Because XXX said so, that’s why.
Picture this: a girl up late hunched over her desk in her pjs. Lights are low. House is cold (it’s winter in New Hampshire and, honey, it’s cold outside… but heat costs money). And she pens an empassioned plea - okay, not so empassioned and not really a plea, but marginally clever and insightful. Anyway. Within moments of posting, still high on her own righteousness, she encounters Jenny’s Online Library User Manifesto, answering the question before it was even asked and knocking her ego down a few necessary notches.
Here’s the take-home message, as I see it: In order to truly advocate for a proactive and useful digital presence in any library, we must relate them to existing services; sevices in which we’re already invested. And show how the new tools are a simple extension of the existing ones. No librarian, for example, is going to argue that reference is an unnecessary - yet they might not be willing to embrace IM or blogging.
When applying Jenny’s Manifesto to rural public libraries specifically, I would take it a bit further:
- I want you to listen to me and I want you to talk to me; I want both of these on my terms and my schedule.
- I want to participate in the library community.
- I want to participate my wider community, make it easier for me.
- I’m not a user or a patron, I’m a partner. Let me.
These are things most rural public libraries already do in the bricks-and-mortar world. They host programs for kids, expectant parents, singletons (don’t laugh, it’s true), teens, you name it. They ask patrons for help; take the recycling or serve on the board or friends; bring the libarians cookies; whatever. They patiently research for the gentleman with a question about his property’s history. They’ll even teach him how to do it on the computer. And they meet needs. But, as far as I can see, they only meet needs that they can see, standing in front of the circ desk. But now there are patrons - the ones who they may have taught to use the computer last year- who don’t come in. That doesn’t mean they don’t need the library. It just means the community is broader than ever before… the service desks have to be too.
