The Walking Librarian

Well, on a lighter note this week, I want to mention the walking librarian. It's an interesting article from the November issue of Library Journal. Stuart Hamilton is a librarian from Denmark. He has been on a journey through the United States, walking across the United States, library to library. I'll admit I do try to visit libraries in every city or town I travel through, but I have never considered walking from one to another across the US and I loved that book Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. Anyway Stuart and his walking partner noticed across their 5000 miles, big cities and little towns alike all have public libraries. And most notably they all (1 exception) have high speed Internet access. This is definitely something we can be proud of here in the US of A, however, they did mention some concerns with filtering and misconceptions, even ignorance about the patriot act. They were surprised to find that some librarians didn't even know of its existence not to mention its implications. This for me is hard to believe. Even the small town librarians went to library school, they have access to the Internet, hopefully receive some sort of library publication and are possibly even members of the ALA or their state library association. Can it be possible they have missed the Patriot Act and all its intrusion? Well, maybe larger metropolitan libraries and staff (I hope they are up to date) should start an adoption program or something like a sister program where they "adopt" a rural library. These larger libraries could help with resources, information or a sort of support system that I am sure on the whole would benefit all the libraries involved.
Well, I'll let you guys think on that one and in the meantime, yeah to libraries everywhere. Stuart and his friend were able to read, maintain their website, blog, check email, news and anything else they wanted all across the country and I think that is AWESOME! And Stuart, next time come to Oklahoma City!