Between The Lines - Volume 11 - Issue 6 June 2014 | Page 2

Page 2

Between the Lines

Advocacy in the Community
Recently the Rocky Mountain House Rotary Club
hosted Library members at their monthly luncheon.
So, accompanied by the very dedicated members of our Board Advocacy Committee I headed
out to make known the vision and thoughts we
share for the present and future of the Rocky Public Library. Committee member Raina Dezall was
kind enough to create and produce a 2 minute
commercial for the library. The video can be
viewed at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=WMF5JD68PP8
Or Scan the code with your device:

After previewing the video she shared the following important words with the group.
“It is the goal of the advocacy committee to be
the voice for our library and the great people in it
— and the great treasures in it. Libraries today are
at an exciting juncture; they have evolved into a
platform of access where the limits are solely defined by the user. If a patron only wants to take
out books, they only take out books. However, if
the patron wants to take their group into our
meeting room to use our video conference equipment to confer with another group in PEI, they
can. Patrons at Edmonton Public Library, for example, are using their 3D printer to transform pictures
of family members into personalized chess pieces.
While a 3D printer may currently be beyond our
means here, the ability to create and share the
resources of our community is not. When I say this is
a new age for libraries, it truly is. We are taking the
principal of access to a level of community that
hasn’t been seen before. We are like a ball of clay
waiting to be molded by the desires of our patrons
confined only by the limits of their imaginations.”

By Cindi Chaisson

With such an amazing introduction I eagerly shared
my thoughts on what our Library is and the vision our
Library Staff have embraced for the future of programming in our community.
A Library card is a ticket to accessibility and has the
opportunity to open doors beyond count for the
members of our community. A library card gains you
access to every catalogued book in Alberta, you
can search for and request any title, genre, topic or
author through a variety of on and off line tools. Our
online tools include our re-designed catalogue,
along with iPhone and Android apps such as Bookmyne, which allows you to find titles in your library as
well as renew items already signed out; and
pic2shop which allows you to scan and use a barcode to find a book. And of course off-line help is
always available in the library, where our friendly
staff will be happy to help. Not sure what to read
next? Try NoveList. An online tool available through
our website, find your next great read here or come
into the library and someone will help you find what
you didn’t know you were looking for or maybe Fiction Connection will offer what you’re seeking.
Search for read alike authors or check out the reviews left by other readers or even write one of your
own! Maybe you’d like to learn a new language, try
out Mango Languages. There are a wide variety of
languages to choose from and you can also download the iPhone or Android app for free! As a library
providing access to knowledge and learning, we
too require access to knowledge and learning. As a
member of The Parkland Regional Library System we
have access to a wealth of resources and learning
opportunities and we are constantly working to increase our base of knowledge which we are able to
share with our patrons. As we move forward in today’s digital world we find ourselves having to
adapt as an industry and become a customizable
21st century patron driven library. To truly be successful in this, we must be “Open to a World of
Learning”, we need to embrace all mediums and
levels of learning. We must have one hand reaching
to the past while the other hand is reaching to the
future. We are moving towards lessening the gener-