Inspirational Blog Post:

THE LIBRARY IS THE HUMMINGBIRD

http://thelibraryeffect.com/2014/01/16/the-library-is-the-hummingbird/

“The legend of the hummingbird reminds me of all the amazing things libraries do every day to support healthy communities and to empower the citizens within them:

One day, a long time ago in a faraway place, or so the legend goes, there was a huge forest fire raging the countryside. The animals were terrified. They were running around, screaming, crying and helplessly watching the impending disaster.

In the middle of the flames, and above the cowering animals, was a tiny hummingbird busy flying from a small pond to the fire, each time fetching a few drops with its beak to throw on the wild flames. It kept repeating this over and over and over again.

After a while, an old grouchy armadillo, annoyed by this ridiculous useless agitation on the part of the hummingbird, cried out: “Little bird! Don’t be a fool. It is not with those miniscule drops of water one after the other that you are going to put out the fire and save us all!”

The hummingbird replied, “Could be, but I’m going to do my bit.

Let us have a closer look at what kind of drops of water libraries are throwing on the fire.

LIBRARIES (AND LIBRARIANS) MAKE US SMARTER AND STRONGER – INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY”

Read the whole post.  http://thelibraryeffect.com/2014/01/16/the-library-is-the-hummingbird/

And if you can stand more extended metaphor, think about the collective action exemplified by:

A Mumrmuration of Starlings

If librarians and library folk work together we can change the world for the better.

I’ll be speaking at the AGM of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries (FOPL) at OLA Super Conference today, and we need to internalize this as we speak with one voice for the awesomeness, value and impact of libraries.

Stephen