In this module, Professor Michael Stephens coaches us to look across sectors—to look beyond libraries. Stephens (2019) also reminds us to dream:

Have you had the chance to dream at your library job? Have you had the opportunity to stop for a minute in the buzz of your routine and think about the future? Are you encouraged to innovate?

If not, then I urge you to do so. Also, I urge library administrators to encourage dreaming on the job. Formalize it—call your innovation group “Dreamers,” or use the more-grounded moniker “Emerging Technology Committee. (p.11)

This notion reminded me of a book my husband brought home after returning from work. One of his peers handed out books as gifts to everyone at the company event that day. The title was Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect. The author, Will Guidara, describes magical moments, or gifts, his restaurant creates for his guests. At his restaurant, Eleven Madison Park (EMP), they even have a job title for this role: Dreamweaver.

What Does This Mean for Libraries?

In this article, Do We Need Libraries?, the author points out “five questions that could lead to the right answer. In fact, the key to unlocking the mystery requires asking the right questions”

1. How can we delight our users and customers?
2. How can libraries manage to enable continuous innovation?
3. What will make things better, faster, cheaper, more mobile, more convenient or more personalized for users?
4. What needs could libraries meet that users haven’t yet even thought of?
5. What are the things that libraries are currently doing that users already love?

Streams of Consciousness

Every morning, I go out to my driveway to grab my newspaper so I can read it with my cup of coffee. On March 16, the Chronicle’s headline read: San Francisco Bay Area counties issue shelter-in-place order | AP News. Being on lockdown was a good time to write down my thoughts. Starting on day 1, I kept a journal of the weeks since my library announced suspended walk-in service. Behind the scenes, staff were at home—working remotely and communicating virtually.

My journal entries serve as evidence of how public libraries adapted in a fast-moving, user-experience-driven environment. We experienced this transformational shift first-hand. To stay connected, informed, and engaged, our city organized regular staff town hall meetings.

The library pivoted quickly and expanded its virtual offerings. Patrons could apply for an online library card and join virtual story time. I led several Kids Coding programs! New services included book-by-mail (including DVDs and other audiovisual materials), curbside pickup, and computer lab appointments for essential tasks such as applying for unemployment, preparing résumés, or searching for jobs. These were declared essential services by our city.

We expanded online access and digital offerings. The California State Library awarded us a $190,143 grant for an after-school program, a $2,500 grant for a pop-up lunch program, and $254million in grants for free online tutoring via Brainfuse for all Californians.

On our health and well-being, library staff socialized on ZOOM—we created art and knitted together. We also had access to free educational classes through the California State Library; I took classes in Speed Spanish and Edible Gardens.

Lessons I learned from lockdown: Libraries are not just about books; they are about people and participatory engagement.

Moving from Lockdown and Thinking Out Loud:

How can we delight our users?

• Comparing notes from EMP’s playbook, library staff make efforts to remember past events, patrons’ names, and interests.
• Trendspotting/new design models: Makerspaces, collaboration rooms, coffee and vending machines, and atmospheres of belonging. In our youth library, we play lo-fi music in the background to create a vibe. And in 2019, I visited the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago to check out their Innovation Lab (photo below).

3D printers @ Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago Public Library (June 17, 2019)

How can libraries manage to enable continuous innovation?

• Form ad-hoc teams and encourage staff to experiment! Guidara advises, “Tap into their passions—then give them the keys”.  Also, Mathews (2012) stresses that in facing the future, we don’t just need change, we need breakthrough, paradigm-shifting, transformative disruptive ideas: Build, Measure, Learn and “build this continuous feedback loop into your process” (p. 6).
• Build partnerships. Partner with local high schools to engage Young Adults in STEM programming. Here is a flyer from a recent program with the State of California:

SSFPL and Live Beyond partnership programming

What will make things better, faster, cheaper, more mobile, more convenient or more personalized for users?

• Needs-based programming, human-centered signage and space, quick-picks, staff-picks, expanded lending (e.g., musical instruments, laptops, tools, seeds, Discover & Go museum passes, eBooks, streaming videos), mobile apps (e.g., push notifications for holds and events).

What needs could libraries meet that users haven’t yet even thought of?

• In INFO240, I worked on a program idea: Personal Information Management (PIM). With the future of PIM becoming increasingly automated, privacy and data ownership must remain a central focus. How do we manage our emails, digital files, and calendars to bookmarks and paper documents in the future? I’ve been wondering about how our library will build programming to address this gap.

What are the things that libraries are currently doing that users already love?

• Listening. Community imagination. Trusted advisors of credible information.  Digital lifelines. Guidara’s secret says it all: “It feels great to make other people feel good.”

The next chapter: Post-COVID

In October 2023, my library physically moved into a brand-new building. In our new space we have a Discovery Center that includes a Makerspace, a Digital Media Lab, and a Community Room. The call to action in the next chapter will be how to navigate what’s on the horizon: AI.

References:

Guidara, W. (2022). Unreasonable hospitality: The remarkable power of giving people more than they expect. Optimism Press

StephensWholehearted.pdf—Adobe cloud storage. (n.d.). Retrieved July 25, 2025, from https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:dbd29840-0652-4978-bf1a-40513651ee20/?filetype=application%2Fpdf

Mathews, B. (2012). Think Like A Startup: a white paper to inspire library entrepreneurialism.

