American podcasters Chris DeCristofaro and Robert Johnson invited me to join them for a discussion on their show The Library Pros, exploring issues of interest to librarians and information professionals around the world.
Chris and Bob did an excellent job taking us through a discussion of libraries’ strategy, mission, and community service, with a few laughs along the way. It’s one of the best conversations I’ve had on these topics in the past year.
Murder. Mayhem. Family strife. Gateways to other worlds. Stories that the audience shapes, and that might run for months or even years.
In a corner of Michigan, one library worker and her colleagues are bringing all these things to life.
I first met Audrey Huggett in 2017, while working with Ann Arbor District Library on the Wondrous Strange event. Library technician Audrey has led a series of projects where members of the public participate in live-action storytelling, ranging from murder mystery to an epic fantasy with cosmic stakes.
Audrey joined me to talk about her work in interactive storytelling in January 2019, just as she was completing preparations for the upcoming “In Between: Quest for the Keystone”. Read more
How does a playful simulation help institutions to “see themselves from the outside”, reimagining their vision, mission, operations, and relationships?
In the new issue of Perspektiv, the magazine of Denmark’s library union, you can read about Library Island and its variants.
Whether you’re a fluent Danish speaker, or empowered by the magic of machine translation, you can read Sabrine Mønsted’s article “Library Island: Se biblioteket udefra” here.
I’ve spent a fair chunk of the last two years working on something called “Library Island”. You might have seen photos, videos, or social media posts appearing online as university staff, health workers, museum professionals, students, and, yes, librarians take part in this interactive training activity.
Later this year, a free CC-licensed print-and-play kit for Library Island will be released, so that people anywhere can take this activity and use it with their institutions, companies, and communities.
But what exactly is Library Island? Read on to find out… Read more
Today I’m joined by Norway’s Martin Kristoffer Bråthen. Martin is head of innovation and product development at Biblioteksentralen, the cooperative business which supplies libraries across Norway with collection materials, equipment and services.
Prior to that, Martin worked at Deichman Bibliotek, the Oslo Public Library, in a range of project roles. During that time, he wrote a robust defence of public libraries in the age of the e-book in response to a comment by a senior Norwegian arts editor that “digitisation leaves public libraries on the scrapheap of history.”
Copenhagen was the last stop on my workshop tour of the Nordic countries. I ran two sessions – a full day for librarians from across Denmark and Germany, plus a half day for Danish library managers. My hosts were Bibliotekarforbundet – the Danish Union of Librarians.
We used a range of methods and techniques, including the Library Island activity, to explore issues of advocacy, strategy, inclusion, innovation, and coping with a turbulent political environment.
Participants discussed the possibilities of an uncertain future with their peers, then began to design practical responses to the challenges they had identified.
At the managers’ workshop, it became clear that tools were needed to support quick, credible internal and external conversations about libraries’ changing role in Danish society. These would be used to build stakeholder understanding of Danish libraries’ mission, and help staff members to see how their work fit into the larger priorities of their organisation. Read more
How can scenarios and stories help libraries and other institutions prepare for turbulent and uncertain times?
Which strategic approaches will help us to address unexpected events and unwelcome trends that might impact on our business?
Photograph by pam frey, cc by-sa 2.0
“Scenario planning in public libraries”, my discussion with Professor Rafael Ramirez of Oxford University’s Said Business School, is published today in Public Library Quarterly.
The new vision for public libraries in Queensland, Australia has been published by the State Library of Queensland.
The vision, which takes the form of a poster co-designed with Meld Studios, is based on research I conducted with the University of Southern Queensland’s Dr. Kate Davis last year.
You can download the poster for the new vision as a PDF here and read the research on which it was based as a PDF download here.
Today we’re joined by Australia’s Rob Thomson, a library worker and educator who trains library staff, runs conferences and events, and explores the future of the profession in a most adventurous way. We got to chatting after I read Charlie Spedding’s book From Last to First; in a previous entry on this blog, I explored a chapter of this book entitled “The Beer Drinker’s Guide to Sports Psychology.”
Matt
Thanks for joining me, Rob. I got in touch for this chat after reading the section of Spedding’s book where he describes changing his approach while nursing a pint of beer:
“If thinking differently was going to make me a better runner, I could do it sitting in the pub. I smiled to myself and took another drink as I figured I was making myself a better runner right now.”
And I thought of you!
Rob
That is awesome! I am no runner, but I do get to thinking differently. Sometimes that happens whilst nursing a beer… sometimes it is over a coffee; or even descending the stairs… But a beer helps!
Often because it’s not at work, you’re in a different place, more relaxed and can take a longer, more considered, view of things and put 2 and 3 together better than when distracted by what goes on at work.
In a sense, it’s giving yourself permission to have some thinking time.
Matt
You’re kind of in the business of making better librarians, aren’t you? Read more
“If thinking differently was going to make me a better runner, I could do it sitting in the pub.”
Charlie Spedding missed a train, bought a beer, and changed his life.
The English marathon runner, a pharmacist by trade, found himself in a pub forty years ago, pondering how to make the big time.
“I had committed myself to running when I walked away from my father’s business, but I didn’t seem to know how I was going to fulfil whatever potential I had. All I had done was burn my bridges, and I felt unsure about how to make progress.”
All lives come to turning points, by choice or by chance or by decisions over which we have no control. So how do we make the most of them? What options are available to us?
And can we drink our way to better librarianship?
matt finch / mechanical dolphin 
