Community

The idea that the community places certain pressures on librarians to accommodate their needs is central to this weeks reading.  As I read through the Atlas I'm starting to see a pattern emerge, that it is the librarians responsibility to understand who their community is and what the goals of that community are.  That is not to say that librarians tell the community what they want, but rather a working relationship that is built together.  The example of a library opening a garden for its members shows that the library understood its community's needs and facilitated a resource to create knowledge.  Not all learning is accomplished through books, new librarianship goes beyond the status quo and asserts that the librarian's role is to create a platform for learning rather than being simply a reference source.

In public libraries its easier for me to see the needs of the community facilitated through the library.  The example of the public library opening different centers for sub communities shows new librarianship in action.  The music center within a library example stood out most to me because I've been to a show at a library in Carpinteria before.  While I was there I didn't think too much about it, but now after reading the Atlas I understand that the library facilitated its community's need.  Hardcore shows often have trouble keeping venues as they are not lucrative events and they also can be seen as very abrasive due to the loud aggressive nature of the music. Still there exists a hardcore community within Carpinteria and the goal of the musicians is largely not to make money, but rather perform their music.  The library facilitated the community's need for a music venue.

The thread did a good job at addressing how new librarianship works into all types of libraries.  For me personally I hope to find work in an academic library or an archive after I finish my studies.  I was having trouble seeing the correlation between new librarianship and academic libraries because the community academic libraries serve is much more static than public libraries.  Within in an academic library, new librarianship exists through facilitation of scholarly conversation and a pressure from the academic community for participation does exist.  Lankes does show that new librarianship aims to bring librarians together rather than subdivide them.  Ultimately every new librarian has the mission to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities.  Just because a librarian works in a different setting does not mean the mission changes.