I found Brian Kenny’s article about “Where Reference Fits in the Modern Library” humorous and pertinent for these times. As a parent of a 5th grader and an 11th grader, I have witnessed the changing landscape of reference. While I discuss authoritative sources with my 5th grader, it can be challenging to champion curiosity in the search itself, the joy of discovering adjacent topics, or going down an entirely new path just because. For him, reference happens on a computer or a phone. Occasionally, I have him look up a word in the dictionary, mostly to practice finding it and then to see what other words are around it. He usually groans. The book is heavy, the font is small, and none of his friends are doing it.
In contrast, I recently found a paper I wrote in a college history class on America in the 1890s (scarily relevant to our current cultural moment) and the arguments for and against American expansion into the Philippines. I remember going to the Massachusetts Historical Society over spring break when I was home visiting my parents and looking up the papers of Edward Atkinson, an anti-expansionist with eugenicist leanings. The gathering of primary sources, the quiet, the green reading lamps, the dark wood. Will my kids ever know and love these environments?
“They want help doing things, rather than finding things,” (Kenny, 2015) writes Kenny about the modern-day library patron, and this is evidenced by my local library branch’s pithy sandwich board highlighting access to free books, events, and services. While books still comprise 4/9 categories on the sandwich board, events and services are in the majority. Perhaps this is the richest part of the great library rebrand…these things are FREE.
“Think beyond the library as ‘book warehouse’. Think instead about the engaged, evolving professionals and staff inside who are eager to help you find your voice, find your passion, and find your way” (Stephens, 2014). The Mix at SFPL is a great example of the concept of “library as classroom” as it functions as a sanctuary for young folx in the Main Library in the Civic Center/Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. The Mix has sewing machines and 3D printers, hosts clothing swaps and clothing rebuilds, offers SAT prep and other tutoring services, video games, 3D printing, podcasting, and so much more.
The infrastructure of the past built libraries in many places and promoted access to branches, big and small. While reference needs have shifted, the fact that we have open-access public spaces that offer programming, literature, and services at the center of small towns and big cities alike inspires a little hope in me that we have been organizing the resistance all along.
“Recounting our experiences gives us mastery over them.”
Anna Lembke Dopamine Nation
I am a lover of memoirs. The first-person narrative is a straight shot into someone’s world, what they see, smell, and taste – all of the memories that inform the architecture of their perspective. Testimonials, witnessing, and recounting all gather together under the umbrella of the power of storytelling.
On road trips, my family and I listen to episodes of The Moth Story Hour. We see ourselves and our experiences in some of these narratives. We laugh out loud. Some of these stories make their way into our hearts, we re-tell, share the episode and, in doing so, say to another person, “we saw you in this story”. Stories connect people and because of this, they are powerful hyperlinks.
Storytelling and Place
The National Parks Service is host to several oral history projects such as The Oral History collections of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area which includes former military sites such as Fort Mason and the Presidio as well as Alcatraz, home of the famous federal prison and the site of the American Indian occupation that began in 1969. San Francisco has changed so much in the last 100 years. Having footholds on place through these diverse voices gives it form and texture.
The Institute of Oral History in El Paso, Texas contains over 1,600 stories about the Mexico border that spans several generations. It exists as a counternarrative to the current politicization and maligning of the southern border. These stories give voice to the border: “Oral history is about memory and lived experiences. It is about listening and being heard. It is about the past and how people give meaning to the past.” Without oral histories, the border is at risk of becoming a symbol – dehumanized, objectified, and distant rather than a complex and vibrant ecosystem and an evolving culture that has existed for centuries. “Crossing the border represents layers of meaning, sometimes contradictory. The act of crossing represents hope, freedom,adventure, fear, and anxiety. The memories and meaning are embedded in the bridge itself.”
Storytelling and Healing
Voices of Witness (VOW) is an oral history project that partners with community organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. VOW uplifts voices that often go unheard, acknowledging the relationship between storytelling and healing, saying: “Narrators are the experts of their lived experiences, and those who are most deeply impacted are at the heart of solutions to address injustice. Oral history storytelling can make space for stories that otherwise might not be heard and create a platform for narrators impacted by—and fighting against—inequity to share their expertise. Approach projects with humility and an expectation of ongoing learning. This creates an opening for the narrator to teach and the interviewer to listen deeply.” This approach, which emphasizes conversation, listening, and exchange outside of hierarchical models, feels deeply connected to the work of The Hyperlinked Library.
Storytelling is a large umbrella and there is room for everyone underneath. Let the archives fill with testimonials! I saw this. I walked these streets. I was here. My voice matters.
May it shine into the heart of another who needs to hear it.
