We are researching the topic of how librarians can plan for the future in their libraries. In architectural school, the "Environment' and "Environmental Design" were at the root of all my design considerations. Most of us in class thought, "We've got this. We can be agents of change for good. Our values and caring for our planet through intelligent design are going to help everyone."  The "Almost" in the title of the following intensive and exhausting-to-read (for me at least!) article sums up the results of our youthful, optimistic dreams.

This is this a photo of weekend's New York Times Magazine cover, stark white letters on unrelieved black, small enough to make you really look and read. The exclusive Two-Part issue of August 1, 2018 - Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change - is so overarching a topic that it must be considered by all community leaders as they try to plan for services that are foremost on their users' minds and strive to meet just their basic human needs.

The publication clearly and in plain words puts before our eyes for all to see, the feet-of-clay history of what we have done since we were all warned that climate change was real and how it could affect our lives.

Our global climate affects our jobs, our health, immigration intensity, food and water supplies, demand for science-literate citizens, our power supplies and the willingness by our community's institutions to embrace adaptability. We have no exact idea how this issue will devolve but one thing is certain; it will and we must consider our environment in every decision we make when planning our libraries.

The chapter titles of Part One are riveting. As you begin to read Part Two, you'll get the drift of where this is headed.

1. 'This Is the Whole Banana', Spring 1979

2. 'The Whimsies of the Invisible World', Spring 1979

3. 'Between catastrophe and Chaos', July 1979

4. 'A Very Aggressive Defensive Program', Summer 1979-summer 1980

5. 'We Are Flying Blind', October 1980

6. 'Otherwise, They'll Gurgle', November 1980-September 1981

7. 'We're All Going to Be the Victims', March 1982

8. 'The Direction of an Impending catastrophe', 1982

Here is the link to the full on-line publication (with awe inspiring photos).

Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change By Nathaniel Rich Photographs and Videos by George Steinmetz

A group of Bradford pupils visit the Hay Festival  for the first time "as part of an exchange programme with the Bradford Literature Festival" .

They gleefully give their review.

"I'm looking forward to (The Hay Festival) because I'm going to know what is outside of Bradford, going to a different place."

There is hope.

Librarians planning your new library or addition, take note.

You can do anything you want to do.

A story to inspire you.

Camila Silva reports in worldarchitecture.org about an exciting program "created by the architect Carina Guedes. Named Arquitetura na Periferia , the program teaches women (that they) can design their houses by themselves."

The idea was born from Carina's master's thesis in collaboration with her advisor and the research group MOM (Morar de Outras Maneiras).

This account is taken from this link at worldarchitecture.org

(a team working in) A social project in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has taught low-income women how to renovate or extend their homes without the assistance of a professional.

In a country where the most economically vulnerable population sees self-construction as the only alternative, the results of this initiative do more than increasing (sic) the housing quality: the project changes how these women envision life by itself.

Through a process where the groups of women are (introduced and taught) the practices/techniques of project design and planning, (with) technical assistance for the improvement of housing, (the women) ... (are) able to conduct the construction (of their homes) with autonomy and without waste."

According to an interview given to Catraca Livre, the participant Ana Paula affirms that her vision of the world has changed. "Today I look at things and people in a different way. For example, I look at people knowing that any of us can do anything we want". (my emphasis) 

Here are further links to this encouraging story:

Projeto em BH ensina mulheres periféricas a reformar suas casas

Abrace o Brasil - Abrace o Brasil

and

Arquitetura na Periferia - Home | Facebook

Jan Holmquist - (Global librarian: Because libraries make communities smarter.) Shares this report by Julia Chandler - Libraries Taskforce highlighting the exciting news and great visuals from the second week in October during the UK's Libraries Week

ScrnGrbCred: Jan Holmquist Newsletter

News from Ontario, Canada: WE SUPPORT PUBLIC LIBRARIES  The people of Canada's most heavily populated province are living up to these words, "Investing in Ontario's public libraries is part of our plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives."

"Ontario is investing $3 million through the Improving Library Digital Services fund and will support up to 307 libraries and library organizations across the province. This includes $1 million for rural, remote and First Nation public libraries through Budget Talks."

This is the press release from the office of the Hon. Eleanor McMahon Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport , MPP (Member of the Provincial Parliament) for Burlington (Ontario):  http://bit.ly/2tTA1Of

BurlingtonPL

The initiative will support funding for "access to technology, digital services and training opportunities at public libraries in towns, cities and Indigenous communities across the province."

FrstNtnsPLWeek2017

Ontario is the most populated province in Canada with 38.3% of the country's people mainly gathered along the border with the United States. Canada has only 11.2% of the population of the United States of America but it is clear that Canadians' 'Community Intelligence Factor' is more in tune with their citizen's needs.

