Thinking about Hyperlinked Communities

“Somewhere along the line, we confused going to work

with building a fort.”

—David Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto

Effectively serving the whole community is something that I think about all the time as a frontline library worker. To me it’s about meeting all patrons, potential and current, where they are. I mean this in both a literal and figurative sense. In Chapter three of Library 2.0, Casey suggests that libraries find out where, in the community, people are getting their needs met. We can make our services available where people already are. In fact, it’s already being done with self-serve library kiosks in unexpected places. Could watching someone make use of this convenience encourage other people to sign up for free library cards? I wonder in what other ways we can engage in the community.

Meeting people where they are can also mean sending materials to homebound patrons and nursing home residents. Rather than waiting for cast-off books, folks who can’t come to the library can read some of the latest books and listen to them on CDs, or preloaded audio players. It’s not a new idea, but how many community members are aware of this service?  As Casey (Library 2.0) says, “Reaching out to the community is critical to any successful service.” One good way is sharing videos like the one below on various social media platforms to spread the word in the places where people often get information.

How about the figurative sense of meeting people where they are? It’s a fact that now much of being a successful adult in this society requires using computers and the internet. It’s rare to be able to apply for/find a job or fill out forms without computer skills? Stephens touches on this in his essay, “Making the Connection” in Wholehearted Librarianship. Even registering children for school is an online task. While libraries can provide the equipment, unfortunately, I often hear patrons say, “I’m computer illiterate.” as they stare scornfully at their phones. We need to find creative, compassionate ways to help people over the hurdle of digital aversion often brought on by inexperience or lack of means. 

But like the squeaky wheel adage goes, organizations seem to cater to the people who complain the loudest—uh, I mean those who provide compelling feedback. While those of us in the service industry may joke about it, in the “Transparency. Radically. Simple.” article Weve Zine writer, Ingle implores us to consider those suggestions genuinely to make small but impactful changes. It’s good advice.

But let’s not forget that there are some service issues that never make it onto a comment card. If we bother to look, they are hiding in plain sight.

While I see a lot of people at my library who appear to be getting more than their basic needs met, there are also some who may be on the other end of that spectrum, and lots of others somewhere in between those points. Connecting people in real need to our services, as Stephens emphasizes in Wholehearted Librarianship, is another way of meeting people where they are. Libraries are uniquely positioned to do just that and not just in the building. I’m hopeful when I see examples of bringing the librarian to the community as shown below. 

There’s no shortage of ways libraries can make people’s lives better. We just have to look for the opportunities and get to it.