References
Institute of Oral History. (n.d.). Retrieved on April 13, 2025, from https://www.utep.edu/liberalarts/oral-history/about/vision-mission.html
Lembke, A. (2021). Dopamine nation: Finding balance in the age of indulgence. Penguin Random House.
Voices of Witness. (n.d.) Why is oral history a valuable tool? [infographic]. Voices of Witness. Retrieved on April 12, 2025, from https://voiceofwitness.org/about/benefits-of-oral-history/
This week’s module on New Horizons is timely as I recently listened to a podcast with writer Gary Rivlin on AI that diminished some of my fears around this new and very-much-present technology while perpetuating others.
Rivlin suggests that AI will be as monumental a change as the Industrial Revolution during which people left a largely agrarian life and moved into cities, the production of goods was standardized and mechanized, and machines were favored over handwork. During this time, traditional knowledge was lost to the dominant cultural narrative of progress and efficiency (Mander, 1991). The Industrial Revolution promoted capitalism – more goods, more consumption of those goods – and it connected people via railways, electricity, and telephone, and began to democratize learning and improve access to education. Rivlin says, “Instead of this idea that the robots are going to take over and subjugate humanity I guess that’s possible…but if we’re deliberate about it there is no doubt that AI could be a positive. I just compare it to the internet…It’s going to be a mixed bag.” (Rivlin, 2025). There are costs associated with these big cultural shifts and enormous potential good (Rivlin cites AI tutors accessible via smartphones that improve scholarship in remote African villages or cancer screening, which improve access to education or lead to better health outcomes).
“The reason it’s free right now is everyone using ChatGPT is helping it continue to learn. At the very bottom of the ChatGPT page, Open AI has stated: Free Research Preview. Our goal is to make AI systems more natural and safe to interact with. Your feedback will help us improve. It is important to realize that by using it you are contributing to ChatGPTs development by providing free labor. This is an important fact to be aware of when deciding whether or not to use it or interact with it.”
Is this “free research preview” similar to Nestle’s “free infant formula” campaign that I encountered while traveling throughout Central and South America in the late 1990s, where the industrial food giant would supply one month of free formula samples to new mothers who then needed to continue to buy formula after their free and healthy breast milk had dried up. Are we relinquishing hard-fought skills while growing dependent on this technology only to have to pay for it when it is no longer a free service? Are these examples extreme? Yes. Are they examples of a useful technology gone amiss in the service of profit? Yes.
In my first Reflection Blog, I enjoyed thinking about the internet as a web of neural networks or rhizomes, or a garden of forking paths. Chaos can be exciting. But if AI continues without an ethical framework around it or if that framework is progress, efficiency and profit, then:
“The best and worst of human nature are amplified: The crisis is enhancing digital interconnectedness that engenders empathy, better awareness of the ills facing humanity and positive public action. On the flip side, some individuals, cities and nation-states will become more insular and competitive as survival mode kicks in. Xenophobia, bigotry and closed communities will also increase” (Anderson et.al., 2021).
After telling my husband some of my ideas for this blog post and explaining some of the readings for this class, he said, “it makes me want to buy some land and grow more of our own food.” And on the one hand, maybe AI will give us more time to do that. Universal Basic Income will become widely accepted because AI has made so many jobs obsolete. Libraries will flourish. Serious Leisure will be commonplace. We will have an attention tax (Pewhairangi, 2014) in effect after finally figuring out a way to charge for the most precious things: our gaze, our time, and our attention. I hope so.
Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman by Lava Thomas, 2024. Main Library, SFPL.
“Information helps you to see that you’re not alone. That there’s somebody in Mississippi and somebody in Tokyo who all have wept, who’ve all longed and lost, who’ve all been happy. So the library helps you to see, not only that you are not alone, but that you’re not really any different from everyone else. There may be details that are different, but a human being is a human being.” – Dr. Maya Angelou (SFArts, 2024).
Here is the link to my Innovation Strategy and Roadmap. Poetry for everyone!
I appreciated Laura Warner’s spotlight on library kiosks as a way to bring basic library services to rural, underserved populations, and/or satellite populations. Her comparison of these kiosks to vending machines that don’t seek to replace the offerings of a grocery store or the ambiance of a restaurant but nonetheless serve a need, the hunger for new reading material, is useful in considering access and reach. This adoption of a capitalist invention for anti-capitalist use reminds me of art vending machines or poetry vending machines that repurpose cigarette machines into tiny art galleries where a small fee buys you an original piece of art. https://www.artomat.org/about/
The library kiosk in the Halifax airport demonstrates how libraries can increase access and address needs. Airports hold captive audiences. San Francisco International Airport curates and installs compelling exhibitions highlighting local artists and history. Upon disembarking the airplane, a traveler will be greeted by an exhibition to peruse as they walk to baggage claim. For the local traveler who arrives at the airport early or whose flight is delayed, these exhibitions are a bonus museum trip and may provide new information via their education program about their city or a local artist or resource.
