Whether the funding is city, state, or federal, the 114 participants in the ULC’s May 4–5 “Partners for Success” conference agreed that it must be won by demonstrating the value of libraries and librarians to the vitality of their communities. The conference theme, “The Changing Face of Cities,” provoked lively conversation at two large panel discussions and four smaller panels where the impact of culture on commerce and development, politics, institution building, and learning was examined through the lens of the multicultural beehives many metropolitan areas have become.
Oakland (Calif.) City Council member Jean Quan explained how libraries in her city “help build a pathway to citizenship” for immigrant families, while Lakewood (Colo.) Mayor Steve Burkholder argued that urban centers (Lakewood is part of metropolitan Denver) must look for “common ground” for all citizens through laws and services that are nonjudgmental and inclusive.
In his keynote speech, Ohio Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher observed that “a fence at the top of the cliff is better than an ambulance below.” Emphasizing early childhood learning, he said he sees libraries as the fence and prisons as the ambulance. There are three essential elements to economic development, Fisher said: knowledge, innovation, and talent, all of which libraries nurture.
Several speakers talked about economic revitalization efforts in Cleveland, which has lost 50% of its residential population over the past 50 years and is “fighting back,” according to Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle Incorporated. Radiating enthusiasm for his city, Ronayne led one of four Friday conference city tours and explained how the hospitals and clinics had become an economic anchor, bringing $1 million a day into the city.
Dinner speaker Marc Prensky, a learning consultant, got the audience’s attention by explaining what he means by youth as “digital natives.” Advising that teachers and parents are not listening to children enough, he said the younger generation today is operating within a world of digital immigrants who “speak with a digital accent” because technology is “not their first language.”
Prensky disparaged the teaching-to-the test mentality of No Child Left Behind, saying it perpetuates boredom and might better have been called “No Child Left Alive.” His talk echoed a presentation by the Brookings Institution’s Audrey Singer, who announced that immigration is at an all-time high and talked about the struggle of children to help their parents function in English.
“After school” describes an outdated 20th-century learning concept, Prensky said, noting that public libraries have a leg up in the race to reach children. He suggested, however, that the term “library” be ousted in favor of “the future” (“I’m going to the future, mom”) and that librarians take more responsibility for Wikipedia (“You’re the people who should be building it”).
During another panel, Texas State Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio), a first-generation American, spoke eloquently about the role of librarians as mediators of the “bewildering information on the internet.” Librarians can “give children that extra value,” he said, emphasizing the role of school libraries. “They can’t find it on their own.”
“Before there was MySpace, there was My Library,” quipped panelist Toby Chaudhuri of the Asian American Action Fund.
Cleveland Public Library Director Andrew Venable and Cuyahoga County Public Library Director Sari Feldman, along with Cuyahoga County commissioners Timothy F. Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones, also welcomed attendees, who represented urban areas in 17 states, plus Toronto and Washington, D.C.
Posted May 8, 2007.