Shift to Education in Public Libraries
Library Journal - Save Professionalism is an article that calls for a return to the educational role of libraries rather than our current focus on information. The article is filled with reasons to return to education as our main focus. As a small library director, I think that small libraries have always had an educational focus. We train people to use new technology, offer programs with educational value, host literacy programs, proctor exams for patrons, and much more. But just think of small libraries truly embracing education as a focus. Wouldn't be automatically be networking more with the schools in our communities? Wouldn't we be looking more deeply into our community to see where education is lacking and where we can plug in? It seems to me to be a very positive shift in focus and could do a lot to make the library seem even more involved and reactive to community needs than we do now.
I also agree that the problem with focusing solely on information is that it does not inspire funding the way that education does. Information also leads us to cutting budgets rather than fighting to be funded because we are so vital to our communities. And of course, any article that criticizes the HAPLR library ratings is an article I can embrace.