Over the years a number of my posts have been about the transformational nature of the brave new world of digital information and the Internet. I'm still wrestling to make sense of my own thoughts about how this transformation will impact libraries, and how libraries should respond. Recent articles, like this one from the front page of yesterday's Los Angeles Times about how new digital formats are transforming reading and learning, heighten my sense that both the risks and opportunities are huge, but I am finding it hard to carve out the "thinking time" to process all that I am reading.
That is why I have particularly appreciated a couple of recent blog posts from my friend Genesis Hansen on her Wrong Again blog.
The first highlights that we are truly moving into brand new territory and calls out the need for explorers ("the Lewis and Clark of libraryland") to move out into these new worlds and help the rest of us understand what they hold.
The second talks about the risks inherent in either thinking that we can give ourselves a "digital facelift" without fundamentally rethinking what we do and how we do it, or in "circling the wagons" and focusing on short-term survival rather than dealing with the profound changes that will, whether we like it or not, affect us.
Both posts touch on my fear that as libraries across the country face cutbacks in funding, staff, and hours of operation (1) the temptation to circle the wagons becomes stronger just when we most need to be thinking about how we can ensure our long-term relevance, and (2) stress and fear make it harder than ever to put our heads up above the trenches, so to speak, so that we can even see the terrain around us.
I know that as the leader of a library system that, while more fortunate than many, faces substantial financial pressure I think every day about how to make wise decisions that sustain the services that our community uses and values today and at the same time lay the foundation for the long-term vitality of the library. It ain't easy!
We need to avoid being the lumberjack in this apocryphal story from Patrick Guanciale's blog via Nicholas Bate (whose blog, by the way is a constant source of inspiration) -
There’s a fable about a lumberjack who was purported to be the best in the land and had won numerous competitions. The edge of his axe blade was honed to perfection; the tried and true methods he used were passed down from his father and his father before him. He was in the prime of his life and his strength, but he never changed his techniques or invested in new technology. One day, a lanky youngster challenged him to a tree-felling competition. The lumberjack laughed and took the bet. They squared off, facing their respective stand of trees, and the starter yelled, “Ready, set, go!” at which point the kid drop-started his chainsaw. The lumberjack dropped his axe and with a look of bewilderment on his face, exclaimed, “What’s that noise?!”
In the case of libraries I think we know what the noise is, the question is what we do about it...the questions Genesis is raising in her posts. Read them let me know what thoughts they spark for you.
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