Things that inspired me today
– HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands gave a thought provoking keynote. She believes that innovation is NOT sharing what we know. It is actually sharing what you don’t know. Adults often put a little bit of the answer in the question. That way, they will never find out new things. Formulating the right question is key to starting dialogue. ‘How’ questions are the best. This is democracy.
– At Connecting through Collection, we heard about Brian Eno’s theories on collective intelligence. Great ideas are created by communities and cooperation. He believes in Scenius – creative intelligence of a community. We should identify what communities need and, echoing Princess Laurentien, we can only find this out by asking the right questions.
– The Library as Retreat Space session was truly enlightening. Libraries can embrace the global mindfulness movement by offering communities some ‘time out’ from the stresses of daily life. Roman baths had libraries: community spaces for body, mind and soul.
– Aarhus offer a range of retreat activities, from story time for adults, listening to chilled music in the dark and meditation. Libraries are community havens.
– Contemplation and quiet are now a luxury but people don’t want to feel isolated. They are looking for ‘Together Alone’ activities, opportunities to be anonymous in public.
– The 2017 Systematic Joy of Reading Award was presented to the FunDza Literacy Trust, South Africa http://www.fundza.co.za A truly inspiring project where children get to read stories they can relate to, stories that can feed their imagination. Congratulations @fundzaclub. So well deserved.
Library conference chronicle 