Are Guerrilla Libraries Saving the Soul of Librarianship? Redefining Libraries (Part 3)

Posted on by pcsweeney

For this third edition of the redefinition of librarians I would like to point out that there are quite a few librarians (and non-librarians) creating libraries in areas where other libraries can’t (or refuse) to reach. These are normal people who believe so wholeheartedly in the benefits of libraries that they are going out into the world and creating libraries. These people are the Johnny Appleseed of librarianship and without their work many people wouldn’t have the opportunity to have access to a collection of information or literature. These are also not collections that are maintained or controlled by an entity or a formalized organization. They are more like an anarchist’s library as many don’t have any rules, regulations, or memberships. What is great about this is that I have noticed more and more people taking up the cause as libraries around the country falter and I’d like to point out a few guerilla libraries that have been put together around the world.

Mick Jones Library
Mick Jones of The Clash and various other bands has created a Rock and Roll Library. This library features rock memorabilia from his own personal collection and contains nearly 10,000 items. From what I gather this is not a quiet library (it is rock and roll after all) and since its punk, you know it will tear down the walls of the library and scream with a rebel yell at the establishment.

Telephone Booth Library
Here’s another one from the UK. This is one of Britain’s old red phone booths like you see on Harry Potter. It has been recycled into one of the country’s smallest lending libraries and only stock around 100 books. Since this library employs zero librarians, the Villagers from Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset can use the library 24 hours a day. The library’s “Patrons” simply replace the books they take, with books they have read thus keeping the library’s collection well stocked.


Payphone Library

Of course, America has its own version of this but maybe it’s not quite as elegant. It does work however. The concept is basically the same in that it’s an old public phone that has been re-commissioned into a self-service library that is available to the local community 24 hours a day.


Ikea Beach Library

Alright, this one really gets me mad. It was set up by Ikea to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of the Billy Bookcase. I’m mad because absolutely love it and it should have been done by someone other than Ikea. I would however, like to point out that I LOVE Ikea so don’t think I have anything against them. It’s just that I really feel like a guerilla librarian or even a regular library really dropped the ball on this one. But maybe we can get some folks to replicate it somewhere else in the world. Or… There’s an Ikea right down the street from my library actually. Hmmm…


Library In a Locker
Here is a kid that is full of awesome! Apparently when he found that his school library had a bunch books that had been banned, he decided that he would offer these books from his school locker library. Here is his quote “…I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it’s the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on…”


CSULA Guerrilla Library
For my last entry, here is another set of kids with their own Guerrilla Library. The California State University in Los Angeles, due to budget cuts, closed its library during FINALS!! Does anything sound more asinine that that? I don’t think so, and neither do the students at CSULA. So they built their own library to study for finals and they did it Guerrilla style!


Books and Beer
My Last one is my favorite but it isn’t really a Guerrilla library as I have defined it here because its done in cooperation with a city and a library system. This library is a pub in the Yorkshire Dales may be a vision of the future for many communities. The awesome villagers of Hudswell have bought their local pub to save it from closure and have now set up a small library in part of the bar! There is nothing I love more than reading a good book with a beer in a good bar! I mean that seriously! Here is the video

Now I ask you… If libraries are going away, or aren’t necessary, why is it that so many people take the time to create their own personal libraries at home OR take the time and effort to create guerrilla libraries in their communities? I’ll tell you why! It’s because people still love libraries in all of their forms and won’t let the man hold the library back!

How Steampunk can Save Librarianship: Libraries Redefined (Part 2)

Posted on by pcsweeney

Steampunk Guitar
As I am continuing to explore the experiences that are changing how I view librarianship, I came across the steampunk movement. What is a steampunk you ask? Well, steampunk is a genre of speculative futurist fiction where the world is powered by steam and the design of the future is modeled after the Victorian craftsmanship of the 1800’s. Yet, in this steam powered world, all of the conveniences of a modern world exist. Things like digital watches, computers, airplanes and spaceships. Each of these things, while being futurist in nature, in melded with the design and power of the past. Each of these things still benefits society in the same way that they are designed to and as we envision them. It’s just that they’re powered by a different energy source and look Victorian in nature.

steampunk laptop
So, it seems to me that in the same way that steam punk is creating the future with the power and design of the past, libraries are trying to provide the future of information with the power and design of our informational past. We’re providing modern technology such as computers and Internet access within the framework of an organization that is designed for the information access of the past. We are trying to power and design libraries with books and physical collections (steam) while providing the same benefits to society with the future digital forms of information such as mobile technology.

