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Book review written by Pierke Bosschieter for The Indexer of March 2009 |
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Shanachie Tour: A Library Road Trip Across America. Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer, photography by Geert van den Boogaard. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc. 2008. 128pp and DVD. ISBN 978-1-57387-360-4. US$39.50
A smallish booklet plus a DVD with a one-hour playing time chronicles the travels of three Dutchmen on a coast to coast quest through the US, in search of the essence of American librarianship. The three men are part of the driving force behind DOK (the Public Library in Delft, http://www.dok.info/), one of the most innovative public libraries in the Netherlands. They used weblogs, podcasts , photos and videos to convey their keen interest in the future of their profession and their encounter with inspired American librarians, each of whom had a contribution to make. The booklet and the DVD offer a brief but warm overview of this journey, giving pride of place to the librarians they interviewed. At the start the DVD is a wee bit amateurish, but the enthusiasm of the makers wins you over after a few minutes and it’s exactly this amateurism that somehow makes you feel as if you were right there with them. The booklet is a collage of pictures, snippets of weblogs and commentaries of interviewees. Among the libraries visited are the New York Public, the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, Ann Arbor District Library, Salt Lake City Public Library (not covered on the DVD), Denver Public Library and the John C. Freemont Library, at Florence, Colorado. The emphasis of the interviews is on how to incorporate new technologies and make them available to the public, especially now that the purpose of libraries is under debate and book circulation is decreasing. Gaming and the downloading of audio books directly from the library’s web site are two examples of this. The Shanachie Tour booklet and DVD can be enjoyed both by librarians and by everyone who frequents libraries. You can visit the Shanachie Tour weblog http://wordpress.shanachietour.com/ to keep informed about what the threesome is up to now. They’ve just finished a tour through Australia, having visited Jamaica in May of this year. I’m looking forward to a book and DVD coverage of their Australian adventure. Pierke Bosschieter |
