new director John Taylor introduces himself to the CCL community with the following: I received my MLS in 1981 and have since been either a librarian or a vendor of technology to libraries (with a few years spent otherwise). I have always supported the cause of education and research as a tool for personal and social transformation, as it has been such for me. In my last position I was the branch manager for John F. Kennedy University’s campus in Berkeley CA. JFKU is a small private graduate institution, recently acquired by National University. At JFKU Berkeley Campus, I was responsible for all aspects of library services, instructional support technology and the computer labs. During my years there I worked with the faculty to improve research specifically with the Museum Studies graduate students and increased their publication rates prior to graduation. My staff and I found a way to provide free wi-fi and wi-fi printing to all students.  I worked with a small team to build a campus web site which served the faculty and students to know what resources were available to them, and an automated system for booking resources using Google Apps for Education. Our project was successful enough that a full time position was created to extend the Google Apps for Education tools and services to faculty on all three campuses. In addition to a significant history with vendor provided technology, I have a high interest in what free and open source technology can do for libraries and education.  I am excited to be a part of Lassen College because of it’s small size and big heart. I look forward to working with the students at Lassen College to improve their research experience, and increase their ability to evaluate research sources for bias and quality of information, and to support higher graduation and transfer rates.