Diamond's INFO287 Blog

This week, I looked at the article “What the Nordics can teach us about having fun,” which looked at developments in architectural designs of playgrounds around Scandinavia. The emphasis of these playgrounds is about equal access to play, seeing play in ordinary things, and the function of play. Many of the playgrounds discussed were built into urban environments, which meant the equipment didn’t always look like what we’d imagine. The importance of rethinking playground environments was to build an experience that was both challenging and fun. These places became not just for children, but for all people since it brought folks from all different social strata together. 

I was reminded of a couple years ago when I used to attend an all-ages Dungeons & Dragons group at a gaming store. Even though I knew it was all-ages, I still found myself surprised to be an an adventuring group that varied from 10 years old to mid-40s! At first, I was a little unsure how it would work or if it’d even be fun for any of us. But it was actually a really cool experience! We came from all different backgrounds and ages but had all come together to play. Seeing how my other party members approached problem solving, navigated their characters, and working as a team was rewarding. The youngest kid even drew pictures of our characters as we described them. I think about that experience all the time.

Incorporating opportunities for play is so important for all age groups. I think as adults it’s easy to forget how to play. It’s a good tool for learning about our environment, about others, and about ourselves. Dowdy quotes Guy Hollaway in saying, “Play doesn’t just stop when you get older. If anything, you should make sure you can incorporate play even more.” I’d love to see play like this encouraged more here in America in public spaces. 

Dowdy, C. (Feb 7 2022). What the Nordics can teach us about having fun. BBC.

For this module, I looked at the two articles on The Human Library. I thought the concept of “checking out” a person that specialized on a specific topic to “read” was so interesting, but it instantly made sense to me! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been researching for a novel I’m writing and thought, “I wish I could just find someone who knew about [x] subject and talk to them.” So, on a purely topical level, I saw how useful of a project something like this could be.

However, the new study on the human library illuminated just how impactful it is. Participants remembered vividly the conversations they had even weeks and months after the event. Interacting with a person and discussing various topics challenged participants to consider their personal biases. As Arne-Skidmore put it, participants realized that “inclusion goes further than acceptance or non-discrimination – it requires conscious action.” Not only did the event challenge biases, but it also prompted a strengthening of diversity and inclusion efforts. Some “readers” even decided to “become books” themselves as a result of participating in the event.

It is so cool to hear how something as simple as having a conversation can change peoples’ minds. Sometimes, it can feel like an insurmountable task to try to get someone else to alter their biases or deepen their empathy. It’s easy to tell someone they just need to read more or to pick the right books and then they’ll understand. But nothing is quite as real as hearing it from another human being. It’s hard not to be changed by the stories of others. When I think about the things that changed and challenged my own worldview throughout the years, it was definitely listening to people’s stories — whether that was through videos, at protests, from lectures, and so on. I really hope I get the chance to see something like this in a library I work at in the future!

Arne-Skidmore, E. (August 4 2021). New study on the impact of the human library. Human Library

Wentz, E. (April 26 2013). The human library: Sharing the community with itself. Public Libraries Online.

I decided to focus on Storyhouse for this blog post because, if I’m honest, I was skeptical about it. It’s shiny cool building, it’s snazzy web design, and the buzzwords throughout the site made me nervous about how accessible and inclusive it could actually be. To be clear, those things alone don’t mean something is not accessible or inclusive, but I think some folks who have watched gentrification happen around them (as I have) start to see some of those things as warning signs and become wary.

That being said, Storyhouse is a multi-purpose group in Chester, it’s building home to a library, theater, cinema, restaurant, and open air venue. It is open for much of the day, starting at 8am until 11pm Monday through Saturday. I was really pleased to see that Storyhouse aims to keep their space free to the public. Their mission and values emphasize community interaction, change, and creativity. I tried a quick Google search to see if I could find information about what the community in Chester thought about the space. From what I read, folks in the area love it! Storyhouse has a variety of programming and functionality, which seems to me that the group hopes that even though someone might visit for one reason they might discover another reason to come back. The multi-purpose design of the building has brought revitalization to this community.

