Monday, September 24, 2007

David Lankes :: "Library as Conversation" Free Library of Philadelphia President’s Forum, Philadelphia, PA

David Lankes has given a number of similar presentations to promote the idea of Libraries as Participatory Networks, a project he developed with the Information Institute of Syracuse and the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy.

Thoughts on how libraries facilitate conversations. The idea is based on a simple theory: Knowledge is created through conversation; libraries are in the knowledge business; therefore, libraries are in the conversation business. Though libraries serve a vital role as community memory keeper, they often fall short of the ideal. Lankes will explain how by embracing the participatory online technologies from Web 2.0 libraries can advance not just their communities, but their positions within them. You’ll learn how adopting network concepts and software promotes the library’s most fundamental mission: knowledge creation and dissemination.

He's put up a podcast and slides of his most recent talk to the Free Library of Philadelphia President’s Forum in September 2007 and has also made the talk available as a streamed video and a Google video.