I find it useful to summarize my takeaways from readings, so I’ve decided to post my summaries here to share, and I invite you to share with me some of your reflections from our readings as well.
Buckland, M. (1999). Redesigning Library Services: A Manifesto.
Libraries have been built around objects that contain knowledge. Technology changes what is possible. Instead of only asking how we can do things better, we should also be asking what else is possible? That way we seek not only to modify but to evolve.
Casey, M. E., & Savastinuk, L. C. (2007). Library 2.0: A guide to participatory library service. Medford, N.J: Information Today.
Library 2.0 is about embracing the reality that is constant change, and engaging in intentional and purposeful change through collaboration and participation with everyone involved (vertically and horizontally), and through constant re-evaluation and further change. Nothing is sacred, anything can be evaluated and changed if it no longer serves the community.
Mathews, B. (2012). Think Like A Start Up.
Libraries must focus on their users and not on information or services. It’s not about how we can make a service or collection better, it’s how we can serve our users, our community, and their goals better. We have to think bigger and more long-term. We have to be willing to break away from everything we know. For that, it’s not enough to want to change, we also have to be prepared for change on a cultural and structural level. That means being built for experimentation and iteration. Try things, learn, adapt, try again. Try many things all at once. Don’t get attached. Start with the smallest version of an idea and test it in the field. What works somewhere else may not work here. Understand your own library and build for it.
Stephens, M. (2016). Chapter 1: “The Hyperlinked Librarian: Skills, Mind-Sets, and Ideas for Working in the Evolving Library” in The Heart of Librarianship: Attentive, Positive, and Purposeful Change
“Above all, librarians entering the hyperlinked arena must be curious and creative.”
We must be prepared to rethink everything about what a library is, to play with new ideas, to rebuild from the ground up, and problem-solve across issues, departments, and disciplines. We cannot resist this reality: that everything is connected.
Stephens, M. (2019). Chapter 1: “Past Is Prologue” in Wholehearted Librarianship: Finding Hope, Inspiration, and Balance
Libraries must become the resource people turn to automatically, must be present and accessible, but they must also be human and not another faceless resource. The Web has made accessing knowledge from people instead of “authorities” easier than ever. Libraries are in the perfect position to be familiar and trusted curators of the non-stop flow of information that overwhelms our users and communities everyday. We must build structures and shapes and environments where people can interact with information critically so that our users can be agents and knowledge workers too, not just consumers of information.