Describe the missions and values of libraries and information organizations from past to present. Examples of Mission Statements can be found here: http://www.urbanlibraries.org/mission-statements-pages-236.php (Links to an external site.) Using the link above, take the time to consider and evaluate the mission statements of libraries in comparison and contrast to the background readings for this Module.

Based on your reading of this material and the chapter in Rubin, have things changed over time as to the purpose of public libraries (and even academic) as our country has changed over the past 100 years? What types of statements surprised you and what did you perhaps find that you thought was well expressed? (Include links in your writings to the library statements you are talking about, as we would all benefit from the reference citation or links to your findings!

To further in your evaluation, google “LIBRARY MISSION STATEMENTS” and find some examples of the vast array of statements you can find; from small to large institutions. Write a brief few paragraphs for the class to consider those similarities and interesting findings of what we are up to in libraries when it comes to describing and clarifying our missions in library and information organizations. From Fergus Falls Minnesota to Miami, FL, I am sure you will all kinds of interesting statements.

Before presenting my response to this week’s discussion, I want to present some historical context that will mark my approach to the topic:

In 1876, Melvil Dewey stated that popular education was actually divided into two parts: 'the free school and the free public library' (Dewey 1978, p. 5). He thought of the library as a school and of the librarian as a teacher. But in what way was the mission of the public library distinct from the public schools? First, the public library could satisfy the interest in reading and learning for all ages, not just for those who were in school; second, it was a means to self-improvement in age when self-education was still a vital means for improving one's changes in society. Third, it was intended to produce more thoughtful people, individuals capable of making balanced and well-reasoned judgments in a democratic society that depended on their judgments at the voting booth. Such citizens would serve as a strong and stabilizing force to the democratic society. Finally, libraries were perceived as “cultural agencies.” Indeed, librarians of the latter half of the nineteenth century saw themselves as agents of social improvement. (Rubin, 2016, p. 60).

In the most fundamental ways, I don’t believe the mission of public libraries has essentially changed. in the 1870s, Dewey was talking about free access to resources for literacy and self-improvement, a place to inculcate and promote democratic values in an informed citizenry, and a source of community and leisure through public reading rooms. As Dewey later expressed it in the official motto for the ALA (1893): “The best reading, for the largest number, at the lowest cost.” (Visit this link for a 2004 debate on the motto http://michaelgolrick.blogspot.com/2013/01/alas-motto.html).

So what has changed?

Technology has changed the form and distribution of knowledge and the library has adapted to those changes but the fundamental mission to inform, educate and entertain remains.

The decline in American’s participation in voluntary civic organizations has recently been declining precipitously as documented in Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, means one can no longer count on voluntary civic organizations to undergird civic society as was the case when Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about them in Democracy in America in the 1830s. This is one area where the mission of the library has evolved to consciously open a new civic space of engagement as documented in the ALA’s “Libraries Transforming Communities” initiative which attempts to move the library to an external, community focus – away from the major emphasis on the library’s resource collection (Rubin, p. 103). This is further developed in the re-imagining of the library space as Dr. Fay explained in his lecture and in the article covering Auburn’s EASL library initiative.

Another area where the values of the library have changed is in the defense of privacy. As we read last week in the ethics chapter, protection of first amendment and privacy concerns grew out of historical experiences of censorship and privacy concerns from government surveillance from the McCarthy to the PATRIOT Act. This has changed the library from a more prescriptive mission (providing the best books in the judgment of librarians) to a more neutral stance in collection development to be more consciously representative of community members’ identity differences and resource wants/needs. As Andrew Sullivan identified throughout his article, a 21st-century version of privacy can include the need to have a place without all the distractions of technological intrusion into every conceivable channel of messaging. The library can also be a place where access to information is not tracked for the benefit of third-party companies like Google, Facebook, and thousands of others.

Examples of library mission statements I found via Google search.

• The mission of The New York Public Library is to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities. (https://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/mission)
• The Boston Public Library's mission is to preserve and provide access to historical records of our society, and to serve the cultural, educational, and informational needs of the people of the City and the Commonwealth. (http://www.bpl.org/general/trustees/mission.htm)
• The Mission of the Florida A&M University Libraries is to provide a user-centered information environment that supports inspirational teaching, exemplary research, meaningful service, and life long learning to the local and global university community. (http://library.famu.edu/index/aboutus)
• The mission of the Bodleian Libraries is to provide an excellent service to support the learning, teaching and research objectives of the University of Oxford; and to develop and maintain access to Oxford's unique collections for the benefit of scholarship and society. (https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/about-us)
• The Langley-Adams Library provides a wide range of information and materials, using traditional and innovative methods, for all ages to promote, encourage and support the diverse needs within the community. The Library also provides a friendly space for the community which will encourage curiosity, free inquiry and lifelong learning. The Library Staff and Trustees are dedicated to providing the best service to all patrons. (http://www.langleyadamslib.org/about-us/mission-vision-statements/)
• The UC Berkeley Library connects students and scholars to the world of information and ideas. With a daily commitment to excellence and innovation, we select and create, organize and protect, provide and teach access to resources that are relevant to our campus programs and pursuits. (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/about-the-libraries)

Six examples. The word “information” is in four, “community” in three, “learn”/ “teach” in five. What is missing in this sample? “Entertain”. We can forgive its absence in the case of academic libraries but why is it missing from the public mission statements. Maybe we haven’t gotten past the ideal of the librarian as a prescriptive force? What about all the great adventures enjoy through fiction?

And should libraries as public institution, clothe themselves in the rhetorical messaging of a “mission statement” – a form that comes directly out of the business consultant lexicon of practice? Maybe, Dewey’s motto better reflects a public institution.

Of all the library statements I came across, my favorite is from Kansas.

• Your Place. Stories you want, information you need, connections you seek.
• —Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library (KS) (http://www.urbanlibraries.org/mission-statements-pages-236.php (Links to an external site.)) and (https://tscpl.org/about/mission-statement (Links to an external site.))

What I like most about this statement is that is not library-centric in expression. It’s patron-centered. And it emphasizes stories. There it is - “entertainment”. Finally!

This statement is pithy, classic, and personal. And the rest of the material on the website mission page is equally engaging.

This library feels “human” and now I want to visit.

Dewey-luiah!

References

Rubin, R. E. (2016). Foundations of library and information science (4th ed.). Chicago, IL: Neal-Schuman.