The document discusses the power of librarians and libraries. It notes that libraries are about more than just books - they are about reading, information, and power. Librarians are powerful because they have knowledge and know how to find and arrange information. It encourages librarians to increase their reputation by sharing information proactively. It also speculates about what libraries and information may look like decades in the future.
14. "He's like Super
Librarian, y'know?
Everyone forgets,
Willow, that
knowledge is the
ultimate weapon."
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, "Never Kill a Boy on the
First Date."
15. Because...
• Libraries are not about books
• Libraries are about reading
• Libraries are about information
• Libraries are about power
18. Or to put it another way:
• "Show me a computer expert that gives a
damn, and I'll show you a librarian."
Patricia Wilson Berger
(Quoted in Chicago Tribune article, 29 June 1990, Tempo section, p. 1)
• "Libraries are brothels for the mind. Which
means that librarians are the madams,
greeting punters, understanding their strange
tastes and needs, and pimping their books."
Guy Browning
(The Guardian column, 18 October 2003.)
19. We can deal with:
• 1,253 tweets per second
• 25 billion pieces of information shared on
Facebook per month
• 35 hours worth of video uploaded to YouTube
every minute, 2 billion viewed per day
• 133 million blogs, 900,000 posts per day
• 4 billion images on Flickr (13x more than LC)
20. What is power now?
• Knowledge?
• Information?
• Knowing how to find something?
• Knowing how to arrange information?
26. You are self employed
• Though perhaps you haven’t realised it yet
• It’s your responsibility to make sure that
you’re up to speed
• Act as your own boss
• 9-5 is history
27. Think for the long haul
• Where will the profession be in 2050?
• Where will the internet be?
• What will information and libraries look like?
32. Illustration by Albert Robida,
for « The End of the Books »
by Octave Uzanne, published
in Scribner's Magazine, vol.
16, no 2, August 1894
33.
34. So, looking forward
• Few, if any books
• No newspapers
• No magazines
• No search engines
• No internet
• Embedded chips
• ?????
35.
36. Please remember!
• “Librarians must be like Krishna and descend
into the world to combat ignorance” Shiyali
Ramamrita Ranganathan
• “The librarian must be the librarian militant
before (s)he can be the librarian triumphant”
Melvil Dewey