Monday, February 22, 2010
Libraries of the Future in Plain English
(via Tame the Web)
Retiring Guy doesn't have any problem with this video, except for the fact that it ignores the reality of most of the public libraries in the United States.
In Wisconsin, for example, 173 of our 388 public libraries are located in communities with a population of less than 2,000. Campbellsport Public Library (community population: 1,995) has 2.28 FTE staff. Hardly hierarchical.
222 of Wisconsin's 388 public libraries are located in communiities with a population of less than 3,000. Brillion Public Library (community population: 2,989) has 3.20 FTE staff. Hardly hierarchical.
268 of Wisconsin's 388 public libraries are located in communities with a population of less than 5,000. Spillman Public Library in North Fond du Lac (pop. 4,982) has 2.23 FTE staff. Hardly hierarchical.
308 of Wisconsin's 388 public libraries are located in communities with a population of less than 10,000. Sparta Free Library (community population: 9,198) has 6.23 FTE staff. Hardly hierarchical.
16 of Wisconsin 388 public library are located in communities with a population of more than 50,000.
So where's the "Libraries of the Future in Plain English" video for the other 96% of Wisconsin's 388 public libraries?
I think that libraries of the future for our other 96% should involve strong system support for web 2.0 technologies for their member libraries. Staying connected and supported will make a huge difference.
ReplyDeleteHi Retiring Guy,
ReplyDeleteApart from the statistics, I'm not sure what you are demonstrating?
Are you trying to say that because these libraries have small staff numbers they do not have hierarchies? Believe me I've worked in small libraries with 2 staff and the branch has still had hundreds of rules. Often lots of those rules are due to a lack of staff to work one on one with library members.
Again I'm not sure how small staff numbers and small funding don't relate to the other issues in the video. Did you get to those? They don't have problems with sustainability? The don't have problems keeping up to date with new technologies, getting training and new resources?
If not I think that's really great. They are already the future. Perhaps the WPL staff could make that video you are looking for.