I do really like the idea of a space functioning as a community hub. I like the emphasis on story-telling as a means of connection and challenge. And I was glad my initial feelings turned out to be misled. Even though my first reactions and assumptions were based in my real experiences, this exploration reminded me to remain open-minded and to try to use my experiences to see potential for change rather than as how they always have been. 

About Storyhouse. (n.d.). Storyhouse.

Please enjoy my presentation on Clothing Mending and Upcycling at the Library!

Clothing Mending and Upcycling at the Library

The academic library I work at has been talking a lot about how we want to approach the topic of generative AI, so I looked a little at both these environments for this module. Two articles I saw as being somewhat related were Mairn and Rosengarten’s article “Helping Students Navigate Research With AI Tools” (2024) and Deitering and Rempel’s article “Sparking Curiosity – Librarians’ Role in Encouraging Exploration” (2017). 

Like many others I’m sure, I have a lot of concerns about generative AI for various reasons. In the library I work at, one of the conversations we frequently have is that despite our hesitations, AI doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Students use it frequently and this is a concern for instructors. Deitering and Rempel’s article was really insightful for its emphasis on the paralyzing prospect of finding research topics for first-year students. Many of them have not had to engage in research on the level university instructors are asking for. After reading that article, it made me think, “No wonder students want to resort to AI!” I think it’s easy for some folks to want to accuse younger generations of being lazy or uncaring, but it’s important to remember how drastically the technological landscape has changed. I graduated from undergrad in 2018 and it’s already so vastly different for me. 

A lot of libraries are emphasizing information literacy as part of their instruction on AI tools, but I think incorporating structures for developing curiosity are just as important if our goal is to facilitate learning and skill-building. It requires a considerable amount of risk on students who may not have been shown how to develop research questions all while having a grade on the line. As Deitering and Rempel note, “To build an environment for curiosity in the first-year composition classroom, librarians have to work collaboratively with the faculty designing the curriculum, the GTAs teaching the sections, and the students doing the work.” Applying this framework to how we might talk about AI in the library can be extremely helpful. We may not be able to stop students from using AI, but we can create environments where curiosity is encouraged, and maybe in time students will be willing to take the risk of engagement all on their own.

Deitering, A-M., Rempel, H G. (2017, Feb 22). Sparking curiosity – librarians’ role in encouraging exploration. In The Library With The Lead Pipe.

Mairn, C., Rosengarten, S. (2024, Sep 28). Helping students navigate research with AI tools. InformationToday.

In Module 5, I enjoyed reading the “Libraries Resist” article by Kelly Jensen. Like Jensen mentions, it’s easy to think of libraries as a neutral place, and I think part of that is because we forget that inclusivity — dedicating a space that is open to everyone — is a political stance. I really like what she says about community specifically: “It’s impossible to be a neutral space with the goal of reaching a community. […] By inviting all in a community to be in a shared space, libraries embrace the idea of encouraging education, […] acceptance and tolerance.” 

I’m really moved by the idea that education can exist out of a politics of care, and I think it’s really special – and truly an honor – that librarians play a part in that politic. Maybe I’m just a little too chronically online, but I often see education wielded as a tool to shame others (especially for not knowing about something). But the examples Jensen shows in her article are so clearly about humanity and connection. Hate is bred in isolation and ignorance, but love and freedom can be found in doing the hard work of trying to understand and celebrate our differences. And what a privilege, really, as a librarian to serve as the bridge that might bring folks in a community closer together! And how exciting that by engaging in that work, we benefit too. I think a lot of us go into librarianship because we want to make a change, but (hopefully) the work changes us too. 

Jensen, K. (2017, Feb. 10). Libraries resist: A round-up of tolerance, social justice, & resistance in us libraries. Book Riot.

I gravitated towards Brian Kenney’s article “Three Ways Publishers and Libraries Can Work Better Together” (2016). I’ve mentioned previously that I am soon graduating with my Master’s in Creative Writing, and as part of that program I took a class in the Spring that touched on publishing for writers. So, as a library assistant and a writer, I was really curious about what that relationship actually looked like.

