Ice House Facilitator Duncan Smith is the Chief Strategist for EBSCO Information Services, a pioneer in the library services industry. After attending certification training in Durham, NC, Duncan was inspired by the potential an entrepreneurial mindset could bring to communities, and saw a unique way to engage stakeholders through their public libraries. Spurred on by his new passion, Duncan wrote a blog post illustrating how public libraries are perfectly suited for entrepreneurial learning and activity.
To quote his recent post; "The public library has always been viewed as the 'People’s University.' The American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Manual (7th ed.) states, 'It is in the library, and in the library alone, that self-directed learning, to the limits of one’s abilities and to the limits of what is known, can take place.'"
What Duncan has found is that entrepreneurial action is driven in part by self-directed learning, and what better place for this than a public library? With a wealth of knowledge and resources available to any community member that wishes to engage, it seems that Duncan's New Years Resolution is one we can all embrace.
