Wednesday, June 17, 2009

What This Library Is All About


I've been basking in an afterglow that has lasted an entire two weeks. What could give such a long lasting warm feeling you ask. Rock the Stacks. Rock the Stacks was a two day musical extravaganza featuring 17 bands, some still together, some reunited just for this event after acrimonious break-ups. Thanks to an anti-trust class action suit, our Library received money to be used for "musical" purposes. Rather than spend all of it on new CDs and such, we set aside some to fulfill a different mission. I'm a strong believer that a public library should be more than a location where citizens get to experience the work of people from long ago or far away, important as that purpose is. This is after all the "KANKAKEE" Public Library. Shouldn't some of the content here be by the people of Kankakee themselves? Of course, some old grumps complained about Rock the Stacks when they saw the posters. To them Libraries are places where ideas go to die. Our target audience is the young and young at heart who want a place where they can see what is vital about this community. We weren't wrong. For days Twitter, and Facebook, and Flickr and YouTube were alive with content about how exciting and forward thinking Kankakee is, not just the Library, but the entire City of Kankakee. When's the last time you heard a 20 year-old in your area say, "My town is awesome"? That is an afterglow that can last generations.