FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Updated October 24, 2007
IMLS Press
Contacts
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Noted
Communications Guru Addresses Large Gathering of Library
And Museum Leaders At The Institute of Museum and Library
Services
Million-plus Workers
Serving Nation’s Libraries, Museums, and Cultural
Centers Urged to
“Be Smart” About New Technologies or Atrophy.
 |
Robert L. Dilenschneider presenting
the inaugural Leadership Lecture. Photo by Earl
Zubkoff. Click image for a larger view.
|
WASHINGTON, D.C.--An urgent
call to the million-plus workers in museums, libraries,
nature sanctuaries, historic homes, and aquariums to protect,
preserve, and enhance the nation's threatened culture
and heritage was sounded here today.
Presenting the inaugural Leadership Lecture
at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Robert
L. Dilenschneider, the nationally-known communications
strategist and author, told the assembled library and
museum leaders that they must be “especially smart
and creative” in employing available new technologies
because “the paradigm is rapidly shifting in your
world and you must prepare for a great leap forward using
technology as a teaching tool.”
Warning that libraries and museums dealing
with the new technology and multi-media applications “must
accept, adapt, and accelerate their use, or simply atrophy,”
Dilenschneider stressed that those technologies can also
be an invaluable tool in attracting new patrons and volunteers
as well as additional financial support.
Librarians, curators and leaders of cultural
institutions should find and implement teaching applications
for technologies as varied as You Tube, podcasting, and
virtual existence sites such as SecondLife.com, the speaker
noted.
“At one time, museums and libraries
maintained the ability to control and select what their
patrons would have access to,” he said, “but
technology and the shifting paradigms of power and influence
are changing these notions and challenging these institutions.
“With technology in the library,
the patron can access much more than the finite set of
resources selected by librarians of the past, and for
museums the Internet has increased the public’s
expectation to be able to see and use the whole collection
– not just what the curator chose to put on view.”
Libraries and museums are no different
from any other industry in America, Dilenschneider argued.
“To stay relevant and useful you must remain true
to their mission and reinvent yourself at the same time.
You must use new technologies wisely and identify the
problems of concern to your communities and to our nation
that you are uniquely positioned to solve.”
Today, he said, libraries and museums can
play a more critical role than ever in:
• Closing the gap between information
haves and have-nots
• Preserving cultural, scientific and historic heritage
• Improving people’s ability to find and use
information
• Heightening understanding of other customs and
cultures,
• Participating in education reform, and
• Encouraging immigrants to succeed in the U.S.
Dilenschneider cited the late management
consultant Peter Drucker, who advised librarians and museum
professionals “to run with the opportunity, to learn
and constantly refresh the knowledge base” in order
to help Americans develop the habit of life-long learning.
“The young people who will shape the
new American century are just now receiving their ideas
and inspiration – and librarians and curators have
an obligation to help them reach higher and go farther,”
he concluded.
# # #
The Leadership Lecture will
be delivered at 7 p.m., at the William G. McGowan Theater,
National Archives Building, on Constitution Avenue at
7th Street N.W., in Washington, DC.
For a transcript of Dilenschneider’s
remarks, contact Leo Murray at The Dilenschneider Group,
lmurray@dgi-nyc.com
or call 212-922-0900.
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