Thursday 9 January 2014

Removing the behemoth of bureaucracy: the 4th Floor


The 4th floor at Chattanooga Public Library was once home to dusty archives and more than 30 years of documents and junk.

Now celebrating it's first birthday the 4th Floor is a public laboratory and educational facility with a focus on information, design, technology, and the applied arts. The more than 12,000 sq foot space hosts equipment, expertise, programmess, events and meetings and is unique because it supports the production, connection, and sharing of knowledge by offering access to tools and instruction.

Read an inspiring  interview with Corinne Hill, Chattanooga Public Library's Director. My favourite part of the interview is where she talks about sweeping aside the old ways of doing things and just getting on with it. It's really refeshing to hear library directors talking like this...

"I didn’t want to come here and work the way I’ve worked in other libraries,” she says. “I didn’t want that structured, bureaucratic environment where you couldn’t make anything happen.

She and her team say that, by shoving the lumbering behemoth of bureaucracy out of the way — as much as possible — they’ve been able to act on new proposals and gather data on how the public responds to them instead of sitting around a conference table, prematurely sabotaging ideas in their infancy.

“I don’t want to sit around and talk about it,” Hill explains. “I don’t want to say, ‘In three years we’ll make it happen.’ I want to do it. You can do that here.”

Read the full article at the Times Free Press

Find out more about the 4th Floor at Chattanooga Public Library.

Even the cafe is cool!



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