BibloRed (Capital Network of Public Libraries) of Bogotá, Colombia

I first heard about the BibloRed (Capital Network of Public Libraries) of Bogotá, Colombia after it won the 2002 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Award. You can read more about it in this short report. It sounded a really exciting way of bringing a lot of change to a library service quickly, and there sounded to be many lives changed as a result. I am still very interested in visiting this library. I will have to work on my Spanish so it is not as basic as it currently is.



This month for #blogjune I have been sharing some of the libraries on my wish list to visit. Over the next few months I will be writing about libraries I visited as part of my holidays. They were only part of my holidays. I saw and did a lot of things which did not involve libraries as well.

It will take me a while to bring all the ideas and information together about this. You can have a look at the images I have been loading to Flickr. It will take me a while to upload all the library photographs, and so far the descriptive information is minimal. I will be writing about these libraries, and adding to their descriptions on Flickr over the next few months.

National Library of New Zealand

I would really like to visit a lot of libraries in New Zealand, and the National Library is one of them. I really like their use of twitter and Digital New Zealand is very impressive.



While I am just mentioning one New Zealand library, it is a country with many interesting libraries on my wish list to visit.

Tempe Public Library, Arizona

I would like to visit the Tempe Public Library in Arizona.



I heard very impressive things about this library from one of its readers, so it would be great to have a look at it after having heard so much about it.

Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester Mystery House is described as being a steampunk house. All good steam punk houses should have a library, and this sounds an amazing place to visit.

Frank Gehry and West 8

This paired design by Frank Gehry and West 8 looks so amazing that I am sneaking it into a wish list of libraries as I am sure I could find a library theme if I visited the spaces in Miami.

I could combine a visit to the park and building with sightseeing at the Miami Dade Public Library System.

Netherlands Architecture Institute

The Netherlands Architecture Institute has developed an augmented reality app for several cities in the Netherlands which shows building which used to be in an area, planned buildings and buildings which were never built. It sounds and exciting place and includes a library.

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - Bavarian State Library

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - Bavarian State Library sounds amazing. It has been open since 1558, has really long opening hours (8.00am to midnight) and is doing really interesting work with apps (Famous books, Oriental books, with Ludwig II on the way and including augmented reality).

Newcastle City Library

Newcastle City Library is another library which is contributing to the identity of the city. It is a new library which, from photographs, seems to connect people within the library to the streetscapes out views outside. The local studies collections and displays seem to further tie this new building into the heritage and life of the city it serves.

Rolex Learning Centre - learn - innovate - live

This is a library which looks amazing, with a mix of retro and futuristic design. The motto is learn/innovate/live – which is something we all should be doing. It is mainly in white, and I would be interested to see how this feels without many splashes of colour.

I also like their "learn - innovate - live" tagging as it is a great way to live.

Cardiff Public Library

Cardiff Public Library has had a new central library within the last few years, and they seem to have though in interesting ways about their programs, services and collections as part of this change. It would be interesting to explore the bilingual nature of this library as well.

Anything can happen if you let it

Anything can happen if you let it. This is one of the catch phrases of Mary Poppins the musical (and not the film). It is a reminder that we do need to let things happen, and be proactive about change, and not get in the way of developments. We also have to let others change and develop in a work place and not be the ones who are the blocks to innovation, collaboration and change.



Anything can happen if you let it – so how about we let innovation, collaboration and change happen, and work hard to make sure that they do. Mary Poppins and Bert are not passive in the destiny. Bert is consistently cheerful, and is working at a range of jobs to make a living, and he is open to the wonder, surprise and joy that Mary Poppins brings with her. May has a tough love approach and won’t let people get away with bad behaviour, kind of like appropriate management in a work place, but she also has imagination, joy, hard work and perseverance which are good work practices for all of us.

Who would have thought going to see Mary Poppins would inspire such thoughts? I was also reminded by a talk I heard at Information online a couple of years ago, by Liz Lawton where she used Mary Poppins as an example of incentives (spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down). I also really enjoyed seeing Mary Poppins as a musical with all the layers of darkness and joy which it has.

As an aside the customer service at The Capitol was excellent. Staff were seeking out eye contact with customers and were being proactively helpful. They looked like they enjoyed their work. Even when some customers proved a little difficult there was no negative body language or eye rolling. The staff continued to provide positive, polite and professional customer service.