Media contact:
Beth Dempsey, 248.349.7810 or beth@bethdempsey.com
September 17, 2007 (Chicago) -- The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) is launching the industry�s most comprehensive program ever aimed at preparing libraries for the future. ULC�s Foresight 2020 takes a unique approach, looking out a dozen years to teach libraries how to spot trends and adapt quickly, putting them in a proactive mode regardless of how their environment changes.
�Libraries operate in an increasingly dynamic setting and that�s not going to change,� said Mart�n G�mez, president of ULC. �If our industry can�t learn and respond quickly then we�ll always be playing catch-up. We�re taking action so that we�re never lamenting the death of our old world, but always seizing opportunities in the new one.�
Joel Garreau, principal of The Garreau Group, an acclaimed global futuring firm, will guide Foresight 2020 as ULC�s first Virtual Scholar. Mr. Garreau is also a reporter and editor at The Washington Post and is renowned for his insightful, provocative books � The Nine Nations of North America, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, and Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies � and What It Means to Be Human. As ULC Virtual Scholar, Mr. Garreau will develop research, events, and multi-tiered discussions aimed at building libraries as rapid-learning organizations.
�We are now living in a bottom-up networked world, where you have zillions of choices, and anything can come from anywhere,� said Mr. Garreau. �The only sustainable advantage is to learn faster than the competition. And the competition is everywhere.�
A centerpiece of Foresight 2020 will be a moderated online forum that engages all levels and types of ULC members � directors, corporations, mid-level managers, state associations and new librarians � in �what if� conversations. Online and member-to-member conversations will also explore uncertainties like public funding, political positioning of public libraries, the public library role in the marketplace and the role of public libraries on issues of user privacy and intellectual freedom. ULC members will be challenged to look more closely at the assumptions they make about their business now and look more creatively at opportunities and innovations that make sense. Another component of the program will be to develop scenarios that create a deeper understanding about dynamics that can shape the public library�s future.
Foresight 2020�s online forum is in development mode until January 2008 when it will open to the ULC community during the organization�s Midwinter meeting. In the meantime, research and discussion will continue to be guided by Mr. Garreau in conjunction with representatives from a variety of segments and levels of ULC members.
�Generating discussion among all types of players in our industry not only brings multiple perspectives to the table, it spreads this kind of rapid learning,� said Mr. G�mez. �We may be starting Foresight 2020 with our members, but we�re counting on a ripple effect throughout the entire industry, so that we all become fearless about the future.�
About the Urban Libraries Council
For more than 30 years the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) has worked to strengthen public libraries as an essential part of urban life. A membership organization of North America�s premier public library systems and the corporations that serve them, ULC serves as a forum for sharing best practices resulting from targeted research, education and forecasting. ULC�s programs are acclaimed for inspiring new organizational models that invigorate urban libraries and enrich the areas surrounding them. ULC is headquartered in Chicago. For more information, visit the group on the Web at www.urbanlibraries.org.
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