Knowledge begins with imagination\u2026.<\/p>\n
Walking out of the San Francisco Airport launched the first day\u2026 what a kaleidoscope of memories\u2026 beautiful blue skies, warm sun and a breeze that whipped the rainbow flags mounted on the poles all along Market Street.\u00a0 The check-in staff at the hotel all sported an ALA pin on the right side of their shirts and a rainbow ribbon on the left.<\/p>\n
On the shuttle ride to the conference I sat next to a woman from Maine named Cindy.\u00a0 Asked her what she does there and discovered she works for Cornerstones of Science.\u00a0 Learned it\u2019s a non-profit that works with libraries to bring science into their communities.\u00a0 She connects libraries with scientists and holds community reads of science books\u2026 a kind of one science book\/one community event.<\/p>\n
She described how they design their science events in the libraries to be places of dialogue.\u00a0 Her scientists come and begin the event with conversation about the scientific topic ranging from space to genetics, etc. Then the scientists invite conversation and questions and curiosity from the attendees\u2026all of whom have read a certain title.\u00a0 She shared the example of having one community read THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS.\u00a0 The community was then invited to come to the library for a follow-on event with a geneticist about the ethical use of your DNA.<\/p>\n
Cindy asked me if our library has a telescope for customers to borrow.\u00a0 She said that it\u2019s so important to find out what our customers need from us.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s the words in the books and sometimes it\u2019s the chance to do something \u2026. all of it leads to opening up the imagination, beginning the process of curiosity and asking questions.\u00a0 That\u2019s where the wonder is.\u00a0 Her statistics showed that circulation statistics and new library card accounts rose by 20% after a telescope was introduced to the library collection.\u00a0 It was an invitation to join the library for a group of folks in the community who enjoyed hands-on experiences.\u00a0 It\u2019s so important to see the needs of those around us.<\/p>\n
True confessions\u2026 after I got my badge and the inch-thick guide to the conference I went sightseeing.\u00a0 Took a cab over to the Golden Gate Bridge and joined the throng headed up to walk and bike across the bridge itself.\u00a0 It was suitably windy and the fog was shrouding the tops of the bridge supports but you could see all across the Bay and watch the windsurfers having the time of their lives literally flying up into the wind and coming back down to skim the green waters.\u00a0 It was breathtaking.\u00a0 I watched one fellow who really loved to send his surf board flying up over the water. At one point he fell off and was just out there in the Bay holding onto the ropes that attached to the airborne piece.\u00a0 He had to find his surf board and get going again. I imagined how I would feel floating in the San Francisco Bay holding on to a couple of ropes and looking for my board\u2026 it wasn\u2019t a pretty sight.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 But he did it.<\/p>\n
I thought about him.\u00a0 Does he go into his library?\u00a0 Clearly he loves the thrill of the action of skimming across the Bay.\u00a0 Clearly it was exhilarating for him to risk and challenge himself.\u00a0 What do we offer him?\u00a0 What did we offer him as a child?<\/p>\n
Knowledge begins with imagination.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet he imagined flying and now he does.\u00a0 I do too.\u00a0 I just do my flying when I see the face of a child who has found a book she wants to read.\u00a0 It\u2019s flying on the inside for both of us and it\u2019s just as thrilling as that leap into the air in the Bay.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Knowledge begins with imagination\u2026. Walking out of the San Francisco Airport launched the first day\u2026 what a kaleidoscope of memories\u2026 beautiful blue skies, warm sun and a breeze that whipped the rainbow flags mounted on the poles all along Market Street.\u00a0 The check-in staff at the hotel all sported an ALA pin on the right side of their shirts and a rainbow ribbon on the left. On the shuttle ride to the conference I sat next to a woman from Maine named Cindy.\u00a0 Asked her what she does there and discovered she works for Cornerstones of Science.\u00a0 Learned it\u2019s a non-profit that works with libraries to bring science into their communities.\u00a0 She connects libraries with scientists and holds community reads of science books\u2026 a kind of one science book\/one community event. She described how they design their science events in the libraries to be places of dialogue.\u00a0 Her scientists come…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[510,134,151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ala-annual-2015","category-guest-blogger","category-live-blogging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}