It's all about stories

I have been a bit on the bored side lately.  Bored with myself really and in a spiral of boredom and not being able to find a way out of the bubble.  However, I, along with a big bunch of colleagues, have had the pleasure of spending time in the company of the Shanachie Tour Guys.  beside their three hour interactive presentation I also had the pleasure of sharing a few glasses of wine on Friday night and lunch today. This gave me time to think about the things they talked about and find some more questions.

Erik and Jaap are very relaxed and very cool.  They share stuff and ask questions and gather information about libraries and what people think about the future of libraries.  Then they show us what they are doing in Delft at the DOK library.  And that is what gets your heart racing.  For me it is not necessarily what they are doing but -describing libraries.  It is about the sustainability and relevance of libraries in the future and this is a question all self respecting libraries with a strong will to survive should be asking.  Now the real problem is bringing everyone else along for the ride.  Funders, elected members, teachers and leaders need to think about libraries in the context of the whole world and not just put us in a book box and leave us to die.  This is what I believe and have for a very long time and it is really nice to know there are others making this happen.

Now my brain is totally activated and there is no stopping me - well actually there is some stopping and that relates to the need to convince, consult and just wait and wait and wait for everyone to be on board.  I know I am not alone so perhaps some of our ideas in the holding pattern will come to life.

Last word.  The really cool thing about these guys is that they don't tell you what you should do but just what they do and then you can work out how that might happen in your environment.

And one more word....read this and then understand why we will always need libraries.  The Internet wont replace libraries.  We need democratic access to information, we need some order and we need a filter.  Who is going to do that?  Not Google, not the Chinese government, not your government.  Imagine all the worlds information being under the control of Google, advertisers and politicians.    Imagine...it is scary to do so.
p.s.  I love the Internet, don't get me wrong,  but it isn't the answer to every question.