This post is down thread of the "a simple message that encapsulates the complexity and value of the universal library offering to society" thread.
Sue Charteris, cilip Library & Information Update, June 2010, on advocacy:
"We need a way of describing what the library does that isn't so hearts and flowers. That's yesterday - it's nice, but not affordable, nice but non-essential."
To illustrate SC's point and to take as an example in a recent article the president of New York public library talks about "an era when information itself is not only the foundation of our democracy but that of our economy itself" but also "seniors who have never touched a keyboard to young entrepreneurs launching a new eBusiness strategy" (http://huff.to/9lXFdi ). As SC points out our librarians can talk about democracy and the economy and seniors and entrepreneurs but this is so much 'hearts and flowers'.
I think what libraries need to do at this point is join the dots between those seniors and entrepreneurs and grandiose statements about democracy and the economy and all the other high level values that we intuitively feel of the libraries. Map out the step by step value chain from the senior learning the Internet in the library through the practical day-to-day value to the high level values of our society. What is the practical value to the individual, through to exactly how a senior learning to use the Internet in a library lead to a more democratic society, to a wealthier society, etc. etc. What is the series of events between the two, what leads to what, arriving at the higher value. This I think would maybe give the libraries the "knock-down argument" (Dodgson) they need - in the times we are currently in, but also to argue their case for new projects in the future.
Every time a library assistant helps someone at a counter we can illustrate the value chain. Maybe people from outside the librarian discipline and other fields could as well be enrolled for their knowledge of our values as humans. Showing exactly how the library adds to peoples' lives and society and our civilisation.
(It would also illustrate to people how to use the library and what they can expect from the libraries, the same knowledge in turn being used by library staff towards a deeper understanding of their jobs - a more valuable libary should follow.)
"resources that ... help build our potential as human beings" http://bit.ly/dig5Rh
"Closing libraries would be 'a terrible, terrible mistake' akin to 'stealing from the future'" http://bit.ly/coD8TJ
What is the detail of the reasoning behind these statements?
"Books, reading, libraries come second to only a couple of human activities in necessity, interest and time consumption"
http://bit.ly/bCvq4D
What research could be cited to back this and the previous two statement up?
If someone is ill and a hospital cures them, this is of clear value to the public (and their servants), the libraries are of equally tangible value, but libraries I think could maybe do some work to bring things down from a 'beliefs of Western Civilisation' and the goodness of libraries to a more practical level.
I think what the above quote ("Books, reading, libraries..") also illustrates is that a domain that encompasses the whole of humanity (which the library's does) is going to take a while to understand (if not a few centuaries ;)
Gareth Osler
Library Web
http://libraryweb.info
PS For anyone with some time (or maybe a PhD grant ;) there is quite a long list of references to articles illustrating library values and studies/research etc. on library value here... http://libraryweb.info/articledir.php#18 It's in reverse chrono. order so scroll to the end for the most recent.
PSS I'm not sure if this would be taken seriously or not but if I remember correctly Anthony Robbins outlines a process for prioritising values (http://amzn.to/9K0OOF ), based on asking what is important about a value; would it be useful for the high level values of the libraries to be listed and prioritised for particular authorities, communities etc. - the value of the library to the particular context. I am by no means an expert on values, but I would be curious to know what someone who was had to say on the subject :) (My own definition of values is something along the lines of similar to the values in a formula, but also something we do not always methodically calculate but feel, things that we deem important, they are a type of belief).
PSS Developing this latter point, while Elspeth Hyams calls for a "universal library offering", I would say maybe the libraries should make themselves understood on an individual basis, the value that the library is going to be given many possible values of a library and the context of the library (community, authority, etc), but rather like a mission statement should also state in detail exactly how that mission will be achieved, the library should join the dots and the expected sequence of events between the context of the library and the high level values of the library, and the patrons using the library on a day-to-day basis -- whose lives should be lifted by those values.
