There are many proven, highly transferable techniques for fostering creativity within organizations. The process of re-imagining an organization, let alone a worldwide archetype, is less established. My own thoughts about libraries have changed significantly since last Spring and it has been a productive, albeit difficult, evolution.
The change was catalyzed late last year when I visited a friend whose views and opinions I admire greatly. This friend is close to libraries; at the time he was one class away from taking an MLIS degree from Simmons College and his wife manages the largest fund-raising program for their local library. When our conversation turned to The Radical Patron blog he wasn’t so interested. “You see, Jean” he said, “there’s a big difference between us. You think public libraries need to be saved and I think their time as come.” It was jarring to hear my friend express these thoughts even though my research on public libraries and the impotence of my advocacy efforts in 2009 were leading me to the same conclusion.
I churned for weeks. I was upset and angry. I grieved. And I reluctantly resigned myself to saying goodbye to public libraries over the next decade. By this time, the year-end holidays had arrived and it did me good to connect with family and friends, priorities and aspirations. It was a fruitful period of reflection, aided by many retrospectives on the tumultuous decade just passed.
And as I pondered my values — human caring and potential, the well-being of our communities and environment, artistry, good governance — I kept returning to public libraries’ ability to nurture these values for everyone. I also found that saying goodbye to what libraries have been and largely are today enabled me to think more creatively about what they have the potential to be. Over the past few months I’ve become:
- less absorbed with finding good answers and more drawn to indentifying good questions;
- more open to inspiration;
- better able to appreciate the views of people who do not support libraries;
- more tuned into broad societal shifts and how people are coping with them;
- more convinced of the urgent need for library leadership and vision.
My plan at the end of last year was to sign off on this blog and pursue other topics for I felt I was often covering ground that had been covered many times before. That’s changed in 2010; producing this blog has become quite rewarding. I believe the content is consistently richer than in 2009, and increased readership & comments signal others share that opinion.
Dispassion has enriched my work on behalf of libraries. Does my experience hold insights for library advocacy? I’m not sure. Thoughts anyone?
Your post today is very timely for me. I’m in my first semester of an MLS program after a career in corporate marketing and communications. I’ve been bothered by the apparent ease with which local and state governments are reducing library staffs, hours and number of branches. The profession’s response hasn’t been impressive, let alone effective. I think we’re seeing the beginning of the end of libraries as we’ve known them.
I don’t yet see what is likely to replace conventional libraries, but I do believe there’s no guarantee that it will be an improvement for patrons and communities. We need a specific, shared vision of the profession’s future. Developing that may be made more difficult by the autonomy and parochial perspective so many libraries and librarians seem to have. But I don’t know enough about that to do more than speculate.
My more immediate and personal concerns are how I can apply my skills to helping people grow from the use of libraries and where I can find a more direct connection between the MLS curriculum and what libraries and patrons need today and tomorrow.
You write a great blog, by the way. Please don’t stop.
Michael – do you have some ideas about a library vision, or how the MLS curriculum could be adapted to prepare you for contemporary rather than past needs? If so, I’d welcome a guest post!
Here, here! Don’t stop with the blog… I really enjoy your perspective.
Now that I’ve spent over a decade working the reference desk of public libraries, I’m coming to the conclusion that the survival of the public library is going to be a community by community issue. If library staff can’t or won’t find a way to venture out into their communities and connect the library with their community’s needs, then yeah, they’ll fade away. Waiting for book readers or internet users to walk through the door just isn’t going to be enough clout to convince city councils/mayors/county executives that the library is an institution worth funding.
But… but!… if libraries can engage with their community — meaning going in person to talk with them (and listen to their complaints) — then we’ll do just fine. We’ll thrive.
I’ve given up on some national campaign to “save the public library” to deliver any results. If I want my city to have a public library going into the future, it is going to have to be a local effort. Or so it seems.
Hi Mark – your ideas remind me of the participatory librarianship promoted by David Lankes. What are some of the opportunities you see in your community? Would you be interested in writing a guest post about them?
Michael & Mark – thanks for your support; it’s great to see the blog emerging as a place for substantive dialogue about public libraries.
You’ve both touched upon what I see as the key threat to libraries: institutional culture. The vast library ecosystem is comprised of non-affiliated employees, volunteers, public officials, suppliers, consultants and eductional institutions with turf to protect. It has been sustained for decades by an institution that waits for patrons to walk through the door and its adapative mechanisms are weak. Absent strong leadership and vision, each constituent retreats to protecting its own turf, which is only natural.
I’d love to see the library profession promote some leadership and vision, though the odds seem stacked against it. I see profound societal needs that can be met through participatory librarianship and believe America will find a way to meet those needs. My guess is it will be a trans-governmental solution simply because federal, state & municipal budgets cannot support a new public service on their own. Even so Mark, I share your sense of great inequity between communities. In fact, the balkanization has already begun with greater disparities in library service hours, staffing levels and reciprocal borrowing priviledges. And Michael, if vision does come from outside the profession, I share your sense that this will be the end of libraries as we know them today.
For my part I’ll keep trying to offer good ideas and generate substantive dialogue. I’m also working on a project to provide direct resources to libraries. I hope to announce it soon. Sometimes it feels like the resources will be mere teaspoons to drain the ocean … though perhaps all we need is a few good, modest models to build some momentum…
Hi Jean,
Re “You think public libraries need to be saved and I think their time as come” you are so right – even if our time has come for many people, we still need to convince so many others that public libraries are essential. Thank you for your blog posts, I think you have the guts to say what so many librarians are afraid of saying. Also, the whole “I Love Libraries” thing is great, but too often that sentiment is just coming from librarians so appears self serving.
Thanks for checking in Justine – it’s always great to learn about who’s reading. As a patron, I can say things people within the library ecosystem cannot … and that’s the whole point of the blog. Of the 173 posts to date, many have verbally and pictorially been in the “I Love Libraries” vein. Many have offered good, practical ideas for library operations. Others have asked really hard questions or been critical of public library practices and institutional culture.
The critical essays are the hardest to write. Truth be told, I agonize over them. I put them out there because even though the “I Love Libraries” dialogue feels loads better it’s not enough to maintain the viability of our public libraries (IMHO).
For me, public libraries are absolutely essential to the maintenance and creation of social systems I want to live within. I believe they’re worth celebrating and agonizing over. Folks engaging in the dialogue, like you and the others that weigh in here, convince me of it.