ILA Keynote Speaker

George Needham of OCLC gave the Keynote address. It was inspiring and encouraging.

Here are a few soundbites from the presentation:

The library's tag line should read: Save Time, Get Better Grades.

Libraries need to be marketed not as Institutions, but as Infrastructure, from frill to neccessity, from altruism to return on investment. There are several online OCLC reports with information and data that can be used to back up the argument so go check them out at: http://www.oclc.org/reports/ In particular, the reports on "From Awareness to Funding," "Sharing, Privacy & Trust in Our Networked World," and "College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries & Information Resources"

To enliven his presentation Mr. Needham included some facts from the Beloit College Mindset List (http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/).

"The Mindset List is not a chronological listing of things that happened in 1990, the year they were born. It is instead an effort to identify the worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2008. Of course, our students come from many backgrounds and different traditions and these generalizations may not apply to all. The list identifies the experiences and event horizons of students and is not meant to reflect on their preparatory education.

It is also not deliberately designed to make readers feel really old!"

Here are the first five of the sixty entries on this very entertaining list:

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.

George Needham was a very interesting speaker and best of all, he was truly inspiring about the impact a that we can have on our communities.