◊  Advocacy  ◊

A characteristic of librarian discourse immediately jumped out at me when I broadened my advocacy work nearly a year ago, though framing it succinctly had been elusive until I read Kim Leeder’s post on the future of libraries. She notes: I hear a lit­tle shrill­ness in the voices of many librar­i­ans who speak or write

In her thought provoking essay for ItLwtLP, Kim Leeder shared the following reflections on library vision and leadership: It seems to me, and I don’t mean to crit­i­cize any of our great library lead­ers, that most of the “vision” I see in the library field is just an expan­sion of what already exists. Build­ing on

If we view the coming decade as a period of realignment for the American public, what are the right questions to ask about the role of its public libraries? Two recent articles and a reflection on a beloved, bygone organization are illuminating. Kim Leeder: Vision and Visionaries: A Whole Bunch of Questions to Start off

When asked recently about the future of public libraries, I shared my concern that they would fade away, as local pharmacies have in the past 10-15 years. With continued tight municipal budgets, increased unemployment and home foreclosures and the proliferation of online services for guided search, reader’s advisory and digital entertainment, I can easily see