Global African Business Association’s Post

Transcript

When you look at. The state of public libraries. In our community, In the state of academic libraries, In our community. We have to be in a position to reinvent them. I've always been a person that thought that a library system can serve as an alternative to an actual school district or school system. And the reason I'm saying that is because libraries provide education and educational tools that impact the local community at large, sometimes the regional community at large, depending on what area you live in, it impacts the regional area at large. As well, I think most of the time with these school districts. School districts and school systems have become a a political ping pong. You know, we saw what happened with the whole Critical Race Theory nonsense and the whole mass mandates where people were going to school boards fighting school board members threatening their families and things of that nature. We have our politicians changing the curriculum, especially around centered around social studies to a more whitewashed type of curriculum. To erase black people or Asian people or or or Hispanic people from. Our history books. And so it's become a political ping pong. But the library itself, I view it very, very differently. I think we are in a position to develop our own 21st century library system of innovation that is important on the confines of the fourth industrial revolution. And so when you look at a a library, you're not looking at just the place where you check out books, but you're also looking at a place where it's a Resource Center. It's a center where we train people on how to do business with Africa. It's a place where we train people on how to be certified in the industry that you're going through and and you partner with these, you partner with these key players like Ford Motor Company or or or General Motors or other entities that are building electric vehicles. Well, you can use the library as a Resource Center on training on new employees or training. People, engineers within the Resource Center on the importance of why electric vehicles are important, in how those and how electric vehicles play a big role in in innovation and so. We have to redefine the library and I always tell people the library is the best kept secret in our community. It really is. It's the best kept secret within our community. We have to use it as an anchor institution within an innovation district that's fused with cultural arts, good governance and most importantly, viable small medium sized businesses. That's really going to make an impact with our community at large, so. You know, libraries have to be redefined in the confines of the fourth industrial Revolution. I think that's very important. And linking those library systems to other library systems and other entities on the continent of Africa, in the Caribbean. So that we can create our own, not just our own educational synergy, but our own economic synergy as well. Because if we're, if we have the knowledge and wisdom and understanding of scholarship, it would transform into leadership. And I think that's very key when you're looking at prosperity type prosperity within the community in terms of wealth building through businesses, through good governance and technology. I think this is a win win for us.