Libraries have never been better at their mission of serving as your gateway to all human knowledge and culture…so why are they in greater danger than ever before? And what can we do about it?
Read my latest, for Australia’s The Vocal:
Marvellous, Electrical: The Man in the Machine
…the nonhuman entities with which we share the world – including, but not limited to, our tools – are active in their own right. They have their own powers, interests, and points of view. And if we engineer them, in various ways, they “engineer” us as well, nudging us to adapt to their demands. Automobiles, computers, and kidney dialysis machines were made to serve particular human needs; but in turn, they also induce human habits and behaviours to change. Nonhuman things must therefore be seen as…active agents with their own intentions and goals, and which affect one another, as well as affecting us…
…Things are creative. And again, one of the great potentialities of science fiction is to illuminate the positive, productive powers of things, of materials, and of technological apparatuses.
– Steven Shaviro, Discognition
This week, Marvellous, Electrical heads out to the fields of Queensland’s Darling Downs for a ride in a modern farming machine.
When you find yourself at the wheel of a self-driving harvester, just who’s steering who?
Marvellous, Electrical: Mouth on Legs
There have been great Queenslanders and famous Queenslanders, real ones and imaginary, but only one has been to the end of the universe and back.
This week’s Marvellous, Electrical is about Tegan from Doctor Who.
TEGAN: What’s a Zero Room anyway?[…]
NYSSA: I suppose it’s some sort of neutral environment. An isolated space cut off from the rest of the universe.
TEGAN: He should’ve told me that’s what he wanted. I could’ve shown him Brisbane.
Read Marvellous, Electrical: Mouth on Legs here.
Keynote speaker for SWITCH 2016
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be a keynote speaker at the New South Wales Public Libraries Association’s conference SWITCH 2016, 22-25 November in Ulladulla, NSW.
Here we are on the shore, on the edge of some adventure. Have we been deserted or let loose?
How do we move away from centralised, broadcast-based models of discussion, creation, and debate in favour of democratised, distributed approaches?
When libraries around the world are fighting to thrive and everyone has co-opted the language of innovation and community engagement, what does great public librarianship look like and how do we do it?
See you in November!
Where Do You Find Yourself? Space, Play, and Duty in the Australian Digital Library
Are there still cultural backwaters in the digital age? Three months in to my year-long residency at the State Library of Queensland, I’ve written about Australian libraries, regional engagement, and digital literature for The Writing Platform.
I’m very interested in the vogue for locative literature, where texts are linked to physical spaces through digital or conventional media. But there are questions still to be asked: not just whether we add a virtual layer of story and literature to physical spaces, but who gets to create the content in that virtual layer.
If writers are having a creative and critical conversation about the world, and in the locative age we are venturing outside of traditional venues, we still need to ask: who are “we” having those conversations with? And how could a simple online comic maker start expanding that circle of storytelling, literary production, and critical discussion?
Future Libraries: Towards a presenterless workshop?
This week I spoke at the Future Libraries two-day event at the State Library of Queensland. It was an opportunity for public librarians from across Australia’s Sunshine State to discuss plans, dreams, and schemes for the coming year.
There’s always a tension at such sessions, though hopefully it’s a productive one. On one hand, people like to be engaged, inspired, and provoked by speakers who they might not otherwise get a chance to hear or question. On the other, Powerpoint preachers don’t always make a lasting change, they don’t necessarily listen to the experience and creativity already in the room, and all too often those voices broadcasting from the stage are drawn from the same pool.
So, at Future Libraries, with just seventy-five minutes in the “naptime slot” straight after lunch, I tried to give Queensland librarians the best of both worlds.
We made comics together, but I also shared stories of the Lambeth library siege and Birmingham’s library cuts alongside the threats faced in Australia. We celebrated how public librarians are at their best under pressure, from Christchurch to Ferguson, but then it was time to get the whole room talking.
So we tried a version of the Presenterless Workshop.
This is an activity I’ve piloted with various groups, including library staff development sessions in London and regional England. Participants are each given one sheet of instructions from a set of five. By following the instructions on their sheet, they form groups which discuss what libraries should and can do from a range of perspectives. Those groups then share their discussion as a presentation or exhibition, and even the ways in which they interpret the instructions can be provocative and productive.
Rebel Rebel
As libraries evolve to meet today’s needs, and transform their own institutional processes and bureaucracy, we so often hear the mantra “Don’t ask permission, beg forgiveness”. Even I’ve said it in presentations, but I now I see that the spirit of the phrase is not quite right.
Although it encourages people to be less hesitant about trying new things, and has a rebellious ring to it, it also forces innovators into the position of the naughty schoolboy, breaking the rules but still ultimately desirous of, and dependent on, the institution’s resources, support, and long-term approval.
Instead, this presenterless workshop encourages participants to consider that organizational rules are more like guidelines to be interpreted than rules to be either obeyed or broken. A lot of the work I do is finding ways to marry up bright ideas and inspiring fun – like zombie sieges or time travel workshops – with the policies, plans, and success measures of big bureaucratic organizations. There’s almost always some wiggle room somewhere for you to justify creative activities, it just takes a little negotiation.
If you want to listen to a library superstar who is not your typical rebel-posing white bloke, I recommend Wellington Libraries’ Adrienne Hannan, a reservist combat medic and children’s librarian who compares library policies to military rules of engagement – not laws to be transgressed, but a framework within which soldiers must make serious practical decisions, under pressure, in a timely way.
Presenterless Workshop Resources
If you fancy running a presenterless staff development workshop in your library, I’ve included the relevant worksheets as free, Creative Commons-licensed PDF files in this blog post. Download them, play with them, give them a go — and let me know how you get on.
Electrical updates
There’s been some new entries on Marvellous, Electrical in recent weeks.
Here’s a few highlights:
You can sign up for weekly updates from Curious, Mysterious, Marvellous, Electrical here.
Libraries: the seven-fingered fist?
Last week saw the first of my guest columns for Library as Incubator in the US, following my experiences as Creative in Residence at the State Library of Queensland, Australia.
This first piece explores libraries as gateways to other worlds, showcases the work of Queensland’s Signature Team, and explores the challenges of working with a cultural institution that serves a region three times the size of France.
Days of Fear and Wonder
Queensland Public Libraries and the State Library of Queensland are holding a two-day professional development event, Future Libraries, on Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 April.
On Tuesday, I’ll be speaking on library futures in these days of fear and wonder.
Library under siege
Last week was a huge one for British public libraries. A BBC report highlighted the severity of cuts to library services in recent years, and library lovers in the borough of Lambeth made national news when they occupied a branch due for closure.
I believe that the battles happening in Lambeth, and across the UK, aren’t just about those communities. They have lessons for librarians around the world. Read more
matt finch / mechanical dolphin 