Such a great story, loved the link with Women's club and importance of communities! With the European Cultural Foundation, we're supporting European libraries to reimagine the future of libraries with their communities through the Europe Challenge https://theeuropechallenge.eu/ There's a new round of application opening from the 9th May!
I think a wonderful advantage of an internet-based library vs. real-world libraries is the ease with which knowledge can be contributed to a commons. Access to book publishing is still difficult or too much of a cost-burden and it stops people from sharing their ideas with a wider audience. Wikipedia was a great evolution, but still has issues around moderation and trying to form a single sense of "truth" for a world absent any cultural context. We need a way to create interconnected knowledge commons that are built on a plurality of sociocultural lenses, instead of one monolith that decides whose voice is worth hearing.
Such a fascinating (hi)story of the intricate links between public libraries and their communities! You may be interested in projects we have been doing in the Netherlands and Czech Republic on exploring how public libraries can strengthen social innovation in, with, and by the local communities they nourish: https://www.communitysense.nl/2019/03/19/mapping-the-social-innovation-ecosystems-around-public-libraries-together-the-czech-connections/
We need an easily accessible public forum where we can dialogue with others on issues of mutual interest.
Such a great story, loved the link with Women's club and importance of communities! With the European Cultural Foundation, we're supporting European libraries to reimagine the future of libraries with their communities through the Europe Challenge https://theeuropechallenge.eu/ There's a new round of application opening from the 9th May!
Great article and we've been examining similar themes here: https://blogs.bl.uk/living-knowledge/2022/02/an-update-on-the-single-digital-presence-project.html?_ga=2.241506050.1056141855.1645987221-839546499.1574426228
I think a wonderful advantage of an internet-based library vs. real-world libraries is the ease with which knowledge can be contributed to a commons. Access to book publishing is still difficult or too much of a cost-burden and it stops people from sharing their ideas with a wider audience. Wikipedia was a great evolution, but still has issues around moderation and trying to form a single sense of "truth" for a world absent any cultural context. We need a way to create interconnected knowledge commons that are built on a plurality of sociocultural lenses, instead of one monolith that decides whose voice is worth hearing.