We make people smarter.

A few of us at Ralph Ellison saw this tonight and were bouncing around some ideas. We really liked the idea of action verbs.

"Inspire. Encourage. Discover. Grow."

I like the brevity and catchiness of "We Make People Smarter" but we really don't do that. They're able to do that on their own with a little guidance from us. I like something akin to "We inspire people to discover" or "We champion discovery." Thanks for those great action verbs, RE! :)

This is all very exciting! I enjoyed seeing the rationale and thought that was put into the statements and principles. I think libraries do make people smarter, but I can’t help but think that this statement could be confusing to some. What does “smarter” mean? I think it could mean several different things to different people. Libraries, as informal learning environments, act as vessels of information where people can discover information. There’s a high level of self-directedness in learning and empowerment when people seek information from the library. It's all up to the individual. Like others have said before me, we help guide library members in the right direction.

When a member walks into a library with a question and walks out, what is the gain? Did he gain smarts? No, but he probably became better informed. There could be a disconnect between the “we” and “people” with the verb “make” in terms of empowering our members. This makes it sound as if the library is the be-all end-all when it comes to learning. A statement along the lines of what Josh said – We inspire people to discover. – seem more accurate as well as inspiring and empowering to our members.

Okay, I never do this, but I thought I would throw my two cents in. I am thinking of everyone who comes into a library. Parents, children, teens, and adults. Each person receives something when they enter. We inspire, entertain, and provide everyone with knowledge, and the ability to dream.
I Used RE's Inspire word.

I think asolivan (Andrew) hit the nail on the head with this one. That's a great explanation. I second everything that was said in that comment, but I also want to add that I'm not sure how I feel about the phrase, "We make people smarter" for an entirely different reason. I like the idea of it, but I feel like it could be taken in a way that is off-putting or offensive, almost like people aren't smart on their own without us there to help. I think RE and jjordan (Joshua) have some fantastic suggestions for alternatives.

One of my coworkers suggested something to the effect of "We provide a starting point for discovery."

I think I'm going to agree with a lot of the concerns that have been mentioned here already. There's a bit of appeal to the sort of tongue-in-cheek simplicity of "We Make People Smarter," but beyond that it seems like a poor representation of what we do (although to be fair, I do recognize that, being relatively new to the system, I don't get to speak authoritatively about what we do).

Like everyone else has pointed out, it seems that what we do is provide resources, not actually "do" anything to anyone. To imply otherwise gives something of an implication that it's our hard work, not the effort of our members, which counts toward them becoming "smarter." This terms itself is especially vague, but even supposing that increased intelligence is our endgame, our members are the ones doing the self-improvement, and I don't see any reason to try to claim agency over this process. I worry about the language we're using here; I obviously believe that the library is an immeasurably significant community institution, but I don't think it's wise to insinuate that we're in some way necessary for people to reach their full intellectual potential.

I also think that, empirically, it might not be a true statement (and I think this is important in demonstrating the vagueness of this sentiment overall). The resources our libraries provide represent a wide variety of opinions, and no one would pretend that all of our employees and members agree upon which are most valuable, meaning that we've all probably checked materials out to members which we did not actually necessarily believe would make them smarter. But I still believe it's important that these resources be available, because we're in the business of resource provision, not indoctrination.

I hope this makes some sense and doesn't seem petty. The words we use matter, and I just worry that these words are not communicating what we should be trying to communicate.

I agree with all of the comments above. "We make people smarter" could be taken the wrong way. I like the idea of "We inspire people to discover," as someone mentioned.

I am also not sure that the rationale,"ensure that our members can and will make better decisions," is completely true. We may empower them to make life improving decisions, but we can never be sure that our customers will actually make those decisions. We do not force information on people.

Maybe something like "We empower people and aid their explorations."

One key term I noticed multiple times in the discussion about our mission was "inspiration." As this term is something that obviously is important to us as passionate supporters of the library, I wonder if that needs to be in our mission statement...

What about "Connecting our community with information, ideas and inspiration."

I strongly agree that the word "empower" could be used here. While a person's experience at the library may not result directly in "smarts" when they walk out the door, I do think we provide them with the tools and information to empower themselves and improve their lives.

Maybe, something short and powerful like, 'We inspire success'. Thanks!

We inspire lifelong learning, encourage personal growth and empower communities through Books, multimedia, (our) programs, and (use of) technology.

