Collection Development for My Random Life.

I am of the type to bring library services “anywhere, anytime, anyhow”.  I guess that is the three A’s.  Bring the library to the patrons! Hoorah! Let’s feed the masses with information services!

I am lucky that my library allows me some flexibility to reach out beyond library walls and the typical 9-5 service hours. But I wonder if all the library professionals are galavanting about informing the masses about the magic of library resources who is actually manning the castle while they are away?  In our library crusades are we making unnecessary demands on our staff? Are we expending resources which should be better directed to the communities specifically identified in our mission statements? What if the greater good is served by reaching those who don’t meet our community profiles (such as the homeless, or in the case of an academic library, high school students and the public-at-large)?

Should libraries allocate their resources, both human and otherwise, to actually provide a more meaningful transaction with the communities they serve? Or does not taking risk, keeping your head down, and avoiding conflict, a survival strategy to not have library funding cut? In the long run, if we are quiet, and nobody notices us, will they notice the library when it is gone? Survival might not be all it is cracked up to be.

So many questions and I guess these are management decisions… and most libraries don’t have the “greater good” or “meaning”  identified as part of their mission statements.  I mean who wants to fund the greater good or something meaningful anyways…

As youngster I cut my teeth on the punk rock shows held after hours at the Huntington Beach Public Library in California. I always thought it was neat that the library would open its doors and allow some loud music to rustle through the stacks. It gave me a good vibe about libraries.

Last night, I attended a rock show held in the Ada Community Public Library here in Idaho. The band was the High Strung who apparently are an NPR darling and drove all the way out from Rock City itself, Detroit. The library held the event during business hours and even provided snacks.

This brings to the front, the idea of the library as a space for more than just books, more the whole idea of libraries as spaces for culture. I love to think of the library as an intellectual center but also it should be an emotional center of a community. Music (as books) speak to us on many different levels. So it shouldn’t be terribly out of place for a library to host such an event despite the stereotypical groupthink of a library as place for quiet.

Unfortunately that despite loud LIVE music being busted out among the stacks some patrons preferred to crowd the computers with  their headphones on and simply cruise MySpace.

Well, what can you do? Nothing but try and I can respect that. I appreciate that the Ada Community Library was willing to think outside the traditional library box.

P.S. I love that that Ada Community Library’s logo is “Dreams, Ideas and Information”  — how inspirational is that?