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Get Thee to Library 101!
October 28, 2009
After several months of hard work and preparation, the Library 101 video and web site debuted today to a roomful of rapt and engaged librarians at the Internet Librarian Conference. Spawned by the creative forces of Michael Porter and David Lee King of "Hi-Fi Sci-Fi Library" fame, this project combines a variety of techniques and technologies to get across the important message that libraries must both change a great deal and also get back to our roots regarding what makes us the vital community services that we have every right to be.
What makes this project so amazing is that it is so much more than just a cool video. There are essays from library experts and other luminaries (check out Barack Obama's -- cough -- "contribution") as well as "RTK" -- Resources and Things to Know. This latter is a veritable smorgasbord of things contemporary librarians should be familiar with, traits we should have, or skills we should acquire. Each one links to a blog post or other resource that talks about that concept. In other words, this is a site that will require hours -- days -- to properly experience, and it will undoubtedly be time very well spent. Come for the party and stay for the show. Along those lines, I simply love the brief sentence on the homepage: "Library 101 is a multimedia collaboration project started by Michael Porter & David Lee King." Started by. If that doesn't give you a clue about the conversation they hope to start, I don't know what will.
In keeping with the theme, there are 101 -- yes, one hundred and one -- specific items that they list on their "RTK" page. The very last one is reserved for anything you or anyone else might care to add. Yes, that's one the major points of this. Not one of us has learned all that we need to learn to build the very best library collections and services for our users -- at least not everything we will need until we retire. Constant learning is required, endless retooling and revision is necessary. It is now just part of the job. It is Library 101.
Posted by Roy Tennant on October 28, 2009 | Comments (0)
