Thanks Ashkahn for letting me be here, and
all the people on Float On
for putting on this conference.
It's been a really beautiful weekend.
So my
name is Chaz Rollins, I'm going to talk about
putting float tanks in
libraries.
I work at Seattle Public Library, and I'm
currently going to
school at the University of Washington for
library information science.
I'm
going to start with this quote by Terrance
McKenna which is "The
present moment is the richest apex of being.
What happens in the past
shades into memory, what happens in the future
shades into anticipation."
And the idea behind this is that when we experience
the present moment it's
the most clear representation of reality.
The data that we pick up in our
senses.
And so a little bit of how I'm going to proceed.
Going to talk
about the guiding values of libraries and
then why float tanks should be in
libraries.
Why libraries should expand their services
to include float
tanks and then how are we going to do this?
So, service really is our key
value, it opens our door.
If we didn't provide service we wouldn't exist.
So it's the effort we dedicate to human well
being.
And by serving an
individual fully and completely, we end up
serving humanity fully and
completely.
In stewardship, another value of ours that
helps guide our way,
we think of a steward as somebody who's responsible
with insuring the
safety and orderly functioning of a house.
And in this context, planet
Earth is the house and we are the people.
And libraries help us maintain
order.
And traditionally we fulfill information needs.
We try and find out
what those needs are and how we can provide
access to it.
And part of that
is eliminating the monetary barriers to that
access.
When libraries were
first created books were really expensive
and Benjamin Franklin and some of
his friends said "Hey, let's pool our resources
and allow a greater number
of people to experience what we have the benefit
of experiencing."
And so
libraries I feel have a blind spot which is
they haven't considered zero
information experience.
And the float tank provides that.
And it will
provide a balance and an equilibrium to what
library services provide.
So
float tanks, a lot of people experience information
overload, I haven't
heard someone experiencing that in a float
tank, I don't know about you
guys.
So this is a solution for that and not only,
people are not the only
ones that can experience information overload,
systems can, like the
institution of libraries.
If you think you have information overload,
try
dealing with the entire universe of information.
The library institution
has overload and a symptom of information
overload is the inability to
process all of the inputs, it leads to breakdown.
I mean we wouldn't have
the problems in society today if we were able
to process everything that is
going on.
Another reason, I mean, when we're talking
about libraries
providing service to individuals, how best
can we serve them?
This
flotation tank provides this holistic healing.
Mind, body and spirit.
We
have something called the digital divide in
libraries.
A whole sector of
society that won't enter a library because
it's too much information.
This
is one way we can help encourage a number
of people to come in who never
even would have thought to.
And for them to see the value of libraries
in
their own life.
Libraries wish to remain neutral.
They don't defend the content of what
they provide, they defend the access to it.
And flotation tanks are
neutral.
Lee Perry says the float tank gives you what
you need.
So this is
a little mock up, artist conception of what
something like this could look
like.
I mean, when you're having these insights
in the tank, what better
place to emerge from to be able to find the
information that you need to
help solve your problem than in a library?
So, we really, we can do this.
We can meet donors halfway.
We say we have a plan set up, if you donate
our
tank we'll let the public know who provided
this and it's a good investment
for you.
I mean, so many more people will be hearing
about float tanks,
people will want to float right now, but the
waiting list will be a year
long.
And so, they're going to be wanting to support
their local float
centers, if they don't have a local float
center, they might want to start
one.
They might want to buy their own tank for
themselves.
Another way is we can fund-raise, like kick
starter style.
Say we've got 30
days to raise this amount of money, if we
don't make it, you get your money
back, no risk.
The amount of media coverage that float tanks
would receive
from this will be incredible.
First library in the world to have a float
tank, people would just be talking about it.
And for the public to see that
the library would be making steps to benefit
you as an individual would
dramatically increase public support for libraries.
More people would be
coming.
I mean, library tourism.
So as we have float tanks in libraries all
over the world, what can we
expect to happen?
On a personal level, inspiration, it's a lot
of the
reason why so many people are here, because
they've been inspired by their
experience.
As we have more and more people having this
deep feeling within
them, that spreads to their community.
We have community wide collaboration
and creativity happening.
More communities doing that, we can actually
solve world problems by working together with
this clarity, this clear
thinking that comes from this.
Greater problem solving, decision making,
thought formation.
It brings you an inner peace and that feeling
spreads.
And it really is a logical conclusion that
we would have world peace, it's
not a lofty idea, it just would happen.
So I'm going to leave with the lesson of the
caterpillar which is once we
learn how to slow down and stop, then what
emerges is an entirely new being.
If
you want to help, if you have questions, concerns,
suggestions, please talk
to me.
Thank you.
