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8/17/2006

POLL: Education, Information or Recreation ?

The other day I was talking with several colleagues about the future of libraries and information services and someone made this excellent point.

“We all know that libraries are about education, information and recreation. But if you listen to one expert, they’ll tell you the future of libraries is in education. Another will tell you it’s about information and a third will tell you it’s all about leisure. So you can’t really rely on that.”


I agree! Anyway, as I thought about this more that evening, it got me wondering … if I were "the expert" and someone asked forced me put all my eggs in just one of these baskets (education, information or recreation) as to bet on where the best stronghold of libraries would be ten or fifteen years from now - which one would I choose?

I know what my answer would be … but I’m curious to know if others agree with me. So here's a quick poll - Which basket would you choose?


Which basket do you think provides libraries with the best longevity and future?
Education
Information
Recreation
Free polls from Pollhost.com




PS: I’ll post the results next week. In the meantime … think about it and perhaps even post your thoughts. :)

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1 comment:

circulating said...

This is really a hard question... but I will be brave and try to rationalize my vote...

We have determined to be a popular materials library. So what is popular? Education? Information? Recreation? We think all three!!

Now our customers may desire to choose from our collections, use our technology or participate in our programs, but unless it is valuable, unless it is personal, the customer experience is not realized as worthy of repeat visits.

Give them information. Let them decide whether they need it for education or recreation.

Lifelong learning must be fun or at the very least pleasantly attainable.

isg
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