It's funny because it's true

Tim Spalding of LibraryThingwrites on the Thingology blog:

"I have seen the future of libraries. It is to spend the future discussing the future of libraries."

When I finally stopped laughing, I couldn't help but agree.

There are a lot of people in LibraryLand that are thinking a lot of great thoughts about how libraries should be run and how catalogs should look and how we should serve our users. It's great conversation and I want to be part of it. Getting our ducks in a row before we start the revolution makes sense to me.

But when do we, as a profession, stop getting our ducks in a row and start the revolution already?

On a person-by-person level it's already happening. There are luminaries out there preaching the Gospel of Library 2.0 and making a difference. There are individual libraries making changes, both large and small, that make their libraries more user-friendly. And it's true that a revolution can happen one person at a time.

As a profession, though, we're sort of lumbering toward the brink of extinction where we either have to evolve or die out and let something else emerge in our place. Those luminaries I mentioned before--they can't drag the profession kicking and screaming into modernity unless the profession wants to change. I sometimes wonder if we, as profession, do want to change. Some of us do, yes, but do we as a whole? Are we committed, as a profession, to being Libraries in a 2.0 world?

It's funny 'cause it's true. And it's funny because you have to laugh to keep from crying.

--Erin