Living to learn

I am beginning to become more and more aware of the power of learning. Particularly that learning can be the action taken to create a great community and to really make a difference to people’s lives. Learning is no longer a scholarly pursuit but one that can occur in our everyday lives to enrich, improve and to survive (as individuals, as communities, as countries and as a world).

One of my favourite quotes at the moment is “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you will live forever” - Mahatma Gandhi

Web 2.0 technology enables us to learn and communicate in an entirely different way which is brilliant for libraries because it means that we can communicate more informally with a more casual, approachable, way, and also to a wider audience.

I hope to learn how to really think outside the square and apply Web 2.0 technology in ways we would never have dreamed possible. This process of learning enables creativity to flow. The whole team approach that this method of learning encourages also provides an opportunity to bring everyone on this exciting journey.

Blogs are incredible. They provide an opportunity for an audience to ‘take’ what they want from the information provided and to get to know the individual or organisation at another level due to the more conversational and less structured approach that blogs can take. Community members can feel part of either their own community, or any community, by reading and participating in blogs. And for the contributor of the blog, it is much easier to write something once in a single format, for everyone to read.

Library blogs provide a great way of keeping customers (and potential customers) up-to-date, informed and most of all included. The addition of photos and links mean they are a more interactive, fun way of reading what’s going on.