Because this parallel only occurred to me yesterday, I haven’t had much time to think about it. I put the thought out to twitter and received a positive response. In fact, Rudibrarian provided me with this definition of a steampunk movement within libraries – “Hi-tech futuristic gears keeping the old style functions of learning and research moving forward!” While I think this was a fairly accurate definition, I did take some liberties and changed it as follows to more closely fit what I am getting at-

Steampunk librarianship- Old style gears keeping the futuristic high tech functions of learning and research moving forward!

I hope she isn’t too mad at me for changing her words, but I couldn’t have come up with my definition without her. So thank you!

Steampunk Catalog
So why am I inclined to say that this concept can save librarianship? Because, perhaps, we can start to think about libraries in terms of steampunk ideologies to help us understand how we can live in a world where the technologies and designs of past can power the organizations ability to provide the services of the future. We no longer need to argue about whether or not books power libraries, or if its computers and technology that power libraries, and we can agree that there can be a successful melding of the two and that this melding can create something entirely new and exciting while still providing the same kinds of benefits to society.

I would like to point out that I think a lot of our libraries are already working to achieve a successful melding of old vs new and I would love to see more libraries finding ways to more successfully meld the two. As I wrote this blog post I realized that I had actually visited, took pictures of, and wrote a blog post about a very successful steampunk library. This happened while I was at CLA in Pasadena last year and the title of the blog (while not being familiar with steampunk) was “Tour of a Library Cyborg.”

My Inspiration for the Beginning of a Redefinition of Librarianship (Part 1) #library

Posted on by pcsweeney

This is going to be the first of what will hopefully be a long set of blog posts. In the last couple of months I have been struggling with idea of libraries as a concept. It started with a presentation I did for our librarians in the library system where I work. The presentation ended with me questioning what it is to be a library. Here began a long list of experiences that are forcing me to rethink what a library is. I am going to begin by sharing some these experiences with you. The first is (while not really the first, but the most meaningful) was meeting Sarah at ALA Annual in DC. Sarah is the Itinerant librarian and goes by the name @librarian on Twitter.

The Itinerant Librarian was one of the most inspiring people I have met at a conference. This is a person who travels the world with a “library” in a briefcase. The story she told me is that previously she had no library experience and just thought one day that the world needed a traveling librarian. So, she left her home and had no job, no money, no financial support, no “real” library backing her up and created this “library” of books that she carries with her for people to check out. I truly regret not having my flip camera on me and recording the amazing conversation we had.

She explained to me that the concept of the library is that she goes to a coffee shop, restaurant, park, etc… and puts out the books she has in her briefcase on the table and signs people up for a library card. People can check-out the books as long as she is there. When she is ready to leave, you have to return your books and she moves on to the next place. When she needed a place to sleep she used couchsurfer.com to find a place to sleep and when she was hungry sometimes she had to each out of rubbish bins (she’s English and has a great accent and I could listen to her say “Rubbish Bins” to me for days on end). She has a uniform and the library has a set of rules and regulations that all the patrons have to follow to get a library card.

You can read the rules and regulations here at the “library’s” official website:
http://www.tipl.info/

And her blog (that is no longer being updated) here
http://itinerantpoetrylibrarian.blogspot.com/

Follow her on twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/librarian

When I refer to this as a “library” instead of a library, I mean that as a compliment. I mean that this isn’t a library as we think about them in the United States. The rules are different (better), the concept is brilliant, it totally challenged my concept of what a library is and can be, and her project has set in motion hundreds of thoughts and ideas for me.

Most importantly, it made me realize the importance of libraries as a concept and the little importance that a building, management, money, organization, rules, etc… have on what it means to be a library. In fact, this might be the most pure form of librarianship that I have encountered.

Recap of a Week’s Worth of Awesome #library

Posted on by pcsweeney

This last week has been especially awesome in the world of libraries. If you were following along on Facebook or on Twitter then I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. For the three of you librarians who somehow missed this stuff… Here is a quick one-stop recap!

Old Spice Vs. New Spice

Andy Woodworth of the blog Agnostic Maybe and the Ben Jerry’s Librarian Flavored Ice Cream campaigns as well as the Save New Jersey Libraries Campaign (yeah he’s done all that) can now add getting this amazing video made for libraries by the Old Spice guy. I love this advertising idea! Just latch on to a meme and remind people to go to the library. I love it. Here’s the video;

Coming in with an equal level of rad (I think I need to use the word rad more often) is this video completely hanging on to the tails of the Old Spice ads.


