How Libraries Empower Communities With Innovation

Description:

Over 150 years have passed since the American experiment with public libraries began, but the profession has never stopped challenging itself to offer new, improved, and current service. Librarians of all stripes - public, academic, school, corporate - have become user experience experts embedded in their communities, continually hearing and responding to desires, dreams, and feedback. The librarians of 2020 believe that discovery and collaboration leads to empowerment. By cultivating the experience of their communities, they offer hands-on interdisciplinary learning and build creativity, teamwork, and tolerance for failure, all vital skills for work and life in the 21st century. They are both the hyper-local fabric of their communities and the gateways to explorations of a wider world.