Ich dachte eigentlich, ich hätte bereits auf diesen programmatischen Artikel von Phil Bradley hingewiesen – oder bibliothekarisch.de hätte es getan.
Eine Bibliothek ist weder ein Ort noch eine Sammlung, wir sind auch nicht – waren nie! – im Buchgeschäft tätig, sondern haben mit Wissensmanagement zu tun, sind quasi das Rückgrat einer Gemeinschaft, ist seine These:
“Every single librarian does something special, and it doesn’t matter if they’re in a school, public library, academic, prison, commercial – any. We help to or perhaps even inspire people to read, we help people get jobs, we change lives. We make a community better. We make a community better, and yes I did repeat that, because it’s important. We help protect free speech, we help provide people with hope, and I don’t make any excuse for using such hyperbole, because it needs to be heard. It needs to be shouted.”
“Libraries and librarians are not a community ‘bolt on’ service. They are an integral part of a community, they help represent a community and they contribute to the health of a community. That’s why cuts to libraries are so dangerous – not just because they deprive people of access to resources, or jobs, or information or pleasure, but because they say ‘You don’t matter. You are not important.’ That’s not a good thing.”