Libraries Without Borders (LWB) expands access on the global front through their use of mobile shipping containers or “idea boxes”. The inclusion of generators, servers, and computers as well as books and craft materials, brings some of the breadth of library services to communities that may be experiencing displacement and loss.
In his recent article in The Library Lab, Christian Lauresen discusses Danish bookmobiles, saying, “A bookmobile is both a practical and strategic prioritization of citizens’ nearness to free and equal access to information, education, and cultural activities.” In “the necessary nearness” that bookmobiles provide, Lauresen paints a vibrant picture of the community hubs that form around the bookmobiles, connecting people with cultural events, books, and knowledge.
South San Francisco-based Book and Wheel combines the allure of taco trucks with bookmobiles and art happenings. Community springs up around the “moving art house” and no money is ever exchanged.
Book and Wheel, a San Francisco-based community art bartering project.
In 2022 and 2023, I traveled to Oaxaca with my husband and two children. Our family had spent much of the pandemic in a small house in San Francisco facilitating Zoom school, kinder and 1st grade for my son, middle school for my daughter, and running a non-profit and an art studio. When we had our vaccines and could travel again, we were eager to be out in the world with the kids.
Umbrella installation at the Centro Cultural San Pablo July 2022
Libraries are “free, non-judgemental, and accessible“ (Hasan, 2022).
On our first wander, we passed the Centro Cultural San Pablo, an old convent spanning an entire block of the city center. Drawn in by the doors, we discovered a site-specific installation of umbrellas, an exhibition space, a children’s library (Biblioteca infantil), a textile museum, and a research library. I picked up the free publication at the door and found that the Centro Cultural was part of a network of libraries and education spaces throughout Oaxaca. These spaces are run by Fundacion Alfredo Harp (FAHHO), a philanthropic foundation supporting the cultural heritage of Oaxaca. During our two-week trip, we saw a piano concert on the central patio of Centro Cultural and often took a break in Centro’s garden space, a refuge from the hot stone streets of the city center. All of this was free and accessible to both Spanish-speaking travelers and residents. The next summer, we rented an apartment in Xochimilco, near the Biblioteca Infantil. My eight-year-old son took an Alexander Calder-inspired sculpture class, free except for the materials list, which became a scavenger hunt to source steel wire, pliers, and colorful paper for the mobiles. We attended a puppet show at the BS Ferrocarril with the master marionette maker, Alejandro Jimenez Moli.
Gaelen looking out at Centro Cultural San PabloClass Offerings at the Biblioteca InfantilPresidential puppet by Alejandro Jimenez Moli
The state of Oaxaca has a larger indigenous population than any other state in Mexico. Mixtec and Zapotec are commonly spoken along with Spanish. English is much less common. Local municipalities in Oaxaca are governed by assemblies focused on local needs and community participation (Magaloni et al., 2019). Cultural preservation is a core value of Oaxaca, a place recognized for its festivals, cuisine, and craft forms. Printmaking cooperatives with large presses capable of making 3’x 6′ prints preserve the social/political place of the print (grabado) in Mexican culture. The printmakers install these large-format prints in guerilla-art style on the facades of colonial-era stone buildings.
Prints installed on buildings in the city center of Oaxaca
Many of the international examples in our Hyperlinked Communities module have focused on the Global North, and they are inspiring! Oaxaca’s library culture is an example from the Global South that demonstrates accessibility, a wide range of programming, and commitment to cultural preservation.
I loved this recent example of cultural heritage preservation that FAHHO is commissioning: the Mixtec Carousel. Using codices or manuscripts/mnemonic devices from pre-Columbian and early colonial eras, along with inspiration from children’s literature and partnering with local artists, FAHHO is realizing an iconic feature of amusement parks and imbuing it with local meaning.
References
Magaloni, B., Díaz-Cayeros, A., & Ruiz Euler, A. (2019). Public good provision and traditional governance in indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. Comparative Political Studies, 52(12), 1841-1880. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414019857094
Hasan, T. (2022). ‘Free, non-judgemental, accessible’: How your local library is a sanctuary of health and wellness.SBS Bangla https://www.sbs.com.au/language/bangla/en/article/free-nonjudgmental-and-accessible-how-your-local-library-is-a-sanctuary-of-health-and-wellness/t15blzsi9
Hello all! I am excited to be here with you in INFO 287. Infographic below. I am a big J.L. Borges fan, and he may well be why I am pursuing my MLIS. He often spoke of the infinite paths within libraries, ways of gathering and collecting information, and getting lost in the search.