Living south of the 49th, we have this year witnessed the erosion of trust in the Media; shortsighted slashes to funding for libraries at the Federal level (see this article in ALA News,23May'17); imprudent stagnation of funding to libraries at State levels and ignorance of the essential role of Information Literacy. We are proud that the people in Ontario gave voice to their needs so that they can take their place as leaders in our world economy and participate in global stewardship.

 The Ministry site also provides a complete list, with live links, to all the libraries in Ontario, check them out there are some fantastic things going on in Ontario and Canada-wide in Your Library.

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Librarians and their Libraries have shifted and morphed with us since we had papyri and charcoal, flint and bone. It is our contention that, as our world becomes ever more connected and the individual in contrast senses a growing seclusion and remove, libraries will provide a Commons, a safe Place to be together, and a repository of our past, present and future musings - be they on tape, in a book, in bytes in the Cloud or on a Holodeck. 

Leave it to the brilliant and out-of-the-Box-Aussies to publish this piece "Libraries of the Future are going to change in some unexpected way", in a Business/Tech section.

from Business Insider Australia

Chris Weller in Business Insider Australia reports from an interview with David Pescovitz, (who has not Tweeted yet has 758 followers on Twitter!) , co-editor  @BoingBoing and research director at the Institute for the Future , that the Libraries of your Future are going to be there with you. 

They might not look like today's libraries but they will fulfill our deep societal need that will expand beyond our imaginings with information we haven't yet dreamed of and provide access to technologies not yet invented.

We change, Libraries change and, because we are libraries, they will keep pace and stay with us no matter where we go.

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@WLIC2016‎ @amlibraries and @ IFLA have news for those of us who think we have insurmountable problems getting our new library building projects off the ground and running.

Landscape + Recycling + Childrens' Reading Needs + Community Engagement = ‎The IFLA Green Library Award 2016. The Pequeño Sol Green Library

This is the 'formula' the people of Germinalia A.C., San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico used for their sustainable new library project.

For their brilliant needs assessment; commitment to sustainability; community orgainisation and willingness to do the work  - this community has received 1^st Place: for “a project where sustainability was in the soul of the project from the first starting of the idea until to the new library”

The design is clear cut and simple in its inception and brilliant in its execution:

Foundation and concrete slab, mixed and hand poured by parents and young adults;

Wall construction: Recyclable containers carefully washed out and stockpiled by families fill cast-off wooden packing pallets, parged by hand;

and a roof of sturdy metal tops off this structure built with love and intelligent design.

But it is the manner in which this library was constructed, by hand and with total community commitment, that impresses anyone who watches this beautifully put together video: El Pequeño Sol ecological library (The Little Sun Ecological Library

 Be prepared to never complain about your library again. 

See the full details in the Press release from IFLA [English – PDF].

Screen Grab Credit: YouTube Video

'A revolution has been happening (in Somaliland) in publishing books, reading, writing and literature,' says Musa...."

"Hamdi Ali Musa saw her first book when she was 10. Now 25, she's one of Hargeisa's only librarians." (shown in photo)

Somaliland is a self declared state (some sources say 'republic') and an autonomous region of Somalia.

It is also a region of Africa whose roots go back to the Neolithic Period. On the outskirts of the Capital, Hargeisa are the Laas Geel complex cave paintings  "containing stratified archaeological infills capable of documenting the period when production economy appeared in this part of Somalia (circa 5th and 2nd millennium BCE)".(Wikipedia)

The capital of this republic is Hargeisa (Somali: Hargeysa, Arabic: هرجيسا‎‎ is the second largest city in Somalia after Mogadishu. (source: Wikipedia).

And here's a fascinating fact ... for centuries until recent history (the end of the 1800's) when European Imperialist interests turned their attention to the region, splitting it up, negotiating treaties to alternately divide or reunite it and eventually leaving it to handle its own particular brand of civil war ... this country's people passed on their ancient legacy of stories in the Oral Tradition.

That's all changed now for a number of reasons, the need to join the community of nations being one of them. Books and their authors represent the renewed hope of these people who are widely spread across our globe as a diaspora - a country as an idea. Since 1972 the swelling initiative to support books written in Somali has been chiefly lead by the desire to gather together in a literary and a real way, the hundreds of thousands of Somalis that have fled this ancient land during its fight for independence and have not returned.

