Library professionals typically put public service above all else, even in the face of massive budget cuts. This can have the unintended consequence of weakening advocacy.
So what would happen if the response to disproportionate budget cuts was a bit more radical? The New York Public Library had good results with “a loud campaign” this Spring. The video below was part of it, and encourages us to:
Make some noise,
Raise our voice, Sing a song,
Bang on a pan loudly…
Readers have expressed appreciation for the research and perspective I (try) to bring to the blog, and it’s a reflection of the support I receive from the staff of the Beaman Memorial Public Library.
Each week they field my phone calls and emails asking about library policies and practices. They share important perspectives about municipal governance and challenge my thinking on various subjects, which is so vital. And of course they acquire lots of materials for me from academic libraries and databases I never knew existed.
So, in case I haven’t said it often enough — THANK YOU to Louise, Sue G, Sue S, Steve, Ginny, Lauren, Cecile, Jackie, and Denise! I truly appreciate what you do.
August 19, 2009 ♦ Categories: Advocacy, Technology Comments are off for this post
As a symbolic space, a type of collection, a kind of building, the library gives institutional form to our collective memory.
Public libraries and other institutions established boundaries between public and private life that have become crucial to the modern meaning and experience of community.
Community in postmodern America has itself become a function of niche marketing, in which “culture” has become synonymous with leisure and consumption.
Where exactly is culture, in a world where the forms of knowledge have been reorganized by new media and digital technology, where the experience of public life is increasingly realized through private acts of consumption?
Public libraries and other institutions established boundaries between public and private life that have become crucial to the modern meaning and experience of community.
