Public libraries build social capital in Chicago…

Last weekend I was at a party with lots of other librarians (yes, librarians do party!) and I got to talking to East Renfrewshire’s former Head of Libraries Liz McGettigan about the power of public libraries, as you do!

Liz brought to my attention a recent report published by the Urban Libraries Council in America – The Engaged Library: Chicago Stories of Community Building. There’s some amazing case studies focusing on urban regeneration, embracing diversity, services for young people and the library as space and place; not to mention a really useful toolkit to help other library services emulate the success of Chicago Public Library.

If you’re at all interested in learning about the potential of public libraries to connect, engage, inspire and transform communities then check out the full report here.

Read Full Post »

Sharing more of ourselves online…

This piece on ReadWriteWeb caught my eye this morning. It discusses the results of research carried out by Universal McCann to investigate the impact of social media.

Looks like more and more of us are putting ourselves out there; blogging, networking, uploading, contributing…

One of the most interesting revelations is that China boasts the biggest blogging market in the world. Bigger even than the US! I know, I was shocked too, but it’s true…there’s 42m bloggers in China compared to only 26m in the USA! And as Asian and emerging markets continue to grow it looks like our global communities will go from strength to strength. Power to the people, indeed!

Check out the full report here.

Read Full Post »