Books & Resources
Inspired Thinking
ALA Editions
What is the role of libraries in an age of instant gratification? How can libraries design opportunities and environments to encourage people and enhance their ability to think, problem-solve, and learn? Since the early 1980s rapid advances in technology have given people easy access to information and the ability to learn and work from anywhere. This has not trivialized the library, however; the world still needs libraries. Technology alone cannot guarantee the exploration of ideas that can lead to profound discoveries. Technology cannot help anyone to learn to think intelligently, critically, and holistically. Libraries continue to help humanity get to the big ideas.
It was our own response to the big ideas themselves that helped us conceive the idea for this book, which is centered on big ideas that have stood the test of time – for example, curiosity, charity, and goodwill – and that have been implemented by great thinkers ranging from the ancient Greek philosophers to Alexander Pope, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Abraham Lincoln. In this book, we are unabashedly promoting big ideas as a foundation for core values, perspectives, and a helpful mindset. But we are not promoting what people should think. We hope readers will learn to think for themselves.
Plato encourages us to go beyond forming an opinion in order to think through and activate big ideas such as contentment, gracefulness, and creativity. This book is a guide for leaders from any position and courageous followers in all types of libraries to tap the inspiration of big ideas and concepts.
From Inspired Thinking, page xi.
Inspired Thinking: Big Ideas to Enrich Yourself and Your Community by Dorothy Stoltz with Morgan Miller, Lisa Picker, Joseph Thompson, and Carrie Willson (Chicago: ALA Editions © Copyright 2020 by Dorothy Stoltz, Morgan Miller, Lisa Picker, Joseph Thompson, and Carrie Willson. All Rights Reserved.)
