Knowledge is open-ended and networked by its very nature. Libraries have traditionally been local nodes in that network, places where people can join the network, where learning is inquiring, not just acquiring. Yet the fluid, connected nature of knowledge runs counter to the current economic framework in which knowledge is given to corporations to be transformed into property, then returned to the network through a complex system of metered payments. Libraries have worked hard to keep knowledge free at the local level through negotiating licenses, implementing software to manage all the locks and combinations, and designing user interfaces that make the locks as invisible as possible. If we joined our knowhow and our fundamental values, we could collectively play a leadership role in developing an open network that is, like knowledge itself, open to change. http://homepages.gac.edu/~fister/ER&L.pdf

31. http://homepages.gac.edu/~fister/ER&L.pdf
Image credits
Butterfly – forteller.ipernity.com
Toronto telephone exchange – wikimedia
Word cloud made with Wordle
Patience at the NYPL – the nails
Tawny background texture – friendbrook meadows
Genius Bar – Dave MN via Wikipedia
Ithaka Faculty Survey chart – Ithaka S&R
Library Director Survey chart – Ithaka S&R
Bound periodicals – thomas ford memorial library
Wallet – 401K2012
Social network graph – Daniel
Shaping the world – Anthony Mattox
Another World is Possible – Tal Bright
Lever Inistiative header – Lever Initiative
Salt crystal – Dawn Endico
Make things happen by Sarah Dee
Map of sciences – Duncan Hull
Typefaces – Fluoxetine by Apostrophic Labs and Just the Way You Are by Kimberley Geswein