Hello (and excuse the verbosity, those who know me won't be surprised
though!)
For the past few days I have been putting together some case studies for a
book I am writing on Web 2.0 and public library implementation, while keeping
an eye on the various conversations taking place on the list. What provoked
me to respond was the combination of ‘public libraries’ and ‘future’. I have
been around the public library partnership water cooler long enough (first with
a national and then a regional partnership--hence the email address) to have
heard that phrase over and over (got a t-shirt somewhere around here...).
Although my connection with public libraries at the moment is mostly through
the conversations I have been having with UK and US librarians about Web
2.0, I feel emboldened enough to make a plea, based on these conversations
and my own experience, from the perspective of ‘public libraries past’
and ‘public libraries present’. It goes something like this:
To the powers that be: when you are making your dispositions based on what
ever review going at the moment, give a thought to the core, brave,
tenacious band of libraries up and down Britain who have been waving the flag
for national, collaborative online services, not just within the past year, not
just within the past 5 years, but for over 10 years. Please look at them, not
just for what they are offering now, but for the platform they can provide for
the next generation of services, you know, like in the future.
Specifically, look at Stories from the Web
(http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org/), a service combining reading, reading
clubs, and online activities, operating since 1996, steadily adding new
technologies all the while self-sustaining. Or, People’s Network Enquire
(http://www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/), also self-sustaining, whose legacy
stretches back to 1997 when it began life as a web form service, Ask A
Librarian, now including chat based technology which supports homework help,
speak to the author, and speak to the chief exec sessions.
These services have raised the national brand, the national identity of UK
librarians, at times when national collaboration was not the in thing, and when
other concerns, perhaps better at promotion, were grabbing the big grants.
Participation has expanded and contracted based on budgeting uncertainties
as well as periodic lack of champions.
But don’t take my word for it: “Books are definitely not doomed. I don't
know a single person who has never read a book and enjoyed it. Just because
the internet has taken over the adult world doesn't mean it will affect ours.
We, as kids, can live in the present while thinking of the future and reading
about the past, it makes life so much more interesting. Also, reading gives
people a chance to dream, to imagine themselves being somebody who they
are not, in some world other than our own. It allows the imagination to stay
intact even as you grow older. I don't think anybody would be wanting to give
up on readig (sic) and on books any time soon because they are too important
to our culture and to education, logic and most importantly to having fun.”
(From Stories from the Web, and there are plenty such quotes there).
A service that can elicit something like this pertaining to the two public library
headline grabbers of the moment, kids and books, deserves to be a best
practice model for how to combine the new and traditional to transform public
libraries.
Linda Berube
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