Accessibility: ownership often [stinks]. You have to keep your things tidy, up-to-date, and in the case of digital material, backed up. Many people, me included, will be happy to have others tend our “possessions”.
Embodiment: The music is free—the bodily performance expensive.
From Better than Free by Kevin Kelly.
This week I’ve used the work of Kevin Kelly to help make the case that public librarians are uniquely positioned and qualified to deliver significant value to their communities online. In addition to being at the epicenter of local information, librarians are trusted facilitators who genuinely work for the public good.
With so much stuff available online, it’s challenging to tend it all. Who better to help us than librarians? With their training and experience organizing our shared possessions, they’re just the right people to organize our online digital assets. They’ll also do a great job of preserving them for future use.
Enriching our embodied experience is what the online town commons needs to be about. It needs to help us connect with others in our community, support our schools and local businesses, engage in local government, and take good care of our environment—and each other.
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* Community graphic by NIEHS.
