I have been working on a short history of the library for several years now. Somehow the picture of how the library came into being and developed over time has been clear as mud despite my good research into the archives here, despite talking with my colleagues who have been part of the library for over 40 years. I have been hammering away at this project, and am now facing a deadline to get it finished.
I create a document timeline with what I understand to have happened, then invite the two long time librarians to my office to finesse both the timeline and the narrative. As we talk, the mud begins to clear. Events start to make sense, and the sequence of events that led from a donation of a handful of books to a collection of over 130,000 items plus online resources in a magnificent new building finally comes into focus.
It helps that there have only been 2 Library Directors in the history of the library. It also helps that early on there was a slow and gradual curve of growth and change. During the last decade, the information explosion and the technological revolution have certainly sped things along, and I find I am mentioning many more innovations over the last piece of our journey than in the beginnings.
Like an excited kid learning to ride a bike without training wheels, I am able to release my colleagues, confident that I can finish filling in the required information to make a coherent and trustworthy history narrative and timeline. Just in time. The deadline approaches.
I create a document timeline with what I understand to have happened, then invite the two long time librarians to my office to finesse both the timeline and the narrative. As we talk, the mud begins to clear. Events start to make sense, and the sequence of events that led from a donation of a handful of books to a collection of over 130,000 items plus online resources in a magnificent new building finally comes into focus.
It helps that there have only been 2 Library Directors in the history of the library. It also helps that early on there was a slow and gradual curve of growth and change. During the last decade, the information explosion and the technological revolution have certainly sped things along, and I find I am mentioning many more innovations over the last piece of our journey than in the beginnings.
Like an excited kid learning to ride a bike without training wheels, I am able to release my colleagues, confident that I can finish filling in the required information to make a coherent and trustworthy history narrative and timeline. Just in time. The deadline approaches.
No comments:
Post a Comment