Libraries have long been key institutions in communities.<\/p>\n
While this means that we have strong name recognition, it\u2019s not always the case that people know what we\u2019re about. There are a lot of library myths out there.<\/p>\n
Look up library stereotypes on the internet, and there\u2019s plenty of material. Although of course, you have probably come across many of these yourself in your work.<\/p>\n
While some myths are relatively harmless, others give a dangerous false impression of what we do.<\/p>\n
They can influence decisions about libraries \u2013 from discouraging someone from visiting the library, to giving a politician the impression that there is little harm in voting against library funding.<\/p>\n
It is therefore important to be able to identify and correct these impressions.<\/p>\n
So for our 85th<\/sup> 10 Minute International Librarian exercise, think of a library myth that you can debunk!<\/p>\n What false ideas do you come across that shape the way that people think about where you work?<\/p>\n How are they wrong? Maybe they are outdated (many people\u2019s last experience of libraries was from their student days or childhood, which may be a long time ago)? Maybe they ignore the diversity of libraries?<\/p>\n Think then about how you can show why they are wrong \u2013 either in words or in your actions \u2013 and how to do this in a way that will change someone\u2019s mind, for example with humour, or by remaining positive.<\/p>\n Share your best examples of debunked library myths in the comments box below.<\/p>\n Good luck!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This idea relates to the\u00a0IFLA Strategy<\/a>! <\/strong>Key Initiative 1.1 Show the power of libraries in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the\u00a0#10MinuteInternationalLibrarian<\/a>\u00a0tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA\u2019s\u00a0Ideas Store<\/a>! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Libraries have long been key institutions in communities. While this means that we have strong name recognition, it\u2019s not always the case that people know what we\u2019re about. There are a lot of library myths out there. Look up library stereotypes on the internet, and there\u2019s plenty of material. Although of course, you have probably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":810,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26868,20968,26647,36364],"class_list":["post-3341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-10minuteinternationallibrarian","tag-advocacy","tag-library-advocacy","tag-stereotypes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/810"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3342,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions\/3342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}