I heard a voice from the past when I read Michael Golrick’s comments to Michael Stephens in this TechSource interview: “At the same time, I do not disagree with what I see as the underlying thought behind of L2: excellent customer service.”
The voice was that of Marvin Scilken, a beloved librarian pioneer who for forty years ran his own “Library 2.0” campaign. I can hear Marvin’s voice rasping over the phone, “The bottom line is public service. You hear me, Karen? A library, it doesn’t have a book that suddenly shows up on the best-seller list, that director should run to the nearest bookstore and buy two copies. Karen, you hear me?”
I hear you, Marvin. Like Michael Golrick, Marvin was a non-techy administrator. Marvin didn’t even grok email, let alone the Web. But Marvin believed in many principles of service that I see reiterated in a new framework in the ideas proposed in Library 2.0.
I have a longer piece I’m working on about L2, probably not for this blog, but I felt such a moment of warmth, remembering Marvin, that I just had to share.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Rediscovered Management Lessons - 2013
- Designing Women (and Men) - 2013
- Lessons from my hybrid car - 2009
- All better... - 2009
- How to be "famous" (wink wink, nudge nudge) - 2008
- More about blogging and policy - 2007
- BookQueueToo Hoorah - 2005
- Fat Foe - 2005
- Draft Resolution on Cuba - 2004
I am honored to be mentioned in the same breath as Marvin. You can tell that my administrative duties have kept me from being as current in blog reading as I would like. Thank you Karen. I always admired Marvin and his dedication to public serivice (consciously said with a small “p” and a small “s”).