"Some Cardinal Principles of Librarians' Work." Public Libraries / Sam Walter Foss.

Chicago, IL: Public Libraries 14 77-81, 1909.

  

“Don't stay in the library all the time yourself and stagnate in the musty atmosphere of your dead books. Be a public and not a private man. Get out and feel the dynamic thrill that comes from contact with live men. The club, the exchange, the street, the philanthropic and economic organizations that are feeling out for the betterment of mankind are the places where the librarian should be found frequently. He should be the best known man or woman in the city.”

Determining How Libraries & Librarians Help

"Determining How Libraries & Librarians Help." Library Trends / Joan C. Durrance & Karen E. Fisher.
Illinois: Library Trends 51.4 305-334, Spring 2003.

"Staff contributions. Each of these programs was headed by visionary staff who shaped the model, recruited the clientele, and developed the activities that shaped the outcomes of this community-focused service. Staff shared these characteristics: they were committed to their clientele, creative in their approach to providing service, entrepreneurial in their approaches to seeking additional resources, and were able to articulate some, but not all, of the outcomes of their services. Some were recruited to their jobs because of special skills that they brought to the service such as language facility, interest in the clientele, ability to teach, or knowledge of information technology."

The Library of the Future

"The Library of the Future." Screwy Decimal / Rita Meade.
Brooklyn: Screwy Decimal: Tales From An Urban Librarian, April 15th 2011.

"I think the most poignant essay quote I heard that morning was from a third grade girl: 

"What does the future of the library look like? It depends on you." 

She's right. I couldn't have said it better myself. It doesn't matter if she's talking to kids, adults, patrons, politicians, or librarians. We all need to keep working, keep advocating, keep changing, keep growing. We need to work together to bring libraries into the future."

Aww.

Information Overload

"The Reports of Our Professional Deaths Have Been Greatly Exaggerated." Agnostic, Maybe / Andy W.
New Jersey: March 17th 2010.

"...it’s staggering on a scale that is breathtaking. According to Cisco systems, “[b]y 2013 the amount of traffic flowing over the internet annually will reach 667 exabytes” (or 667,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes or 1/3rd of a zetabyte)."

"Data, Data Everywhere." The Economist / A Special Report on Managing Information.

London: February 25th 2010.

"...from Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist: Data, he explains, are widely available; what is scarce is the ability to extract wisdom from them."

"Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?" Tech Radar / Gary Marshall.
Bath: March 6th 2010.

Aimee Mullins: The Opportunity of Adversity

See Also:
Alexander McQueen
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading