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Seth Godin and Mike Eisenberg and me on the Future of the Library
I am a huge fan of Seth Godin.
Seth . . .
- writes the most popular marketing blog in the world;
- is the author of the bestselling marketing books of the last decade;
- speaks to large groups on marketing, new media and what’s next;
- and is the founder of Squidoo.com, a fast-growing recommendation website.
Seth’s brief blog post this morning on the Future of the Library certainly got my attention:
What should libraries do to become relevant in the digital age? They can’t survive as community-funded repositories for books that individuals don’t want to own (or for reference books we can’t afford to own.) More librarians are telling me (unhappily) that the number one thing they deliver to their patrons is free DVD rentals. That’s not a long-term strategy, nor is it particularly an uplifting use of our tax dollars. Here’s my proposal: train people to take intellectual initiative. Once again, the net turns things upside down. The information is free now. No need to pool tax money to buy reference books. What we need to spend the money on are leaders, sherpas and teachers who will push everyone from kids to seniors to get very aggressive in finding and using information and in connecting with and leading others.
Clearly we haven’t marketed our own message effectively.
Today’s leading expert on marketing, and many others, need to know that job one, for most of us (I HOPE), IS to be:
leaders, sherpas and teachers who will push everyone from kids to seniors to get very aggressive in finding and using information and in connecting with and leading others.
Is Seth saying that we need librarians, but not traditional libraries?
(Make sure you click on the survive link above to see that Seth read Robin’s brilliant post in her CCHS Learning Commons about steps necessary for school library survival.)
We need to make sure that folks who matter get the memo that we are not about circulation alone and that circulation itself is happening online. (And that some of those reference books and ebooks are available–nearly invisibly–through library-funded databases.)
And that they get the memo that describes the many ways librarians address literacy and equity each and every day.
That they get the memo that physical libraries are evolving to become learning commons or libratories. (See Library as domestic metaphor and My 2.0 Day.)
That we find multiple ways to show what the school library of today looks like in action. (See 14 Ways K12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media.)
We haven’t done our job. We haven’t adequately marketed ourselves and our programs.
People don’t know what we look like because we haven’t shared that information effectively.
It may also be that some libraries aren’t yet there.
In case you were sleeping, over the past two years, stuff happened.
Big stuff.
Stuff we should have led.
I’ve been watching as other professionals in education grabbed turf we should have grabbed or tread together.
It reached the surface this spring with the Twitter discussion on librarians as social media specialists.
The game has changed dramatically. The changes we talk about are not bandwagons. They represent profound changes in the way we do business, the way we do libraries, the way we must educate.
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Teacher librarians, as information and communication specialists must lead change in their buildings and districts or face irrelevancy.
Something Darwinian is underway. Adaptation is essential. And if we are to thrive, leadership is essential.
School library practice must adapt to complete shifts in the information and communication landscapes. Folks who believe that Web 2.0, or whatever we next call the read/write Web, will go away are hopelessly mistaken.
Mike Eisenberg allowed me to share excerpts from a discussion we engaged in this week with Lisa Layera Brunkan.
Mike wrote:
It keeps me up at night too – but to me it’s not, will the librarians be in a position to be a logical choice, but rather will librarians grab the opportunity. Any librarian employed today IS in the position! They need to embrace a role that focuses on meeting people’s information needs through any and all media, systems, formats, and approaches.
Joyce helped me to see that information literacy is both using and producing information. Librarians – particularly those in schools – should be at the center of this: to ensure that students are information literate – to ensure that students are effective users and producers of information.
What we need are opportunistic librarians – using every interaction with kids, fellow teachers, parents, administrators and the public to PROVE that they are right at the center of the action – of making sure that every student is super-skilled in information seeking, use, production, and evaluation. And, also at the center of making sure that all students have access to resources, services, technologies, and networks.
You both instinctively know how to take advantage of opportunities. You see them everywhere. That’s what we need to help the librarians to see and then to know what to do with them. . .
The slow but steady attrition in the school library field is no accident. It’s not because “they don’t understand us.” It’s not because “we haven’t gotten the message out.” It’s because many programs aren’t delivering.
Many of you are out there leading change.
The revolution can happen. And it can happen in our blogs, through our tweets, in our libraries.
It will not happen if we are asleep at the wheel. It will not happen if we do not assume responsibility for our own retooling.
This is the year of redefinition.
Frankly, it’s definition or death. Some of you thought I was cold when I suggested that folks lead, follow, or get out of the way.
I know many of you are out there are working hard.
But it is not about working hard. It is about working smart. It is about marketing. It is about redefining.
Before it is too late.
This is the year.
Update: Buffy Hamilton collected a selection of responses to Seth’s post and the issue of the future of the library for the Georgia Library Media Association blog.
Filed under: Uncategorized
About Joyce Valenza
Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication, a technology writer, speaker, blogger and learner. Follow her on Twitter: @joycevalenza
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