Spring is here!

The end of august 2006. Outside it's raining cats and dogs, inside I've just set up a new blog with the name Library Spring. The irony is hard to ignore.

Why Library Spring? The world of libraries is hardly blossoming. Another name could just as well have been Identity Crisis. But it is all too easy to be cynical, an protective mode to slip into.

Third paragraph already - let me introduce myself. My name is Driek Heesakkers, I work in the library of the University of Amsterdam, and this blog is intended as a work blog. It is not official, by no means, but a way to join the online discussion of the library world. I find myself adding more and more comments in my del.icio.us bookmarks tagged 'library'. The finaly drop was that one day after the opening day of TICER 2006, I met one of the Dutch Librarybloggers, just as I was bubbling over with observations and thoughts. Time for a blog on my thoughts on library innovation.

I have been blogging personally for a long time now (available with a quick google) but mostly avoided work. At the start of this experiment, these barriers will stay up, let's see how it goes.

Finally - why in English? Not just because, in the words of Henk Ellerman, English is an open standard, because the interesting conversations happen there, or because I'm used to it (blogging in Dutch just feels wrong). I like distance it creates with day-to-day routine (to which I hastily have to retreat now).