Good Ideas for Public Libraries

For me, library advocacy means celebrating achievements, asking tough questions, and sharing good ideas. I’ve tried to do that here. The blog archive has a number of essays, images, references and kudos that celebrate the contributions of American public libraries. Here are the tough questions and good ideas I’ve come up with so far…

Tough Questions

• Imagine scarcity – it can save public libraries
• Who is the Vivian Schiller for public libraries?
• Asking the right questions about public libraries
• Running our public libraries like a business
• Libraries nurture citizens, not consumers
• We’ll get by with a little help from our ?

Marketing

• Tell ‘em about libraries, Roberta Stevens!
• What makes library sources trustworthy?
• Libraries – protect that brand
• Are public libraries glorified babysitting services?
• Hmmm… if libraries remove computers
• What’s my social contract with public libraries?

Funding

• An Inflection Point for American Public Libraries
• A National Public Library Corporation

Services

• Paticipatory Librarianship
• Being Better Than Free
• My town/library/school dream

Process Improvement

• What makes a great library?
• Pro-creativity lists for public libraries, part 1
• Thoughts on anti-creativity
• The high cost of library micro-grants
• A moratorium on counting