The Kindness of Strangers
I’m in the process of packing my suitcases after a month away from home; first at IFLA in Milan and more recently visiting libraries in the UK. The floor of the bedroom I’ve been sharing with my niece Lily, age 6, is strewn with clothes, shopping and the reams of printed material I’ve picked up along the way. I think a quick trip down to the post office may be in order to lighten my load, that’s of course after I’ve done a huge cull.
My particular focus has been looking at libraries which are converged with other cultural institutions, especially museums and archives and my travels have taken me to some wonderful places - you’ll read more about it in a future edition of inCite. But what has really struck me is the kindness and generosity of “strangers” to show me their libraries and share their experiences, warts and all. This hospitality also reached out into the communities I found myself in where residents, seeing me puzzling over a map, insisted on walking me to my destination. It was a salient reminder to always be a gracious host or to use one of my Mum’s favourite sayings “Do as you would be done by”.
Along the way I often wished I could teleport some of my Australian colleagues into some of the places I found myself; in part so they too could experience some of the new developments I was observing, but in part so that they could see how we are leaders in our own right. I was always a Very Proud President (note the caps) when my UK colleagues would talk about an initiative they were implementing where the inspiration came from Australia!
Yesterday I attended an Executive Briefing at CILIP “Silos of the LAMs” (Libraries, Archives Museums) and our museums too received much praise for the work they’re doing in the area of Web 2.0. It was great to be able to hold my head high, especially given all the cricket asides I’ve been subjected too.
I’ve also had the chance to meet with the CILIP Executive and discuss a raft of issues relating to our two associations and how we can cherry pick from each others offerings to the mutual benefit of our members. Which leads me back to my packing dilemma, I think I picked up every piece of paper CILIP has ever produced. Do I really need to take it home? Oh well back to the sorting.
Stay safe
