A few years go, there was an informal competition amongst the staff in the university library where I work to come up with a slogan for an information stand. The information stand was for the university Open Day. The prize was a bottle of wine.
I suggested the slogan "From Socrates to Cyberspace". I was quite pleased with it (even though I see now that it is not original). I thought it conveyed the sheer range of knowledge that makes a library such an exciting place. I thought the mention of Socrates gave it a cultural and historical dimension, while the mention of cyberspace was-- well, pretty much obligatory.
The slogan that won was "The Library: Information Hotspot". Back then, I didn't even know what an information hotspot was. That particular slogan was contributed by the fellow who organized the competition.
I'm over it. Really, I'm over it. But today it occurred to me that the two slogans might be taken as expressing two different visions of what a library is about. And guess which one is all the rage?
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