Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library has produced a set of 3 video commercials to get students to use the library. Their message is simple: trust the library. To underscore the point, the clips open with an outlandish character (used car salesman, hyperactive adolescent boy, tarot card reader) representing untrustworthy sources and then cut over
◊ Library Mythology ◊
It’s not the lie, but the myth
As every past generation has had to disenthrall itself from an inheritance of truisms and stereotypes, so in our own time we must move on from the reassuring repetition of stale phrases to a new, difficult, but essential confrontation with reality. For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie–deliberate, contrived and
Barclay busts a library myth
The Myth of Browsing, a superb piece of writing and analysis by librarian Donald A. Barclay,1 thoughtfully examines opposition to plans by the Syracuse University Library to move some of its books to a remote location. This article is a “must-read” in my estimation for it gets at a key component of our library crisis
The impact of library mythology
In The Future of Reading, information consultant Tom Peters lays out a lofty library agenda. He exhorts libraries to “be part of [the] reading revolution, supporting and defending the rights of digital readers.” Peters warns “If readers don’t assert their rights in the dawning e-reading era, someone else will snatch up those rights” and suggests
