Libraries are about more than books

by tosca on Monday, August 27, 2012

"As a child, my number one best friend was the librarian in my grade school. I actually believed all those books belonged to her."
~ Erma Bombeck

Libraries are about more than just books. Right? Right. Libraries are community spaces where people come to socialise, learn, study, create, celebrate. (And possibly lots of other words that I hadn't thought of at the time I wrote this post). I know this. I believe this. As much as I know it, though, I find it a somewhat disturbing statement. If libraries are about more than books then maybe we need to put that to the test and remove the book element altogether. Just take it away. If we do that - and by 'we' I mean 'libraries' and not the organisation I work for in particular - then what are libraries about?

It's all right. Take your time. I'll wait.

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Life post-libraries: Is it a case of "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it"?

by tosca

"If a trainstation is where the train stops, what's a workstation?"
~ Unknown

I've worked in libraries for almost thirteen years. Two helping out in a school library, two at a tertiary library, and nine with a public library. Thirteen seems like a long time but, really, it's not. After all, I knew a colleague, a few years back, who retired months short of her fiftieth anniversary. Not just 'in libraries,' but with the same organisation. I think that is both phenomenal, and admirable.

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