Random Friday Thoughts
I think I'm convinced now that the thing that will finally kill libraries is ancient thinking. There is an entrenched unwillingness to hear new ideas or shift thinking. It's kind of like when my dad goes on and on about how gas prices should be $1. That's great, but it isn't $1. That's a wish, not reality. If you are stuck in the habit of looking at your current measurements (we'll just call them circ, program, or door count stats) in the hopes that they'll increase, that's a wish. After all, those are the people ALREADY using the library. Where are your new initiatives to bring in the part of the community that has forgotten about you? People will parse those usage stats to the nth degree, trying to find some sort of meaning, yet spend very little time looking to the outside for guidance. Sometimes, it isn't all about a failure of marketing. Sometimes, what you're marketing is failing. Why someone isn't coming in (either in person or electr...