SLO 4, ARTIFACT 1:
“The Community is Your Collection” by R. David Lankes
Link to the video: https://davidlankes.org/the-community-is-your-collection/
I first learned about R. David Lankes' librarianship philosophy while hearing him speak at an ALA conference in 2018. This video recording is a keynote address that he prepared years prior for another conference while recovering from cancer. The suggestions that Lankes provides in this video are ones I think about whenever I am considering how best to connect with the community at large and with marginalized and underserved community members in particular.
In this video, Lankes relates the story of a children’s hospital librarian who helps cancer patients and their parents find medical information resources. Lankes then describes how librarians in all situations can guide people through crises and build better communities by thinking of the “community [a]s the collection” to be developed. What he means by that is that librarians should work closely with communities to determine what their needs are and then use that information to drive their collection development decisions. He argues that this is a better community engagement strategy than just inviting people to the libraries and expecting them to use whatever resources are there.
I had never heard the concept of collection development challenged on such a basic level before watching this video. I must admit that I am sometimes leery of the idea of people “developing” other people, as I have often heard this idea invoked in a paternalistic context. What Lankes is advocating, however, is not that librarians take a superior attitude toward their patrons, but that we be proactive about recognizing community needs and offering a helping hand. This is exactly what I want to do as an outreach professional when designing public library services for patrons.
Lankes’ passion and commitment to progressive thinking in librarianship is a continuous inspiration to me as a professional and a human being. I will apply the insight I gained from his speech to my future outreach work. Last year, I referenced Lankes’ video in a blog post I wrote about my experiences as an outreach volunteer (https://storianblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/reaching-out/), and I will continue to share his words with others.