In management news…

Here is a video about the surprising motivation of employees found tweeted by @annacreech. I have to say that I’m not completely surprised that it’s not…. Spoiler Alert… Money. After ALA in Washington at the Think Tank and spending time just having the freedom to be creative with some drinks and with uber smart librarians I can say that I was way more motivated by that experience than by money.


Guerilla Libraries

Now here is a concept I’m very excited about. These students, when faced with the closing of their library during critical time on campus (finals week), created their own library in a guerilla “Viva la resistance” kind of way. This is something that a few of us at the Think Tank have been thinking about for a while now. Guerilla Librarianship.


Non-Librarians blogging about libraries!

One of my favorite things to find online are blogs written by non-librarian folks who are either praising of condemning libraries. In this case, its praise and that just warms my heart. This is a family where two of the members (father and son) have Asperger’s Syndrom and spent the day playing chess at the library.

Blogged: Libraries and Online Social Capital in a 2.0 World

Posted on by pcsweeney

While I was playing around with SlideShare.com and finding all kinds of library awesomeness, I decided that I would post one of my own. This presentation isn’t finished and I want to write some blog posts to go along with it because I think I might be on to something.

Yeah, I know there is a large amount of text on this presentation, but that is so that it makes more sense without me speaking. When I finally get the courage to submit this to a conference to present I’m going to remake it without the text.

This presentation about the concept of Online Social Capital and how libraries need to be thinking about it when they are creating their online profiles. I haven’t read about anyone thinking about online social capital but everyone is kind of dancing around the subject in various ways. I hope that this concept helps to clear up the question of “Why libraries should be involved in online networks.”

I won’t go into too much detail in this post and I hope that you get the information you need from this presentation, but expect some future blog posts that expand on some of the key concepts here. Let me know what you think.

*I am a little frustrated with figuring out how to get the pictures in the presentation to load. Right now there are photos that say that Quicktime and a Decompressor are needed to view the photos. If someone knows how to get that to work I’m all ears.

Cool #Library SlideShare Presentations #ala10

Posted on by pcsweeney

I spent some time today playing around with Slideshare.com. Slideshare is a website that allows its users to upload and share PowerPoint presentations. I know that PowerPoint is overused and incorrectly used fairly often but while I was looking through some of the library related presentations I found a couple of really good ones on a few different subjects. If you want to take some time and flip through some very informative presentations, I’m putting out my four favorites.


Library 2.0
This first presentation is on Libraries and Web 2.0. Ok, yes… EVERY library presentation on Slideshare is about Library 2.0 and Library’s use of web 2.0, I know. Anyway, while I do love this topic and encourage libraries to take part, I’m becoming exceedingly tired of hearing about Library 2.0 as nobody seems to have anything else to talk about at conferences. However, this is a good presentation by K.G. Schneider. So, if you haven’t already heard enough already about this subject, here’s a presentation that will tell you a lot of what you should already know.


Beautiful Libraries of the World
This one is just fun to flip through. Pretty self-explanatory actually. Have fun drooling 


Second Life and Libraries
Ahh… Second Life. No comment. But it’s a good presentation anyway.

Gaming in Libraries
Where is the 8bitlibrary.com presentation on gaming in libraries on Slideshare? But this one is really good too. If you’re thinking of creating a gaming collection or still need some convincing then you should check this one out.


Do you have a presentation on Slideshare or have a favorite? Let me know, I want to see it!

So Much To Do… What Should I do First?

Posted on by pcsweeney

So I’ve been complaining about not knowing what to do next. I have my personal life goals sorted out as in this post, and I’m still figuring out my professional goals, but I’m just not sure where to start within my library system because there is so much that I want to do. There are quite a few large projects that I want to take on at the branch I work at right now, but I have no idea what I would do first. So I created this list because people asked me what it was that I wanted to do and also as a way for me to keep track of all my ideas. Let me know what you think!

Volunteering Program
Fully develop a volunteering program that establishes job roles and duties and outlines a training program. Implement this program to create a “staff” of volunteers to relieve staff of some of the day-to-day duties of maintaining the branch to allow them to perform larger duties with more significant results.

Graffiti Arts
The library needs some more modern art… Badly. Currently, the art on the walls was put there in the 80s but its from an African Art collection from far earlier and its representative of the culture of the community as it was about 25 years ago. Since then, the community has drastically changed and some new art needs to be displayed. The Police had a program that encouraged young graffiti artists to use their skills more positively. I would love to partner with this group to paint a graf mural on some of our blank walls.

