On the road – the journey / journal continues … Ulrike’s 2nd reflection

The past five days of the Associates Program were characterized by two things for me: being on trips out of town and experiencing a little of the vastness of the USA (Germany’s population density is 605 inhabitants per sqmi compared to the US with 91 inhabitants per sqmi), and the dedication, even pride, with which our colleagues during tours and presentations were talking about topics, be it grant writing, book bans or the “Metadata Maker”, a web tool for the creation of basic catalog records.

June 5th: It was a trip into the past of Illinois resp. the USA: Visiting Springfield, Ill. means an encounter with Abraham Lincoln and his heritage – his house, a National History Site, which we could visit, and the tour in the Abraham Lincoln Library, which guards some very prominent historical documents like a copy of the 13th Amendment with Lincoln’s signature (and learning that he forged a signature on a library lending card …). That the past as represented by tangible objects and documents can speak to us was vividly demonstrated by the two colleagues working in the conservation department of library using a photograph they were working on as an example: There are always interesting stories in the collection! The second library the state of Illinois is maintaining in Springfield, is the Illinois State Library: I learnt a lot about the funding of libraries on state and national level with public money. Especially the already longstanding nationally organized Talking Book and Braille Service was an interesting example how a group of citizens with special needs can be served effectively.

June 6th: My personal highlight of this day was the visit to the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music which Clara had arranged additionally to the day’s program. The director’s passion for the collections and his abundant knowledge about the development of instruments and audio playing devices were catching! It will probably be a once in a lifetime experience to listen to an original recording from the late 19th century played on an original phonographe!

On June 7th I picked something up that I will certainly use when back at my home library and discussing planning and strategies with my colleagues there: the brainstorming technique of the Futures Wheel that Lisa Hinchliffe introduced us to. Although having worked on topics like trend analysis before her compelling talk held fresh ideas for me. During a coffee break I ate one of the leftover fortune cookies: the little slip of paper inside fits well with our course!

June 8th and June 9th took us to our second trip this week, to the state of Ohio, Dublin, Columbus and Westerville. At the OCLC Headquarter, home of the world’s largest library database WorldCat, we listened to several presentations fitting well with the theme of the Associates program “Shaping the future of libraries”, our OCLC colleagues shared with us findings of recent studies they conducted. I will certainly look out for the publication of the results as well as further explore the Community Center which I heard of for the first time although my home library is an OCLC customer.

Both the libraries we visited on the second day of our Ohio trip held a multitude of inspirations and ideas to think about and taking home – be it the variety in spaces at the wonderfully designed Ohio State Library (especially the wellness space with treadmills!), the Research Commons with its services connecting librarians, collections and researchers or the novel approaches of the Westerville Public Library to better serve their community like the drive-thru media pick-up with complimentary dog treats or (more sustainable) the book bike and even phone booths for users who have otherwise no access to a phone.

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