A few thoughts on How to create a relevant public space by Aat Vos

How to Create a Relevant Public Space by Aat Vos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book reads like it is written as a provocation. It has many interesting ideas, and I don't agree with them all, but it is still interesting reading. Ideas to consider include, who are you excluding from your library. It may not be deliberate (or it may), but it could be in how the library is designed, and services are provided that some people feel unwelcome. The chapter by Diane Ghirardo is of particular interest for this.

One of the libraries discussed (in Gouda) was a chocolate factory before it was a library. The chapter by Jan David Hanrath and Rob Bruijnzeels highlights the importance of telling the stories of the buildings in a context like local studies. They also stress the importance of collections, and of connecting communities to these collections.
It is important that you remain true to yourself. The library's existence begins and ends with the collection. I mean a modern collection with, in addition to books, other forms of content such as music, art, tools, videos, course and activities, either physically or online. But that the collection is the core...the collection is what you inspire people with stories and information that is relevant to them...The library is going to ask questions, questions that are important for both individuals and community' (pp162-163, 165).

There are many lovely photographs of libraries in this book, but for some of these libraries access seems limited to those who are able bodied with stairs seeming sometimes as barriers not for access. When reading this book, think about whose voices are not included.

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A few thoughts on Cultivating civility: practical ways to improve a dysfunctional library by Jo Henry, Joe Eshleman, Richard Moniz

Cultivating Civility: Practical Ways to Improve a Dysfunctional Library by Jo Henry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a helpful follow up to The Dysfunctional Library: Challenges and Solutions to Workplace Relationships. The chapters in this book each have a different focus and include work place examples. At the end of most chapters are questions for discussion which could be helpful prompts for a reading group. This could be an interesting book for a work reading group, and would suggest that the focus is on chapters and not the whole book as there is much to explore chapter by chapter. While much of this information is not new, it is brought together in a helpful way, to help people improve communication and relationships at work. There are many references to explore for further reading including The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism (which I am yet to read), Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (which I probably should re-read) and Masked by Trust: Bias in Library Discovery (which I am currently reading). This is a book which encourages creative thinking to solve problems, but also encourages taking action against bullies (including passive aggressive ones). The references at the end of each chapter provide much additional reading to explore specific topics.

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Writing about failure for #GLAMBlogClub

Failure can be a way of learning. It can also be uncomfortable, disconcerting, at times distressing or even very traumatic. It can depend on the scale of the failure. I think there are different kinds of failure, including failure you can learn from, and failure which has catastrophic consequences (and these are not the only kinds of failure, there are more including failure which is out of your control).  You can learn from the second kind of failure but there are usually really bad things happening along the way (for example think of how the COVID-19 pandemic is happening differently in each country, state and territory, how the climate crisis is not being dealt with and in relation to systemic racism and injustice towards Indigenous people, as well as the experience of other systemic racism - and comments about this). There are many more examples I could provide for failure with catastrophic outcomes and these broader failures have an impact. In our work places (galleries, libraries, archives, museums and records repositories) it is mostly the failure you can learn from, but the fire in the National Museum of Brazil is of the catastrophic kind (see also Blue Shield for their work or disaster prevention). 

Have a look at this earlier post I wrote about failure (and yes I know that at least one of the people I quote is contentious).

I also think we can shy from talking about failure, and I find this unhelpful.  I think it is better to go 'that could have worked better' (which can be a way of describing failure without resorting to a 'woe is me' approach), and see what can be done better next time, rather than pretending every thing is fine.  We can do better with our collections (this looks a helpful session to participate in) and services (think about who is invisible in your library, and this US information from 2015 may be helpful).  We can make these changes because otherwise we continue to fail at least some parts of our communities.

A few thoughts on Incubating creativity at your library: a sourcebook for connecting with communities by Erinn Batykefer and Laura C Damon-Moore

Incubating Creativity at Your Library: A Sourcebook for Connecting with Communities by Erinn Batykefer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a pacy read with examples of these ideas being described from actual library experience. If you have read the Library as incubator project blog or The Artist's Library: A Field Guide you will have already seen much of the content in this book, however, this book is still well worth reading. While the premise of the book is how to incorporate more creativity in your library, the ideas would also be applicable for thinking about how to better connect with many groups and individuals in your community (and the authors suggest this). The chapter on evaluation has some useful ideas to consider to help people think more effectively about how to evaluate programs. The book looks at resources, partnerships, staff, evaluation, community and more. Sustainability is important as is looking at long running programs to see if they should continue, be changed or stopped.

I also enjoyed the shout out to BiblioCraft: The Modern Crafter's Guide to Using Library Resources to Jumpstart Creative Projects as I am a fan of this work and they way it shows different ways to think about collections.


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