Monday, May 11, 2009
Dreaming the Future
Back in December Thomas Frey and Michael Stephens challenged us to have big dreams about the future and make them our reality. So what are your biggest dreams about public library service "in the future"? I find that there is an uncanny connection between the future and the present, that the present is actually energized by our vision of the future, and the future is in turn shaped by that visioning. It's all a continuum - and the more we postpone visioning now, the more we limit our potential future. It seems we spend a lot of time on the here and now, and very little on the there and then. When we do try to see the world that is possible "out there", we quickly qualify everything with, "well, that isn't really feasible," or "that all sounds good, but..." What if we created a space where the very laws of that space dictated abandoning discussion of limitations and practical realities? Can we actually "live" in that kind of space even in a virtual sense? What would happen if we tried?
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Woah, what a great question to start off with! I don't think ALL of us can live in that space - but some of us DO function very comfortably there, and I think the challenge is for people who DO to be able to communicate their vision and collaborate with people who work better in other concrete ways, so that we can all contribute our skills to building the Brave New Library World together.
ReplyDeleteJust my two cents. Also, I am mightily fond of the unorthodox, as you might have gathered. ;)
LAV
Yah, Marilyn...woah. That blog post has gotten me really thinking. At times, I lose my energy to fight the good fight, but conferences (LITAcamp) and this whole project and all the cool energy everyone's bringing to it have reeled me back into the swarm. I agree with LAV that we all need each other (the devil's advocates and naysayers) it's often communication and process that trip us all up. Off we go!!
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