Well, I’m thrilled and humbled to announce that I’ve received a fellowship from the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I teach courses on Fund Development and Change Management via distance education for the Graduate Library and Information Sciences program (aka LEEP) for UIUC.
The purpose of this fellowship is to develop a new core course for the Community Informatics Corps. LIS 490/590: Civic Entrepreneurship and Public Institutions will prepare students to be civic innovators in libraries, other public institutions and community-based organizations. This course content will come primarily from the civic and social entrepreneurship literature and case studies of innovative and entrepreneurial librarians who are redefining the role of libraries in relation to the civic and social life of their communities. Students will gain a new understanding of how entrepreneurial public institutions can build the civic capacity needed to develop new approaches to public problems. Students will contribute to a new stream of research on civic entrepreneurship within the professions of the library, nonprofit, community-based, and public institutions, and civic-minded individuals.
In addition to the course, I will be publishing research and findings here on this blog and on the University and Texas Forums web site. I will also extend my work to the community at large through workshops, guest presentations, and conversations using the Texas Forums Online Room and other technologies. These events will be announced in the Texas Forums newsletter and the NIF News from the Net electronic notice so sign up if you are interested. You can also access the resources I am developing by checking out my del.icio.us page where I’ll bookmark web sites about civic entrepreneurship and track books I’m using in my research on my LibraryThing page.
You can get more details from the press release that the LBJ Library sent out and even more details from my full proposal.
Technorati Tags: citizen, LBJ Library, libraries, civic entrepreneurship, research, Taylor Willingham, Workshops Virtual
One reason, i say, we start a business, or one character trait of an entrepreneur, is to see what you are capable of. This applies to any entrepreneurial venue, business, civic and personal. We are (all) driven, and driven can be learned, … to improve, create, influence, win, have an impact, or at times just do what is right. Covey says leadership is influencing others to move forward in a positive way. I also believe the person who corrects a situation that is outside their responsibility is a leader, … both acting entrepreneurially, and perhaps civically.
Rick