| Do you know who Chance the Rapper is? I didn’t, but I do now. The young Chicago-based performer is storming the charts this year, and he credits the Chicago Public Library (CPL) with getting him there. Prior to his musical ascendance, Chance spent a lot of time at the CPL’s YOUMedia center, “a multi-media youth learning space that gives students tools to foster their creativity. Now he’s paying it forward and hosts a monthly open mic night for high school students.” Chance discusses this and other aspects of his career in a Good Morning America interview (http://tinyurl.com/julgo3a).
Are you working in a “library of the future”? In the Business Insider article, “Libraries of the Future Are Going to Change in Some Unexpected Ways,” Chris Weller shares an interview with David Pescovitz, co-editor at Boing Boing and research director at the Institute for the Future (http://tinyurl.com/jcn52p5). Pescovitz thinks libraries are currently “a public means of accessing knowledge” and believes that will continue, predicting that by the middle of the century, information will be less about words and more about experiences. It’s quite an intriguing prospect.
Over at Money, Samantha Stauf shares “5 Reasons Why Being a Librarian Isn’t Boring at All” (http://tinyurl.com/h8p6pxa), although we could give her a lot more than five. She notes, “A few years ago with the rise of digital media, I wondered what would happen to all the libraries.” But despite her projection of empty buildings and jobless librarians, she discovered the solidity, growth, and range of the profession. She ends with, “Due to the hard work of librarians, library organizations, and many others, library based careers are still a lucrative career choice.” Hurrah to that!
TIME Magazine shares the amazing story of Robert Morin, who worked at the University of New Hampshire’s Dimond Library for almost 50 years before he recently passed away (http://tinyurl.com/zw7g6hr). The school was astonished to learn that Morin left it his entire estate—$4 million! However, he had only specifically earmarked $100,000 for the library, and the university’s decision to spend $1 million on a new video scoreboard for the football stadium has caused quite a controversy, and not just in Library Land. Over at Inside Higher Ed, a long article describes the criticisms and concerns that have been showered on the university by faculty, students, and alumni (http://tinyurl.com/ho78g8r). But school officials defend their decision based on the fact that Morin didn’t specifically designate more for the library’s use. What do you think?
[See also: https://www.infotoday.com/it/nov16/Pike--Being-Charitable--Librarians-$4-Million-Bequest-Presents-Cautionary-Tale.shtml]
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