A very bright person (and I can't remember who it was for the life of me) once said that the world is made of two types of people: creators and processors. Creators actually add to the substance of the universe: painters, writers, movie makers, architects and so forth. While processors just move stuff around, without really creating much: accountants, sales people, stock brokers, store clerks and such. What are librarians? On the surface we seem to be classic processors. We move the information created by someone else through the system into the patron's hands. Our library is working hard to break that mold. Clearly we do a lot of processing, but we also are doing ever more creating. For example, a staff member is working on a documentary about Kankakee WWII veterans. I created a promotional video about Kankakee. We are also making ourselves a venue for others to create. Tonight is a teen poetry slam that will be podcast. Our Project Next Generation puts cutting edge software in front of young people to learn web design, music production, and video editing. When professionals ask, "What will libraries do in the info saturated future?" I think the answer is clear. Produce the info!

Stephen Bertrand
Assistant Director