Disneyland is one of those places you really must experience at some point in your life. Sure, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but there is simply nothing else like it in the world (well, except for all the other Disney parks in the world, of course). What Disney has done is to create a microcosm where everything, absolutely everything, is made as controlled and perfect as it can be made by humans. It is, in other words, as close as humans have probably every gotten to beating back the forces of entropy at such a large scale.
So for someone like me who works with messy, hard to define and even harder to control issues, it can afford a welcome relief. But will I get a chance to experience the well-ordered world of Disneyland while I’m here in Anaheim at the American Library Association Annual Conference? Not on your life. I have a packed schedule that barely leaves time to catch a dinner in Downtown Disney, let alone reacquaint myself with Mickey’s Toontown. Now I could have linked you to the tune from It’s a Small World, but I’m not that evil. Sure, it’s mostly my own fault but there it is.
This means I am left to fantasize being in the park, where litter is scooped up almost before it hits the ground, where movies are projected onto walls of water, and where fantasies really do come true if you are of a certain age and disposition. It brings me comfort, in this era of uncertainty and upheaval in libraries, to consider what our very own Tomorrowland for libraries might be, as inspiration to do the work we must do to make our library dreams come true. I am further comforted to realize, as has been drummed into my brain only a matter of yards from where I sit writing this, that it really is a small world after all. We can really do this.
About Roy Tennant
My first job was at Disneyland. I worked in Fantasyland, as a matter of fact (which probably explains a lot). I think in many ways, working at Disneyland was a great first job experience, and prepared me for work in libraries in many ways. They have a fabulous customer service ethic, and they encourage people to think that anything is possible.