Susan Hildreth, Institute of Museum and
Library Services gave this interesting keynote to kick off the second
day of Computers in Libraries 2012. Ms. Hildreth started by
describing the origin, role and programs of the Institute of Museum
of Library Services, its vision and mission. Basically, the
Institute of Museum and Library Services is a legislatively created
federal agency that supports libraries and museums in their missions
by providing grants and other kinds of support.
She described the five goals that IMLS
has in its support for libraries and museums. These goals were:
- Goal 1: Learning
IMLS places the learner at the center and supports engaging experiences in libraries and museums that prepare people to be full participants in their local communities and our global society.
They want to move libraries from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” institution. Informal learning is the way people learn most things (website on this initiative at www.imls21stcenturyskills.org). In this vein they see supporting the DIY and Maker Culture as an important way forward. They also have put an emphasis on early learning for which they provide grants for summer reading programs. They have also established a partnership with the MacArthur Foundation for the creation of digital media labs based on Chicago Public Library's YOUmedia Center.
- Goal 2 : Community
IMLS promotes museums and libraries as strong community anchors that enhance civic engagement, cultural opportunities, and economic vitality.
They have been focusing on the role of libraries in the workforce. In this role they have a partnership with the department of labor and have worked with Webjunction on Project Compass.
- Goal 3 : Content
IMLS supports exemplary stewardship of museum and library collections and promotes the use of technology to facilitate discovery of knowledge and cultural heritage.
They are promoting a “Digging into Data” challenge to create a new infrastructure for 21st century research.
Expanding public access with the Digital Public Library of America is also a major initiative for this goal.
- Goal 4 : Equitable Access to Knowledge
IMLS advices the President and Congress on plans, policies, and activities to sustain and increase public access to information and ideas.
- Goal 5 : Public Management Excellence
IMLS achieves excellence in public management and performs as a model organization through strategic alignment of its resources and prioritization of programmatic activities, maximizing value for the American public.
She expressed concern with the history of libraries being overly cautious in implementing new technologies. You have to be prudent when spending public money, but it is also necessary to take some risks lest you be left behind.
After describing all of this, Ms.
Hildreth briefly discussed something that sounds quite interesting
(that she had mentioned briefly earlier in her talk) called the
Digital Public Library of America. The rationale for this project is
to provide:
- Broad public access to information on a “free to all” basis in a digital age
- A future for libraries in a cloud computing world.
- Responsive to changing modes of accessing information
- Need for libraries to incorporate many types of materials beyond texts in analog formats
- A “Clean slate” project on what a digital library could offer
- Already developed in many other countries
The project is managed by the Berkman
Center for Internet & Society at Harvard with support from the
Alfred P. Sloan foundation. It is a collaborative effort of
librarians, technologists, educators, creators, students, and others
to build a Digital Public Library of America. Anyone can sign up for
any activity. It is an open process. It is modeled on a European
initiative called Europeana and was formally launched in October of
2011.
More information on the Digital Public
Library of America can be found at http://dp.la/.
It sounds interesting and I look forward to learning more about it
after the conference and in years to come.
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