We Are Broken, Not “Them”
It is Monday and the blahs are gone because my young, change loving heart is energized by K. G. Schneider’s Manifesto from Saturday:
The average library decision about implementing new technologies takes longer than the average life cycle for new technologies.
I would add the following:
We are not advocating for change because everything we are currently doing is crap (some of it is though, recognize it, and get over it). We just want to try something different.
Managers: Encourage your employees who want to try new things.
Accept that some things will fail and move on.
Do not let failure keep you from trying new things.
Making things easier to find does not equal “dumbing down.” It just means someone does not need an MLS to figure out how to find an article. This is a good thing!
If you go to the trouble of asking your users what they want, then listen to them.
Do not let one employee block policy and change for the entire library. This hurts everyone, especially our users.
Do not make policies that do not make sense.
The library does not belong to librarians, it belongs to users. It. Is. Not. Ours. Period.
Jane, with a spring in her step
Ah… yes… the dumbing-down issue… we must have drinks at ALA…
The library does not belong to librarians, it belongs to users. It. Is. Not. Ours. Period.
Testify!
[...] Last week, K.G. Schneider wrote a very thought provoking post entitled THE USER IS NOT BROKEN: A MEME MASQUERADING AS A MANIFESTO on her blog, Free Range Librarian. I have to say that I spent all weekend pondering this article, thinking about it, and regurgitating it. She has some awesome points: “The user is not broken, ” “The user is the sun,” and my personal favorite, “The most significant help you can provide your users is to add value and meaning to the information experience, wherever it happens; defend their right to read; and then get out of the way.” All of her points are worth a read – and worth further discussion. (Jane, over at A Wandering Eyre, added some of her own suggestions in a post entitled “We Are Broken, Not “Them.”) [...]
The library does not belong to librarians, it belongs to users. It. Is. Not. Ours. Period.
What do you mean? Those are my books! Mine! Mine! And that is why we make the OPAC so difficult–it’s because we don’t want anyone finding our resources and taking them away!
Sheesh. . . I’ll lift a glass or two to the changing nature of the catalog, the library, and the librarian. Here’s to the future!