Somaliland has no passport agency and is not 'officially recognised' by the international community. It has no support from international aid agencies nor funds flowing to it from the World Bank. It does have a Book Fair, (site text not it English) and that's where librarian Hamdi Ali Musa enters this story. "The (Book Fair is the) biggest annual event in Somaliland, drawing 11,000 attendees this year, (is) an advertisement for a republic that showcases itself as a kind of "anti-Somalia."

I can not find any details about Hamdi Ali Musa other than what is reported by NPR (and republished by the online 'Samliland Informer'.) I am encouraged as should we all be, that a young woman is the stewart of this growing body of Somali literature, taking her country with her into her future.

Here is the link to the Hargeisa Library on Twitter. @HargeisaLibrary. Somliland skipped right over the 1900's and scooted right into the 21st with its communications and social media!

Credit: NPR, Wikipedia, Twitter

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Are people still asking, "Do libraries 'have a future'?

Do you find yourself defending funding to libraries - your library?

When was the last time someone told you 'books are so yesterday, libraries are dead"?

Public Libraries Europe just updated their Tour site. There are some great talking points here, and a lot of encouraging news.

This is their main website: Public Libraries 2020 Building Stronger EU Communities

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Got your attention?

This summary article (Wiley.com) written by Lluis Anglada, Director of the Department of Libraries, Information and Documentation of the Consortium of University Services of Catalonia (CSUC), of his paper, Are Libraries Sustainable In World Of Free, Networked, Digital Information? gives us the straight goods about the future of libraries and a formula (yes, a mathematical formula!) to help us find our way into our future as viable libraries.

Are Libraries Sustainable In World Of Free, Networked, Digital Information? and available open access here  talks "...about the sustainability of libraries in a world where information is increasingly digital, networked, and free, based on a speech he gave at the 22nd Bobcatsss conference in Barcelona, January 21-24 2014."

He proposes that "the same stages and library events have taken place in all countries and in all library types, but not at the same time. Therefore, the different phases that libraries passed through to become automated are similar in each country, but they occurred in different years (Anglada , 2006)." And "a division of the recent history of libraries  (can be organised) into three major phases over the past 50 years."

Mechanization, a period characterized by the construction of new buildings and mechanization of processes; Automation, in which networks of libraries were created, OPAC was introduced and union catalogues were created; and Digitization, in which electronic journals and books appeared and documents stored in libraries have been digitized (Buckland, 1992)

Here is a portion of his discourse on the third phase:

"During the Digitization phase, however, despite librarians’ ability to adapt (both in terms of their own roles and how the library space is used), the speed of change has been so great that dysfunctions (defined as the difference between expectations and realities) have continued to increase. For example, duplication in catalogs as a result of one book being catalogued more than once; the ‘Googlization’ of information, while library catalogues – once so innovative – have failed to keep up with; and the failure of libraries to sufficiently adapt their services to meet users’ changing expectations. As a result, applying the formula to the Digitized library shows a clear downward trend in terms of its sustainability."

It continues:

"Basically, libraries are suffering from the fact that the public perception of them remains attached to the printed book, which – with the advent of the Internet and digitization of information – is no longer valued as much as it was. Among other things, this has led to the steady decline in library budgets – both in real terms and as a proportion of the overall university budget. Some classic library services are also experiencing significant declines – loan transactions, reference inquiries, and displacement of the starting point for literature searches from the library catalogue to and A&I service or the internet, for example."

and concludes:

"We need to establish a new stereotype of ‘library’ in people’s minds, one that is not based on physical elements – buildings and books – but on the role of providing support and assistance in the difficult process of using information and transforming it into knowledge.

The creation of this new perception must be performed by the current generation of young librarians – “those who are inheriting renovated libraries but also a mental image that is associated with becoming less powerful for society. This is the challenge and responsibility for young librarians: to create a new perception of our profession.”

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How is your library helping users do what they need to do on line?

Here is a Pew Research Center article - 10 facts about technology use in the emerging world - that sums up 10 of the notable data points about specific countries that popped up in a recent survey.

I was particularly brought face to face with my ignorance to learn that "about eight-in-ten Americans (80%) and Russians (78%) have a working computer in their household". We are not alone in our on-line world.

If we are not aware of where we in North America fit into this complex on-line conversation between people and their interests, can we really provide the necessary tools to our users so they keep up to their world neighbours with information that can lead them into the future?

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Appendix A: Statistical Portrait of Library Users

screen shot: ILN

"The International Librarians Network (ILN) is a facilitated program aimed at helping librarians develop international networks. (They) believe that innovation and inspiration can cross borders, and that spreading our networks beyond our home countries can make us better at what we do.

ILN is run by volunteers all around the world. Program Coordinators match participants, support the partnerships, and manage the website."

Give it a try...you never know who you may meet while giving back to your international library community!

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