David Lee King recently blogged about his concept of the website/digital branch being the 3rd place at http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/09/22/rethinking-the-3rd-place/. Third places are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.
Other “places” include:
1st place—home
2nd place—workplace
The system consultants have been discussing the need for a web presence for all libraries. Some libraries have been resistance because they feel their patrons don’t use the Internet and just come to the physical library place.
It is my belief that “if you build it, they will come.” The same philosophy applies to facebook, twitter, blogs, mobile texting, etc. If you make it easy for your patrons to see and contact you, they will. If libraries want to be seen as anchors in their communities, they need to be visible. Utilizing Internet resources to highlight library services requires some time commitment, but these services require no fees and could have a great impact on reaching new and existing patrons. Librarians don't always have to be on "public time". Everyone needs time to recharge and unwind, but a virtual identity is becoming essential for libraries just like it is becoming "must have" for everyone else.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment