Occupy Wall Street Library

For the past month or so, I've been following news about the Occupy Wall Street Library The existence of the library fascinates me because of the way the OWS library exemplifies the model of libraries adapting to serve the needs of their specific community while existing in a non-traditional setting outside many people's expectations. Most people think of libraries as buildings; this library shows you don't need one.  While in Zuccotti park, the library contained over 5,000 books, with a reference section and an exchange section.  This included a number of books on economic and political theory, important resources for protesters.  The library had laptops for members to use.  It's even started to become a maker's space. 

As many of you know, most of the OWS library was destroyed last week, including most of the books and all of the laptops.  The destruction of the library's materials is tragic and heinous.  But the library has already started rebuilding.  The Occupy Library can be taken as an example of libraries' resilience in the face of adversity.

Week 10

Last week two public librarians, Eli Neiburger and Meg Backus, spoke to our class.  Hearing about what's currently going on in their libraries and what they think about the future of public libraries was extremely informative.

Two things that Eli said have stuck with me this week.  The first was that the libraries "can't be all things for all people but have to be something for everybody."  Public libraries are facing diminishing resources and budgets so it's important to apply this sort of utilitarian approach to decision making.  The other thing that stuck with me was the idea that librarians need to create unique value to stay relevant.  An example of this was gaming in libraries.  It's not enough to provide video games for library members to check out.  The social experience of playing games and competing with other people is something that libraries can add.  This got me thinking about other ways librarians can bring things of unique value to the community.  Meg Backus's idea of having people check out her therapy dog for twenty minutes is a good example.  Learning Commons are another way of providing unique value, particularly in academic libraries.  Providing spaces for students to meet and work is necessary.  A challenge for libraries will be to get members to recognize that the services and space that librarians provide are more valuable than the stuff.

Reference Librarian Interview

This week I interviewed Kelly Delevan at the Noreen Falcone Library at Le Moyne College for IST 605.  I've been lucky in both of my librarian interviews (the first for 511) to talk to people who love their jobs, are enthusiastic about the future, and who are encouraging in terms of getting the MLS degree.  I know not everyone has had great experiences with their interviews, but both have left me feeling pretty optimistic.

It was interesting to hear about what the library has done for outreach to get more students into the library.  This year, they started assigning every freshman a librarian.  During orientation, freshmen met with their librarians, who told them about the library's services and taught them to use the library website.  The librarians are still contacts for students if they need anything during the school year.  According to Kelly, the use of the school's reference services has increased significantly since this program started.  I think this is a really great idea to get students more comfortable with using the library.  When I was at college, I didn't use the reference services much because I knew very little about them.  If I had had an assigned librarian, I would have used more of the services rather than trying to figure things out by myself.  I'm not sure how easy it would be to implement the program at larger schools (Le Moyne has about 2400 undergraduate students, which I imagine makes things easier), but outreach can make a difference for academic libraries.