SEE KNOWLEDGE AS “FLOW,” NOT “STOCK”

Since the real product of your library is answers (knowledge), the way you look at it is important. John Dolan, head of library policy for the UK cabinet level division of Museums, Libraries & Archives, said that it is “critical” for libraries to move away from thinking of libraries as storehouses “to libraries as animators, to help empower ‘smart publics.’ Libraries should be thee not to gather knowledge but to move it—to be a facilitator. The library worker can act as the catalyst, pollinator of learning, or discovery. Being part of the solution to the need, not just being the go-between, the mediator.”

Library+information update 7(5):16, May 2008.