In Charleston Conference Keynote, Lankes Urges Librarians To Embrace Social Action, Conversation
New mission for librarians: knowledge creation in their communities
Josh Hadro -- Library Journal, 11/5/2009
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- "The best days of librarianship" still to come
- Revised professional emphasis necessary
- Librarians are "noble agents" of society
In a fast-paced and funny keynote address (audio; slides) at the 29th Annual Charleston Conference that built to a nearly evangelical conclusion, Syracuse University's R. David Lankes this morning set out his "Atlas for New Librarianship." More than one attendee called it the best Charleston keynote they'd heard.
"The best days of librarianship are ahead of us," declared Lankes, director of the Information Institute of Syracuse and an associate professor in Syracuse's School of Information Studies. He added that this future would not arrive if librarians don't take an active role in its creation.
To foster a "radical improvement in the conditions of our members"—or patrons—librarians will have to take a less conservative approach to their collections and to the resources they recommend, and dedicate themselves to social action, leadership, and innovation, he said.
What's the future?
Lankes suggested that the typical "what is the future of libraries?" question is both flawed and biased. He instead offered a revision: "What should be the future of libraries and librarians in a democracy?"
The answer, he said, inevitably entails a conceptual shift in focus from stored information to knowledge dissemination and from the warehousing of artifacts to enabling patron access to conversations.
"Knowledge is a process," Lankes added, saying that both the physical and digital environments of libraries impact how patrons engage with materials.
Given the variety of people using libraries, he said, librarians must consider multiple access points as they develop new services, even if they can't entirely provide FedEx Kinkos-like business centers for entrepreneurs, or concert halls and grand pianos for musicians.
New mission
In order to inform these shifts, Lankes suggested a mission that places the responsibility for community improvement on librarians, not libraries: "The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities."
"We are the noble agents of this society," he concluded, suggesting that librarians must serve, lead, and innovate their way to a new, more valuable form of librarianship.
Following the conference's conclusion this Saturday, video of certain keynotes will be posted on the Charleston Conference web site. In addition, audio and slides from Lankes' talk are already on his site.
