With all the talk of Moocs, online communities, tribes, groups, and the future of where libraries are headed, I am inspired to create tutorials, youtube messages for my library’s Facebook page, tweet my heart out, and merrily blog along. But…I fear, I KNOW… that sending out these messages is like transmitting radio waves into the milky way, It’s a shot in the dark with the hope that someone is interested enough to get as excited as I am about an upcoming technology. I sometimes feel like it is the biggest fail, and I should just toss it.
But I don’t. I only do that on the outside, on the inside, I am planning ways to get in through some back door. I have come to the conclusion that to reach the virtual community, one must connect with the actual one first, because when the young mothers are reading the parenting blogs, they are not thinking about what programs are at the library nor do they even know that the library has a virtual presence (or virtual branch as I like to refer to it). When they are not online, they are in the coffee shop, or nail salon, or yoga class or taking the kids to the soccer game, so thats where we need to be, (well maybe just the coffee shop during working hours)
To connect with your community you need to be in the community. Its like the old saying “If Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed” I intend to be an “Embedded librarian” in the community. I am curious to see if it will make any difference to our virtual presence.
Keep you posted
Grafedie
Grafedie in the Library 