Last night was chock full o' news watching for me. It started with Off the Record, moved on to the networks, and ended back at PBS for 2 hours of news programming. I just stumbled across Off the Record last week and I love love love it. It's a Michigan roundtable news show in the vein of Washington Week with Gwen Ifill (oh yeah, I watched that too last night). One of their guests was Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, Inc, a non-partisan, non-profit organization searching for ways for the Michigan economy to succeed in the Information Age. Dang me. I've been saying that I wished someone would come up with some creative and different ideas to move this economy into the future. Mr. Glazer wooed me with his New Agenda for Michigan (pdf)--it's pretty wild and there's no way to pay for the programs without tax increases and who the hell's going to call for that in the middle of an election year, but it's an innovative and long-term plan that legislators should start looking at. It's becoming imperative for Michigan to stop looking to the past for answers to our economic problems. Manufacturing is dead and attempting to find other automakers to take over plants is a band-aid on the gaping economic wound. Knowledge-based enterprises are the future in a global economy. And Michiganders need to start realizing that the economic strategy for the past 12 years of cutting taxes doesn't work. "...the states that are above the national average in both per capita income and share of employment earnings from high-pay, knowledge-based industries are not characterized by low taxes. If anything they tend to be more high-tax than low (pg.19 of New Agenda for Michigan)." I printed out a copy of the report to read at home (seriously, I need to get a computer!) and I urge people interested in saving Michigan to read it. It's not perfect, but it's a really great start.
News Hour was pretty entertaining too. They did a piece on Congressional races in 2006 and focused on a suburb of Pittsburgh? Philadelphia? Some Pennsylvania city...and it was hilarious to watch 3 incumbent Republicans all say "I'm not with the President. I'm not against the President. I'm looking out for my constituents. Sometimes I agree with him and sometimes I don't" and then hear the 3 Democrats all say "They're going to say they don't align themselves with the President but they've voted with him 80% of the time." I watched politicians say absolutely nothing. The president's approval rating is down. Of COURSE Republicans are going to distance themselves and of COURSE Democrats are going to try and put them in bed together. The most interesting aspect of the piece was how clear it was that being an incumbent this year is bad and that challengers definitely have the upper-hand. The Shields and Brooks debate over Gitmo and the really stupid, pointless, and blatantly political House vote on Iraq was pretty entertaining too. Shields started off on the debate in the House (which was hilarious to watch too. No real debate here, people, just a bunch of finger-pointing and screaming and what makes it even better is that it's symbolic so we just wasted 2 days of our already very short legislative session doing absolutely nothing!) and said it was a move by Republicans to capitalize on the best week the administration has had in over a year. I love it when Brooks-the conservative voice-comes back with "Uh, yeah. That's pretty much what happened." This is not to say that David Brooks doesn't have teeth. I usually end up feeling like Shields is a pansy-ass Democratic talking head who's just out there towing the party line and Brooks actually THINKS before he speaks.
See there? I just said I respected the Republican more.
Washington Week makes me feel like I'm an insider. There was a big discussion on the non-story of Karl Rove not getting indicted which ended with 5 journalists all saying they wish they could take bets on who did leak Valerie Plame's name and yet know they'll never find out the truth. I'm definitely not surprised with the Rove decision. The man is so evil and devious and brilliant and underhanded there was no way he'd actually get indicted. I think the only way to combat Rove in the mid-terms is to get local. He's going to have control over the national issues (though they really only have the don't-cut-and-run-in-Iraq going for them and maybe immigration) so if we focus locally I think we have a better shot. Quite honestly it all comes down to what's happening on the ground in Iraq during the latter half of October anyway.
Post-news watching I settled in with a glass of wine and my big stack of Library 2.0 literature. It's such an interesting movement mostly because it's really intuitive. Best serving patrons is definitely not a new concept, but I think with the advent of new technologies libraries are definitely in danger of becoming irrelevant. There is some criticism that the recent focus on teen programming in libraries has detracted from the more traditional library services. Old people can still come and check out their books, but it's about time we start looking towards our future taxpayers and give them reason to value the library. Library 2.0 fits into that goal. This is one of my favorite definitions from Sarah Houghton:
"Library 2.0 simply means making your library's space (virtual and physical) more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs. Examples of where to start include blogs, gaming nights for teens, and collaborative photo sites. The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives...to make the library a destination and not an afterthought."
At my library I'd bet there are some who believe we're already on our way. "We've got a coffee shop! We've got wireless access! We have a website!" We also have a majority of staff who are terrified of Word let alone our ILS. Our programming for teens is beyond old school. Our website is still free thereby limiting our options. Our P.R. is lackluster when it's even utilized. Our customer service model seems to primarily stem from an Us verses Them mindset wherein the patron is the enemy. We aren't thinking ahead at all. We're stuck in the traditional library model and until there's some new blood I don't think we're going to move forward.
Why I'm going to Library School
By: Erin
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