I don’t really mind the virus comparison, as I see what you are getting at I just was pondering other analogies to see how they would fit. I like the concept of the librarian as the active agent.

Gregg–like your idea of the librarian as the oxygen in the air.
Maybe the “enriched” oxygen like you find in the oxygen bars
in Las Vegas!

I do also like the analogy of the circulatory system, and the library being at the heart of that–because so much of the curriculum flows through the library, the students flow through, teachers flow through.

Another description I’m very fond of are the roles defined in the Tipping Point. When things are working well in a school, the librarian really can be a maven and connector for the campus.

Thanks for the interesting discussion.

Like your comments and would like to add on additional thought regarding the metaphors used. The air we breath is composed of various gases, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen to name a few, and libraries and educators at large, are like the oxygen in the air we breath…they are the active agent.

I agree that virus is not a exactly an appealing metaphor for the librarian. It’s just that it’s what those librarians I saw at the Illinois library media conferences seemed to be. They were infecting their teachers with the desire and the means to evolving into real information artisans, not merely information consumers.

I think that you are right on about the library being the air. It’s what your patrons see when they are accessing content and experience. But what are the librarians in that air. There needs to be an active agent in the air that helps people learn to breath it in a healthy and useful way.

I would go back to the transition I suggested initially, from the hub of a wheel to the navigation of wings. Working a predictable future requires wheels for the path of that known future. But preparing people for an unpredictable future, requires wings — and wings require navigation.

We could do this forever, but metaphors are how we tell stories, and stories are how we think and understand.

Thanks so much for continuing this conversation. I’ll be speaking tomorrow at the Ohio Library Media Conference.

– dave –