Slow Library

A review of Walt Crawford's "Balanced Libraries"

2007-09-18T15:56:57-03:00

"Balanced Libraries is a response to the discussions surrounding Library 2.0, the movement that has tried to use Web 2.0 technologies to reinvigorate library services. Some assert that Library 2.0 is about much more than technology, with each stone in the library system being overturned and re-evaluated, hopefully leading to better service for library patrons. Inevitably, change is met with resistance. The library crowd is reasonably adept at getting at the best of the enthusiasts and the resistors, but sometimes a experienced and clear voice is needed. In his book, Crawford lives up to his blog tag-line, “The library voice of the radical middle”. It could be the bible of the Slow Library movement."

Read the rest ...

New Slow Reading blog

2007-09-04T11:51:01-03:00

I have launched a new blog called "Slow Reading" that may be of interest to readers of "Slow Library". There is some overlap in the ideas but enough difference to merit a separate thread there. I think of Slow Library as being more about the mission of libraries, library policy, the evolution of library systems and about librarians themselves. The Slow Reading blog is about reading per se, how reading is changing in the digital age, and how the way we read can have a cultural impact. I have blogged about these concepts at John Miedema (list), and it continues to be a subject of interest for many, so I am shifting that subject to a new dedicated blog.

Here is my statement of what I think Slow Reading is about. Here is a link to a new Wikipedia entry on Slow Reading; it is just a stub at present and I am looking forward to collaboration on it.

Colbert and Rushdie on Literary Crticism

2007-05-17T21:56:25-03:00

"People Are Going To Read What Oprah Tells Them To Read, And They Are Going To Like It!"

I think every Slow Library conversation should mention Colbert eventually. In fact, I think Colbert should be a new 7th key concept in the Slow Library Canon :-)

Scraped from BookLust

A long post about a slow topic

2007-05-03T01:32:02-03:00

Will slow reading be a casualty of fast libraries? That's the question at the beginning of this thoughtful post by John Miedema that goes on to discuss library 2.0, the slow library movement and the digitization of everything event horizon.

Cites and Insights Piece on Slow Library

2007-04-26T22:51:01-03:00

Walt Crawford's latest Cites & Insights has a piece on the Slow Library Movement. A sample:

Food for thought here—your own regional cuisine, ideally prepared with almost all of the ingredients harvested within a hundred miles or less. (Easy for me to say: Other than coffee, chocolate, mangos and pineapples, there’s precious little that a Northern Californian would lose!) Slow Food can be fast—but it’s never Fast Food. Slow Libraries won’t be behind the times—but they won’t rubberstamp what the “cool library” is doing just because it’s new. That’s the way I read it. If I’m wrong, blame me, not the Slow Library folks.

You might also want to check out Walt's new book, Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change, which is available from Lulu.

"Slow library resonates!"

2007-04-26T09:46:40-03:00

"At the Washington Library Association Conference last week ... When Walt off-handedly mentioned the Slow Library Movement there was a spontaneous burst of applause and cheers from the audience. Very interesting! Slow Library was not the main topic of discussion, was not elaborated upon, was only mentioned in passing ...and yet it got an immediate emotional response."

Posted by blgThree at the Library 2.0 network on Ning. Read the post.

Snail Books? Is that like Slow Library?

2007-04-16T09:25:44-03:00

Image Source Finder

It was the word "books" that caught my eye, then I saw the word "snail" in front of it. Another unofficial icon of Slow Library?

"The DIY library revolution"

2007-04-11T17:15:22-03:00

The May 2007 issue of Quill & Quire has a Library Special Report including an article called "The DIY library revolution." I like the sound of that. I'll have to get a copy.

Sort of in the spirit of Make magazine. If you haven't seen it, Make magazine is devoted to people who don't settle for the technologies handed them, but like to tinker and personalize designs. Library patrons might like to do the same with their libraries.

A Slow Library Mascot

2007-04-11T01:33:02-03:00

I just posted on LoomWare about Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur, Carl Safina's wonderful new book on the life of the Leatherback sea turtle. Like many things I read these days I found numerous pieces that spoke to some of the central tenets of the Slow Library concept. While it may seem like a stretch, I think inspiration where you least expect it is the best kind :-) An example:

Various lines of evidence converge on an important point: things local people can control on local beaches can, in many cases, bring turtles back. And have. Local control of nature and natural resources has a chance of working. All hope is local.

Try it - you'll be inspired :-)

Taking the Local

2007-04-06T01:52:37-03:00

When I start yammering about Slow Library ideas, the first connection I make is to the Slow Food movement. However, that can get confusing since shopping, cooking and eating aren't like listening, browsing and reading... or are they?

We're getting to the point where every public library has internet access and some variety of (ususally PC) computers. In my state, Vermont, they also have access to mostly the same databases. This is all great. However, once you get to the point where most library patrons in most places have at least nominal access to the same materials, what makes your library, the one in your town, yours?

Where I live this is particularly important because each library is funded by the town or towns that it serves. The librarian, more often than not, goes to the town meeting to explain what she did with last year's money and to ask for next year's money. If you're doing that, you better have good explanations. One of my favorite things about new technology, particularly open source and 2.0-ish shiny widgets is the way they allow people without access to servers and programmers and high end tools, the ability to make something useful and bring it back to their communities.

So Flickr helps the librarian make a slideshow. Blogger helps the library make a web page. Meebo helps the librarian IM with patrons. The thing that is great about all of these tools isn't just their read-write-webbiness or their open-APIs or their slick 16 point headline text and rounded corners. The thing that's great about them is that a library with a $23,000 budget can use them to help them do their jobs, their existing jobs and maybe some new ones, better.

Once we get to the point where internet access isn't so shiny and everyone gets the idea that we're all part of this giant global community, they're still going to want a place to read a magazine, or play RuneScape, or download an audiobook, or find an old picture of their house, or just talk to someone about the weather. The more we can use the Web to go out and get things, the more it's important that we have a place to bring them back TO.