The Librarian Militant, The Librarian Triumphant

“The Librarian Militant, The Librarian Triumphant” NEXT: A Library Futures Symposium, The Alberta Library, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Abstract: What will kill this profession is not ebooks, amazon, or Google. It will be a lack of imagination. An inability to see not what is, but what could be. To see only how we are viewed now, but not how that is only a platform for greatness. Librarianship is not a building, or a collection. It is a conversation you are having. A conversation that has lasted over nearly three millennia. A conversation handed down from generation to generation, culture to culture, great society to great society, epoch to epoch. Librarianship only ends if we stop this conversation – set in stone, transfer practice to golden idols. It only survives if we, librarians and the communities we serve, take it up, renew, refresh it, and constantly engage in what is next. It is in that conversation that we find what a triumphant librarian is. Someone who wakes to see a better day for their community, and works to make the next even better, and the next day after that.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2010/Alberta.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Pod/2010/Alberta.mp3

Screencast:

The Librarian Militant, The Librarian Triumphant from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.