The role of libraries in an increasingly digitized culture is a hot topic among librarians, educational institutions and industry groups. A mention in LibraryBytes piqued my interest about a ChangeThis manifesto by Kevin Kelly.
Better Than Free describes 8 hidden values for companies to bring forward in a digital marketplace filled with free products. Kelly writes “In a real sense, these are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values.” These values “must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured” they “cannot be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced.” Further, they are “generated uniquely, in place, over time.”
Kelly believes that “in the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold.”
Kelly’s manifesto has lots of resonance for public libraries and I’ll explore it a bit more this week.
Read full article.
*Original graphic by Caribou Coffee
