Biblioteksinspirerade

This week in class we were introduced to the term "biblioteksinspirerade."  This is a Swedish word which I will likely never be able to pronounce and which means either to be inspired by libraries or to inspire libraries.  Our discussion of the term made me think about how libraries have inspired me.

I've always loved libraries.  When I was younger this was my favorite scene in any movie, ever.  My parents took me to the library frequently.  I looked forward the the public library's summer programs, which I would later work at.  Libraries helped form an early love of reading.

The library at my undergrad college was inspiring in the ways that the librarians there managed to meet students' needs despite having a relatively small collection and despite the limitations inherent in a small institution.  If a necessary source of information was not in the library, the librarians could always locate and get it quickly through Interlibrary loans.  

In my sophomore year of college, I was lucky enough to go to London.  While there I visited the British Library's main building, which is inspiring in the amount of information available there.  This library had an interesting combination of things traditionally associated with libraries (books, special collections) and with the new ways librarians facilitate access to information.  While there, I was able to see what is believed to be one of the original copies of the Magna Carta (with a handy computerized translation underneath) and listen to speeches given by Winston Churchill and Joe Strummer in the library's multimedia section.

Now that I've started at SU it's time for me, along with my fellow students, to inspire libraries.  We've all gotten the "you need a degree for that?" question, but the question that I find far more obnoxious is: "You want to be a librarian?  Are libraries even going to exist in fifteen years?"  I'm confident that libraries will never become obsolete; in fact I will fight (with my words) anyone who tries to say otherwise.  However, the world is changing, and libraries will have to change with it.  That's going to require inspiration.