Libraries organize the information that comes to them in many different forms, but we don't reach out into our communities to organization the information and knowledge that is resident in its people and organizations. (I should note that some libraries are doing this, but most are not.) Would libraries be more irreplaceable if they did this? Would they be more central in the community? Would it become the major connector between everyone? Yes. Yes. Yes.
The tweet above came during the final keynote with Tamara Kleinburg. Near the end of her talk, she advocated that we remove limits by breaking rules. Now while she isn't saying that we should break the law, it is true that sometimes the rules in our head limit what we do. Think about the rules that you follow everyday, often unknowingly. What would happen if you challenged those rules or even changed them? Could that lead to more innovation?
I tweeted this (above) during the final keynote. This totally resonated with me because of a change coming to the daily newspaper in Syracuse, NY. Like other daily papers, the Post-Standard is moving to publishing on paper only specific days per week, and publishing web-only editions on the other days. I suppose that many of knew this day was coming, but had ignored the warnings. What warnings are libraries ignoring? What challenges are libraries not meeting head on?
Topher Lawton (@hieanon) said the above quote in a blog post about the conference. One piece that people may gloss over is the phrase "don't be shy." The group that gathered at R-Squared was definitely not shy, in fact, I would say that they are all ready to make waves. They are not going to be shy about what they learned. And some (like me) were likely charged to go to R-Squared, learn, and then be ready to change their organization.
Change does require being willing to fail and fail big! But we shouldn't fail because we're ignorant risks. We to do our research - do our homework - and then charge ahead. Whether we succeed or fail, we need to remember to learn from what we do and use what we learn on our next project.
Okay...I think I've now written my last R-Squared blog posts....!
1 comment:
If this conference is anywhere near as good as you've made it sound--and I have no doubt that it was--it won't surprise me to see even more "final thoughts" as you continue to reflect on what you gained; after all, as so many colleagues have suggested, the best learning often comes through what we do after the formal learning event.
Also can't help noting that by bringing the conference to those of us who were unable to attend, you've carried our whole Fourth Place/Social Learning Center discussion further by creating an asynchronous social learning center here on your blog, i.e., you reflect openly, those of us following your blog respond in kind as fellow learners on a wonderful shared journey, and we all learn a little more from each other and extend the reach of the original learning experiences that the conference fostered.
Heartfelt thanks for providing more ideas about the future of libraries and how they interact with those they serve in local (onsite) commmunities as well as in the larger online communities that they help create. The Risks and Rewards of the conference and this continuing series of exchanges stand a good chance of producing results none of us could have anticipated.
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