Engaged Libraries
The Summer, 2006 issue of Continuum, the magazine of the University of Minnesota Libraries, has "Reaching Out" as its theme. The introductory editorial by Wendy Pradt Lougee, the University Librarian, is entitled "The Engaged Library", describes the threefold mission: "We serve and support the learning of our students, faculty, and staff. We make our resources available to local, state, and global audiences. And we have an unwavering commitment to freedom of inquiry, bringing our collections and expertise to bear in helping individuals identify information they need for research or personal study."
Three articles elaborate the theme. The first describes MINITEX, "an Internet-based lending hub allowing patrons from a collaborative of nearly 300 libraries in Minnesota and North and South Dakota to choose from over 33 million titles in the region's libraries, to be delivered to their neighborhood or school library in an average of 48 to 72 hours."
The second article, "Libraries as Free Spaces" by Harry Boyte, considers libraries as creators of social capital, located in particular places within communities. On the West Side of Saint Paul, Boyte writes, "Riverside Library is a partner in the Neighborhood Learning Community (NLC), a neighborhood-wide collaboration which is about the reintegration of children's education into the life of a place and its relationships. It seeks to involve the whole community in creating a 'culture of learning'."
The third article, "Going Far by Going Local", describes a project by Linda Watson, Director of Health Science Libraries at the University of Minnesota, to develop a resource called "My Health Minnesota -> Go Local". It will build on MedlinePlus, "a health information website operated by the National Library of Medicine" and augment it with MedlinePlus Go Local, a "state-specific companion site that catalogs all the health resources in each state." Thirteen states already have Go Local sites, and Minnesota hopes to be the next.
There's also an article on the Institute for Early Career Librarians, "which provides a weeklong intensive developmental experience for minority librarians in the first three years of their professional careers, focusing on leadership, grantwriting, program assessment and evaluation, and creating a peer network. The Institute, which meets every other year, draws participants from across the country.
Far from being made obsolete by the Internet, libraries continue to serve vital community and societal functions.