"We make people smarter" --If you break this sentence down, it portrays the library as a force acting upon the community. But public libraries should be facilitators, not dictators. We do not tell people what information they should be looking for, and we do not teach them to live a certain way. We are here to facilitate a wide array of community interests, which means providing access to all points of view, encouraging public discourse, and being a hub for community interaction and engagement.

"Inspire", "Empower", and "Discover" have popped up multiple times in the conversation, and I agree that they are fitting terms for a library's mission statement. A few suggestions:

We empower the community to shape their world through the exploration of ideas and information.
We empower the community to discover their full potential through lifelong learning.
We inspire lifelong learning and discovery through community engagement.
We strengthen the community by empowering citizens to reach their full potential.
We enrich lives and strengthen the community by connecting people to information and ideas.

I would like to see something in our mission statement about the role the library plays in a democracy. I would like it to asserts that democracy requires an enlightened citizenry, and that it is our duty to provide all people with the means for free intellectual development.

The Pasadena Public Library mission statement goes as follows.

“The freedom to know is the foundation of our democracy. The mission of the Pasadena Public Library, a basic municipal service, is to be an information center for the Pasadena community in order to preserve and encourage the free expression of ideas essential to an informed citizenry.”

This is a little wordy for my tastes but it mentions the importance of “an informed citizenry”, which, personally, I like for a number of reasons.
1) It emphasizes that we are a community led agencies of social change
2) It lets people know we are a democratic institution, and that the members (including ourselves) are part of our library and should have a say in all that we do
3) Democratic principles encompass a lot of what we currently do and could be a good guiding principle for future activities.
4) Librarianship brings us up against both economic and political issues; saying that we are promoters of “an informed citizenry” recognizes that we are not simply neutral actors.

Here’s another one that came up when I googled “democracy mission statement”

“The Thorp Public Library, as a governmental body in a democracy, exists:
•To protect the rights to, identify and meet the individual’s need for full access to information.
•The Library will be an excellent and unbiased source of information for the people it serves.
•The Thorp Public Library provides a lifelong learning resource, outside the formal education system, which enables each individual to acquire or to adapt the skill and knowledge necessary to: Participate in self-government, Be productive, Enhance humanity, Elevate economic stature, And contribute to enjoyment of life according to full exercise of free choice.”

As an illiterate man (one who does not read or write) who visits our library regularly said: "The library enables and empowers me to get my Life's Mojo Working". I think to say we make him smarter would not ring true for him.

I think other suggestions mentioned above such as "empower" "facilitate" and "inspire" are better at representing what our libraries offer than simply "we make people smarter" which does not hone in on the key features we offer or on the services we provide. We provide educational materials but we are not a learning academy which is what is implied by saying that "we make people smarter."

I love the sentiment people are coming up with, but please can we not use the word "empower?" This is from a web site (there are many talking about how overused the word is) http://www.exxelinc.com/Empowerment.pdf "Is it possible that there is a more overused word than empowerment? It has become de rigueur in mission statements, presidents’ visions and marketing literature. Talk of empowerment is everywhere... journals, newspapers, workshop topics, and yes, of course, management consultants. Just to test my total exhaustion with the word, I asked a very articulate twenty something technical professional his reaction... and got an earful. To me the phrase is a nearly meaningless buzzword overused by virtually everyone I’ve ever met in management."

We give people a path to their possibilities.

Some of the synonyms I found to possibilities: hopes, options, choices, solutions

From online Merriam-Webster: possibilities : abilities or qualities that could make someone or something better in the future
potential or prospective value

My first response was to think that not all library use makes people smarter. I discussed it with someone I trust who made the point that there is potential to learn something from every resource, even a piece of fluff fiction. Still, I'm not comfortable with this. I thought about "We make people better", because that would include smarter, but also happier, more comfortable, more secure, etc., etc. But we don't really make people better. We do help them to make themselves better, though. We provide tools and ideas and opportunities that will allow every person to become better, however s/he defines that.

We expand people’s minds and lives.

I like the phrase "Connecting our community with information, ideas and inspiration."

Hello Committee,
Well, the term "smarter" can be taken as elitist. Especially as it pertains to people who learn differently (ADHD, Dyslexic, etc...) However, if we have the capacity to expand the world of people who come to visit us, then we have achieved a great thing here. Some terms that may be good are: "We make people "grow" "achieve" "explore" etc...But I get the concept here and I like it. Hope this post makes sense.
Darcus