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Beyond the Bullet Points: Bad Libraries Build Collections, Good Libraries Build Services, Great Libraries Build Communities – R. David Lankes

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“Bad Libraries build collections. Good libraries build services (of which a collection is only one). Great libraries build Communities” Due to character limits it was often re-tweed without the parenthetical: “Bad Libraries build collections. Good libraries build services. Great libraries build Communities” Let’s face it, this is snappier, but it is also apparently more controversial. There were a number of responses along the line that good and great libraries must build collections too. I thought it was worth more than 140 characters to add some nuance and depth to the tweet, so here we are. Before I jump all the way in here…if you are an auditory or visual type, I made a lot fo these points in this screencast: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/blog/?p=1406 Now, back to the tweet. First, there is nothing that says that good and great libraries don’t or can’t build collections. It is a matter of focus. If librarians focus solely or disproportionately on the collection, that is bad. Thi

Here is the tweet that led to this post: “Bad Libraries build collections. Good libraries build services (of which a collection is only one). Great libraries build Communities” Due to character limits it was often re-tweeted without the parenthetical: “Bad Libraries build collections. Good libraries build services. Great libraries build Communities” Let’s face it, this is snappier, but it is also apparently more controversial. There were a number of responses along the line that good and great libraries must build collections too. I thought it was worth more than

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