of our antiquated building. —How can River Bend get in on this boom? Two words: corporate sponsorship. It’s “The New Direction in Fundraising,” according to a recent article in American Libraries. Ameritech, for example, made a six-figure donation to the Fund for America’s Libraries just to have their name attached to the opening general session at ALA last year. Another example is Libraries Online!, Microsoft’s program to help small libraries, such as River Bend, join the world wide web. Here’s the key quote: “Companies are going to be knocking at your door, and you’re either going to be driven by the program or you’re going to drive the program.” 268 Religious education
—What it comes down to is the library is at war, said Helena. Poverty and ignorance are chief among the armies arrayed against us. But an alliance with KeyCo may yet save our bacon. What the heck is KeyCo? Good question. We’ll soon be learning more about them. But before we decide anything, we need to think about this ethically. And what I always ask myself is: What would Melvil Dewey do? Dewey would think about it with that hard-headed empiricism for which he is justly famous. What’s the most practical solution? What new technologies are at hand? How can we adapt to the new information environment and better serve our customers? 266 Missions
Helena was pacing the stage again, as if thinking out loud in public. —We look back at the accomplishments of Melvil Dewey as across a great and unfathomable chasm. We have come so far since then, and so much has been lost. What we used to take for granted as first principles of society have long gone by. Visit any shopping mall in the land and you will see the kind of behavior that commercial culture reaps, against which stands the public library as a bulwark of civilization. But Nineteenth Century routines just won’t cut it in the Twenty-first Century. Here’s the bottom line. Stopping at mid-stage, Helena turned to face us, her right hand out with an open palm: —The library has received an offer to have all our technology systems sponsored by KeyCo, including financial backing for a new Main Library and community center. With her other hand out, and opening its palm, Helena said: —Here’s the catch: construction must begin within twelve months. Scanning our faces again with that practiced look of earnest complicity, Helena said: —They want rights to our database, our practices, and our historic collections. In
Circa ‘96 : The Internet Comes to River Bend
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