Blog Post #5: Dewey Decibel System - Library Rebranding

Serendipity strikes again. I just turned on Chicago Public Radio's This American Life to listen to over lunch, and the theme of this week's show is image creation. The first act is about last year's Rock and Roll Library Tour. Brief synopsis: in an effort to convince kids that libraries can be a cool place to go, Bill Harmer, librarian at Baldwin Public Library in Michigan, convinced an indie rock trio who call themselves The High Strung to do a tour of public libraries throughout Michigan. In some libraries the band actually performed at the reference desk for primarily ten and eleven year olds, most of whom were seeing their first rock concert. The story is a pretty amazing miracle, really -- Harmer and the band actually pulled off what could have been a disastrous "sociological experiment" (as one of the band members describes it in the TAL piece). It's hard to say whether the novelty of holding a rock concert in a library is enough to make regular visitors out of tweens, but you've gotta give credit to Harmer for thinking creatively. This year The High Strung are on a National Rock & Roll Library Tour. You can see a list of upcoming library concerts on the band's MySpace page. Jessamyn West also made note of this a few weeks ago. Finally, you can listen to a stream of the original airing of the This American Life show by visiting here.