Cindy and I were pondering the history of our storied library the other day, and wondering when exactly we jumped on the participatory technology train. We both could point to the implementation of various technologies over the past couple of years, but that doesn't explain why we started in the first place. In the olden days, say the 1990's, we were still ruled by the old paradigm of literacy support. When did the "Mission Transition" happen? Then I recalled, back in early 2005, our city called on us to create a new mission to reflect the mission of the city as a whole. Cindy dug it out of her files for me and the very first item read, "Commons: A library that provides a Commons environment helps address the need of people to meet and interact with others in their community and to participate in public discourse about community issues." I was amazed. It may not use the buzz words, but it certainly lays the foundation for everything we've tried to do with those technologies. We were 2.0 before 2.0 was cool!

Stephen Bertrand
Assistant Director