Establish a Friends of the Library Group
This library has not had a FOL group for approximately 10 years. There are a number of barriers to establishing the group but I believe the need for community outreach and the ability to expand programs and services far outweigh the hardship of the barriers.

Create a Community Newsletter
A community newsletter could help to bring in more patrons for programs and services that are offered as well as notify patrons of new programs and services.

Improve Wayfinding and use of Space
The current configuration of the library does not currently lend itself to efficient wayfinding for patrons. Movement of furniture and better signage can create a useful library space as well as allow access to some of the “hidden” collections.

Simplify the Organization of Digital Information in the Library System
Currently the library system uses a wide number of information systems for communication. For example- staff email, Blogs, Servers, Websites, are all provided via different methods and therefore require a number of different passwords and access systems. Are each of these necessary? Can it be simplified?

Centralized Ordering
Develop and implement a plan for standardizing and centralizing the office supply ordering. The savings to the library system could be significant through the purchase of supplies in bulk and through re-negotiated contracts for larger orders.

Development of instrument collection and system wide music programs
The library could work to provide a collection of musical Instruments for check-out. Specifically, I was thinking guitars but this could be expanded or changed. For example in the library it might be hugely successful to check out Ukuleles. These check-outs would be in conjunction with a series of group classes lasting 8 weeks, during which time the students would have the instruments checked-out to them.

Roaming Reference and Mobile Devices
Develop and implement a plan to utilize mobile technology such as PDAs, smart phones, and other hand held electronic devices to assist in roaming (mobile?) reference and check-outs “on the go.”

Development of a Social Media campaign
Create a more robust online profile for the library system utilizing many of the online social networks and static sites to increase the library’s level of Online Social Capital. This could be done through the creation of a plan at the branch level to increase community involvement, or by creating one larger profile for the entire system.

Text Book Collection
There are a number of schools in the surrounding community served by the library. The library should establish closer partnerships with these groups and provide the services and materials needed by the students. These materials include research, book reports, and textbooks.

QR Codes
So, I’m not sure where I got this idea but I’m pretty sure I didn’t come up with it. I want to place QR codes around the community in significant areas where people can scan the codes to find more information about that place (or activity that occurs in that area) in the catalog. So, for example, books on hiking on mountain trails linked to a QR code placed at the head of the trail.

Weekly #Library Recap of Awesomeness

Posted on by pcsweeney

Here is list of some of the awesome things I’ve seen online about libraries in the last week. There is always so much that I want to go back and revisit but I can never find it again. So, I’m going to generate this weekly list of library awesomeness so that I have a good record. But also, so that you can find out some of the things you might have missed. If I missed something super awesome, please let me know so that I can add it! Thanks team.

Tweets

@Yumalibrary
#onthisday in 1986, a fire at the Central Los Angeles Public Library destroyed 400,000 items.

@ItsGusGus
whens the last time u been to the library tho?!?…they just call em barnes and nobles.. or borders now huh?

@melissabrisbin
Great study from Gates Foundation on importance of electronic access & library patrons, when NJ is facing 74% in cuts. http://bit.ly/a1unuZ

@Sara_Mooney
So… if you want a library job, apparently Harvard is the place to be. 12 jobs posted on @higheredjobs today!

@JeffCoLibrary
This summer our library is reading this book for a special event called “One Book, One Twitter!” Join us!

@mrschu81
Mental Floss posts links to things happening at libraries around the United States. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs

@karenneves
5 great tutorial websites to learn how to do something: http://is.gd/bIQwM #yam

Blogs

21st Century Library Blog
I just found this blog, forgive me… But its filled with awesome!

Finally, good news on the library funding front!

Other Nonsense

The most ecologically sustainable way to read your books is still a walk to the local library

Awesomeness in Iraq! Cool story

If you are planning any awesome CA Bay Area Library events, don’t forget to post them on the facebook page !

Why Harry Potter is evil
Well… on her list of reasons why its evil… The Latin language HAHAHA

Awesome Friday Library Fun! #library #ala10

Posted on by pcsweeney

Alright team… Say you’re sitting in your office or at home and need to waste about 30 minutes on some library “related” videos. For this, I have just the thing you need. May I present Silent Library? Silent library is a Japanese game show set in a library where contestants must partake in humorous antics without making any noise. Because… Ya know… They’re in a library. I’m pretty sure that it’s the least complex game show of all time and it will only take you a couple of seconds to figure it all out but this first video will give you the general idea.

