A Report from the Ontario Digital Library.
Mike Ridley is discussing the vision for the Ontario Digital Library. It's similar to some of the things we want to do in Illinois, so I sympathize with the challenges they are facing. He opened a buzzword bingo slide (great idea!) and then a great quote (that I don't think is his but I missed the attribution).
“When simple change becomes transformational change, the desire for continuity becomes a dysfunctional mirage.”
My favorite part of his presentation is his analogy of the internet to an “electronic pinata.”
- the good material is in the piñata, but all you’ve got to locate it is a big stick to try and open it up
- to make it worse, they blindfold you and spin you around
- if you’re lucky, the good stuff does come out, but then it’s spread out all over the floor and everyone’s rushing for it
- have to bring order to this with better tools (such as the ODL)
You can see the full proposal for the ODL at the Ontario Library Association's site. Mike put a heavy emphasis on different types of libraries coming together and acting as one voice. This has been difficult to do traditionally because things like funding and politics keeps us separate. Hopefully projects like the ODL will help unite us.
Amen.
Most of the questions for Mike are centering on fundraising and partnerships, which shows just how little most librarians know about and work on these types of issues. We really need to educate ourselves in these areas, including PR (myself included). [The Shifted Librarian]