When I was in library school back in the mid-1980s a group of us (including our Dean) spent endless hours discussing and debating the essence of librarianship...you know, the kind of discussions you have in grad school when you are with a bunch of bright, committed people hanging out in places like student lounges and local bars. I loved those discussions and the sense that we were talking about the very future of our profession...and the role that conversation and dialogue played in advancing ideas.
Today I got a little frisson of recognition when I came across posts on a number of library blogs talking about the just issued "Darien Statement on the Library and Librarians" - a manifesto of sorts that was written by John Blyberg of the Darien Public Library, Cindi Trainor of Eastern Kentucky University, and Kathryn Greenhill of Murdoch University in Western Australia in one of those frenzies of collaborative inspiration that can happen when like minds meet (in this case in person and then using an amazing array of virtual tools).
The manifesto itself is an astounding piece of work that reflects much of what has been bouncing around in my head for the past few years and addresses not just what libraries/librarians are but what we need to become...and just reading the posts on the process by Cindi and Kathryn about the process brought me back to those intense library school conversations. John, Cindi, and Kathryn put the Statement out there to stimulate more of just those kinds of conversations, so here it is!
The Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians
Written and endorsed by John Blyberg, Kathryn Greenhill, and Cindi Trainor
The Purpose of the Library
The purpose of the Library is to preserve the integrity of civilization.
The Library has a moral obligation to adhere to its purpose despite social, economic, environmental, or political influences. The purpose of the Library will never change.
The Library is infinite in its capacity to contain, connect and disseminate knowledge; librarians are human and ephemeral, therefore we must work together to ensure the Library’s permanence.
Individual libraries serve the mission of their parent institution or governing body, but the purpose of the Library overrides that mission when the two come into conflict.
Why we do things will not change, but how we do them will.
A clear understanding of the Library’s purpose, its role, and the role of librarians is essential to the preservation of the Library.
The Role of the Library
The Library:
- Provides the opportunity for personal enlightenment.
- Encourages the love of learning.
- Empowers people to fulfill their civic duty.
- Facilitates human connections.
- Preserves and provides materials.
- Expands capacity for creative expression.
- Inspires and perpetuates hope.
The Role of Librarians
Librarians:
- Are stewards of the Library.
- Connect people with accurate information.
- Assist people in the creation of their human and information networks.
- Select, organize and facilitate creation of content.
- Protect access to content and preserve freedom of information and expression.
- Anticipate, identify and meet the needs of the Library’s community.
The Preservation of the Library
Our methods need to rapidly change to address the profound impact of information technology on the nature of human connection and the transmission and consumption of knowledge.
If the Library is to fulfill its purpose in the future, librarians must commit to a culture of continuous operational change, accept risk and uncertainty as key properties of the profession, and uphold service to the user as our most valuable directive.
As librarians, we must:
- Promote openness, kindness, and transparency among libraries and users.
- Eliminate barriers to cooperation between the Library and any person, institution, or entity within or outside the Library.
- Choose wisely what to stop doing.
- Preserve and foster the connections between users and the Library.
- Harness distributed expertise to serve the needs of the local and global community.
- Help individuals to learn and to use new tools to create a more robust path to knowledge.
- Engage in activism on behalf of the Library if its integrity is externally threatened.
- Endorse procedures only if they guide librarians or users to excellence.
- Identify and implement the most humane and efficient methods, tools, standards and practices.
- Adopt technology that keeps data open and free, abandon technology that does not.
- Be willing and have the expertise to make frequent radical changes.
- Hire the best people and let them do their job; remove staff who cannot or will not.
- Trust each other and trust the users.
We have faith that the citizens of our communities will continue to fulfill their civic responsibility by preserving the Library.
Lets honor John, Cindi and Kathryn by keeping the conversation going...tell me what you think! Have they captured what we are all about? Is there something missing? Something that makes you uncomfortable? Something about the Statement you love?
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