This is my favorite one…

But for more hilarity and library antics here’s the link to the youtube search results for Silent Library. Have fun team.

Obligatory Twitter Blog Post: What Twitter has Done for Me – Thanks!

Posted on by pcsweeney

I was just thinking, as I was reading through the tweets from all you lucky librarians who are at PLA right now, that Twitter has so significantly changed my conference going, and professional experience that it deserves a little blog post tip of the hat. So while I know that there are probably a least a hundred thousand blog posts about Twitter going around the web right now, I hope that I can at least share my experience and what benefits it has brought for me.

Good times
First and foremost, I tweet therefore I have a good time. While at the first couple of ALAs, CLAs, and various other LAs in my pre-twitter life, I found that I had no idea where the fun and exciting people were. I didn’t know what was going on where, who I should be hanging out with and of course I had no idea where to go for all the after conference fun. So, I got an iPhone, started to tweet to find other librarians, built up a network of folks who seemed to be having a good time at the conferences and then I basically stalked them and followed them (in real life) to where the good times were being had. Every conference that I have been to since then has been amazingly fun and exciting and I’m surrounded by good people who are excited about the profession and having a good time.

Running for ALA council
At ALA midwinter this year I was following the council twitterers and on a break decided to peak into the Council Sessions to see what was going on. I had never seen a council session and embarrassingly had no idea what council was responsible for or what they did. It turns out… They’re responsible for lots of really interesting things that are directly responsible for what I am passionate about in librarianship. These people were basically deciding what my professional experience was going to be like. I don’t like other people telling me this and at the unmerciless hands of @awd, @infowidget and @tadawes I was gently encouraged to run for ALA councilor-at-large. So vote for me.

Beer and burgers with John Berry
I cannot even begin to describe this experience here. But have to say that it was all because of fellow twitterers @natenatenate
@phromberg, @hadro,
and @gcaserotti.

You can read about that whole night at this blog post .

Right places
As I mentioned earlier, following the twitter feed has allowed me to continuously be at the right places at the right times at conferences. By seeing what sessions that the most interesting tweets are coming from, I can make adjustments in my schedule. I even found that before a good session begins there is a flurry of posts in excitement. I haven’t had to sit in a dull or boring session since.

Networking
Besides the sessions, I have been to amazing pre-conferences, un-conferences, and conference socials as well as the amazingly fun Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and after dinner tweet-ups. This has been a cornucopia of meeting new librarians who I have become friends with and who I am excited to work with. I have met so many amazing librarians that I can’t list them here, but I’ll give you a start-
@janieh,
@buffyjhamilton,
@lorireed,
@ashuping,
@libraryfuture,
@gershbec,
@jaimebc ,
@oodja,
@thatandromeda,
@theanalogdivide,

You should check out who I’m following and you can find them all!

My career
One of the great things about this profession is how much we are all willing to help each other. I have found out about jobs that others have wanted and sent them on, and I have had people send some to me via Twitter. I have gotten all kinds of managerial tips from twitterers like @ pat2pattern and from many others.

Brainstorming
I think this might be my favorite aspect of the twit-o-sphere. It seems like whenever someone has a good idea, they put it out to the rest of us and we can discuss, debate, and sometimes argue over various points that we might disagree or agree on. For example, we discussed police and library funding and it spurred @amandamcneil to write a great blog post response. And I think that’s the way it’s supposed to work sometimes when 140 characters just isn’t enough. So it’s become a great whiteboard where people write their ideas to share and can disagree and then take the debate off twitter to their blogs.

Blogging
Hey someone reads my blog posts now! That’s a pretty nice feeling. But I also get an announcement whenever other people write their blog posts or when someone new starts blogging who I didn’t know about before and it’s always nice to read a new blogger.

For the future
I won’t say what’s coming for the ALA Annual in 2010 but you should be checking out http://www.8bitlibrary.com in the coming months for details and other awesomeness. I absolutely acknowledge @justinlibrarian and @librarianjp for their great efforts in making ALA Annual something to really look forward to.

So what should you do? I would suggest that you get in on the dialogue and make your twitter account. It might take a while to make it fun, and the first couple of tweets while be boring and pointless but the effort is absolutely worth it and it pays off in the end. So, please join your potentially new friends in making Librarianship even more awesome and don’t forget to let me know when you join us so I can follow you!