One overarching theme that drew my interest in the earlier modules’ content was the importance of play. This theme has popped up in previous coursework as well—in my information retrieval course (INFO 202) my professor made it clear for one of the assignments that we were required to have fun while explored an IR topic of choice and created media to represent and share our learnings. This ended up being my favorite assignment from the course, as it encouraged me rabbit hole dive into a topic that I was already intending to do so out of personal curiosity. The power and value of play in learning was later confirmed to me in my information literacy and teaching course (INFO 254) . We discussed how reframing research assignments to be about being curious and encouraging exploration could tackle motivation challenges and encourage better outcomes.
I’ve included a rendering of a meme (courtesy of imgflip) that I envisioned once I realized that play is yet again an important theme as I explore the Hyperlinked Library. Starting with the quote that Professor Stephens included in lecture:
The best folks in libraries that I know “are those who find in their jobs, whatever they may be, the excitement and adventure that reward only the adventurous in spirit”.
Patricia Paylor, The Heart of the Matter, 1957
Despite being a dated quote, I think this statement holds true not just for library folk but for people in general. In more recent slang I might call this “childlike wonder” or “whimsy,” but the root concept is the same. Those who are open to exploring the world and leading with curiosity are rewarded with knowledge and a wider perspective of the world.
From what I could gather from Buckland’s manifesto on redesigning library services (1999) and Matthews’ call to academic libraries to think like a start up (2012), while the context of the writing has changed, the core idea overlaps. Both urge libraries to not only use emerging technologies to do current services better (substitution), but to explore outside of the library’s status quo and provide new services that better the library (beyond substitution; think clean floors not better vacuums). You could imagine my excitement when I watched the lecture for module 3 where “play” was mentioned as one of the six senses highlighted by Daniel Pink and Thomas and Brown was quoted: “Play is the basis for cultivating imagination and innovation.” All these concepts connected in my head in a light bulb moment as I realized that play is a necessary factor in the Hyperlinked Library model for libraries to grow and adapt with the changing times.
At the same time, play will be important to incorporate within library services and the creation of new versions of libraries to come. It’s also worth mentioning that we as students of the Hyperlinked Library (INFO 287) are also participating in a big act of play as we explore the future of libraries through the hyperlinked library model. It’s all very meta. The library is everywhere. Play is everywhere.
*note* I decided to title my assignment “play around find out” as in “fuck around and find out” but I changed it up in case not to offend anyone. I think the original slang might have some negative connotation about receiving negative consequences for making poor choices, but to me the phrase is much more literal: experimenting and experiencing more will naturally lead to more varied outcomes. In my head I connect this phrase closely to “play” and “exploration,” so I thought it’d be a fun title choice.