There were a lot of topics in the article I was familiar with through my Spring course, like the Penguin-Random House merger and ebook purchasing and licensing. Throughout the course, we talked a lot about the Big 5 Publishers and how the publishing industry at large operates. In a later article, Kenney admits that “if ever there was a time for publishers, authors, and librarians to come together in service of their common goals, it is now” (2022).

Writers certainly rely on libraries when it comes to research and sales. Writers are also similarly affected by the “long tail” as described in Library 2.0, as they are the ones who write the books that don’t sell or make it into library collections (64). Though Kenney primarily focuses on Big 5 publishers, I started wondering how libraries were working or interacting with small presses. This is a route many writers, who have trouble breaking into or otherwise are disillusioned by the Big 5, decide to take in order to get their work published. I was reminded of a discussion my class had about a longlist of small presses that were affected by a distribution shutdown.

I started to wonder if there were any libraries looking to tap into this user group of writers (as well as potential writers) and small presses. I was glad to find there was! Right now, it appears that libraries participating in publishing services primarily skew toward scholarly publishing and include services like copyright advising, editing, and digitization (Park and Shim 2011; Bonn et al. 2019). There is also the Library Publishing Coalition, which is community-led and aims to foster libraries helping to create open and inclusive publishing landscapes.

It was a little harder to find ways libraries were participating in literary publishing – but I think there could be a lot of promise. I could see some version of these scholarly publishing structures applied to local creative writers and poets, both established and emerging. Maybe those small presses I mentioned earlier could find ways to partner with libraries to sustain access to the books they’ve already published. The Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project is already playing around with some of these ideas. Their platform provides tools and information to independent authors and publishers with the idea of promoting experimentation and community engagement in the arts. It’s still in its pilot phase, but I’m excited to see what comes of this project. 

Through radical community engagement (Stephens 10-11), I think libraries might see opportunities to better reach emerging and potential writers. I think it’s easy to think of literary writers and authors as the people who “fill up” our shelves in, read at events at, or advocate for libraries. But writers are all around us. Writers aren’t just the big names we see on the covers in the bookstore; they are our neighbors, our friends, our community. 

Casey, M.E., Savastinuk, L.C. (2007). Library 2.0: A guide to participatory library service. Information Today, Inc. 

CLMP. (2024, Mar. 29th). Presses previously distributed by SPD. 

Dilevko, J., Hayman, A. (2000). Collection development patterns of fiction titles in public libraries: The place of independent and small presses. Library & Information Science Research 22(1), 35-59. doi.org/10.1016/S0740-8188(99)00039-0 

Bonn, M., Fenlon, K., Senseney, M., Swatscheno, J. (2019). Humanities scholars and library-based digital publishing. Journal of Scholarly Publishing 50(3), 159-182. doi.org/10.3138/jsp.50.3.01 

Kenney, B. (2016, Feb. 12). Three ways publishers and libraries can work better together. Publishers Weekly. 

Kenney, B. (2022, Apr. 19). The powerful, complex partnership between publishers and libraries. Publishers Weekly.

Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project. (n.d.) About the Minnesota libraries publishing project.

Park, J-H., Shim, J. (2011, Oct.). Exploring how library publishing services facilitate scholarly communication. Journal of Scholarly Publishing 43(1), 76-89. doi.org/10.3138/jsp.43.1.76 

Stephens, M. (2016). The heart of librarianship: Attentive, positive, and purposeful change. ALA Editions.

Hello, my name is Diamond (she/her). I decided to join the MLIS program at SJSU because I already work in a library and like it so much I wanted to make a career out of it. I chose this course because I’m interested in doing something in the digital realm of librarianship, but not completely sure what yet, so I thought this would be a good course to explore potential interests. An interesting tidbit about myself is that I’m also a fiction writer and I’m finishing my Master’s in Creative Writing in the Spring.