Richard Le literally walks the talk. Since my last reflection, I’ve had a new outlook at work. I look for opportunities to cultivate a learning environment. The adventure I chose from this week’s module, Hyperlinked Environments & Issues is on AI & ChatGPT, specifically human-centered AI.

Machine usefulness (MU) is a concept that I learned while reading Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. MU refers to how well a machine serves the goals and needs of humans in real world tasks. The authors argue:

AI, and even the emphasis on machine intelligence, reflects a very specific path for the development of digital technologies, one with profound distribution effects—benefiting a few people and leaving the rest behind. Rather than focusing on machine intelligence, it is more fruitful to strive for “machine usefulness,” meaning how machines can be most useful to humans—for example, by complementing worker capabilities [. . .] machine usefulness led to some of the most important and productive applications of digital technologies but has become increasingly sidelined in the quest for machine intelligence and automation (Acemoglu & Johnson, 2023, p. 37).

In the library setting, practical examples of MU include barcodes and barcode scanner, RFID, self-checkout machines, assistive technology (e.g., screen readers, speech-to-text, and magnifiers), online public access catalogs (OPACs), free Wi-Fi, eBooks, audiobooks, and subscription databases, to name a few. These technologies did not exist when I was a kid in the 60’s, so I can appreciate the improvements to our collective experience in time-savings, empowerment, and increased equity of services beyond physical space and time.

In my own practice at the library, I facilitate and lead patrons on the use of these technologies, including assistance with their mobile devices, computers, and our Makerspace equipment. As library staff, we apply our social skills, creativity, and critical thinking, which are unique to the human condition. In the same spirit and thoughtfulness, libraries will continue to navigate in this age of AI.

Do No Harm

In today’s headline: Nvidia hits $4T valuation cap. What does this growing demand for AI hardware and chips since the launch of ChatGPT (in late 2022) mean for the greatest good, specifically to access, equity, intellectual freedom, sustainability, and socio-economic well-being? For sure, there are risks. Dr. Fei-Fei Li, co-founder of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, advocates for a balanced ecosystem and stresses the importance of education and dialogue to mitigate the risks on the use of AI between the tech world, the policy world, within our communities and with our children—every step of the way. This is when our core values are put to the test.

In this video, Dr Li offers an example of regulatory frameworks such as the FDA to implement guardrails and keep consumers safe: In this age of driverless vehicles, she explains, “Instead of shutting down GM or Ford, we created seatbelts and speed limits. So good regulatory framework helps to keep the utility of the technology safe but also continues to encourage innovation”.

Putting It Out to the Universe

I would like to get more understanding on how the next generation is engaging with AI and ChatGPT and shaping the future. We have a Youth Poet-in-Residence program which I have led and coordinated. It is a one-year term, and I have gotten to know some of the local teens through poetry readings and chapbook making. At one of the events, I introduced myself to someone who happened to be the high school English teacher and has taught at El Camino for 26 years! We chatted for a while and I threw out an idea that had been on my mind: what do you think about a library/high school TEDx talks (i.e., SSFPL x El Camino Youth collaboration)? The library as mentor and place, and the kids steer and orchestrate the production. It won’t be easy, but it would prepare our youth to serve. Would they be up for it? I saw sparks in Mr. Padilla’s eyes 🤩✨ so I said I would look more into it. To be continued. 👩🏽‍💻

Last Fall, I attended the annual Future of Libraries 2024 – Pacific Library Partnership.

The theme was: Navigating Change – Tools for Conquering Contemporary Challenges. I look forward to attending these conferences and listening to library stories out in the wild. The conference location is at the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library.

The conference began at 9:00am with welcoming remarks and an agenda:

1. Between the Lines: Decoding and Defying Censorship in Libraries
2. Future of the MLIS Degree
3. Networking Event
4. Serving a Multilingual Community
5. Sustainability Programming & Projects
6. Closing the Day

In the fourth segment, Serving a Multilingual Community, a librarian named Richard Le took the stage. Richard is the North Beach Branch Manager with SFPL and he has a warm and friendly personality. He stood at the podium and asked the audience: Has anyone been to SF Chinatown? Has anyone ever had Chinese food? Do you know the origin of Chinese food? Dim Sum? Has anyone investigated their family history?

Richard then begins to tell a story about one day in 2008 when an elderly patron approached him at the reference desk with a question. The patron wanted to find the phone number for his long-lost college roommate; however, it had been 40 years, and he did not have a location, a full name, or an age—the only information he remembered was that they spent one year together in the dorms at Brigham Young University.

Richard shared his thought process: Let’s start with yearbooks. He found a photo, the major and graduation date. Richard also found a donation to the school in the name of this long-lost classmate. And finally found a voter registration record. After 30 minutes of research, Richard tracked down the roommate!

Richard found his purpose—helping library users find long-lost relatives, property records, or military records. Rather than showing his patrons how to use the database or scour newspapers, he takes groups on walking tours. They meet outside the library, and they head out to Chinatown. Along the tour, he tells stories about the area, even ghost stories about the secret alleyway, buildings, and ethnic groups. He introduces them to dim-sum and its origin. He smiles as he explains that we all love to eat and share recipes. He confesses that he relies on the community to tell the stories.

When the tour ends, he brings the group back to the library where he connects them to their programs. Richard does this outreach every month, including tours of the North Beach neighborhood, and he has been doing this since 2010.

Richard inspires us to adapt and innovate. And he shows us how it’s done: food + storytelling + activity = learn by doing.

You take something, like genealogy. You fuse it with a fun and meaningful experience. And watch connections happen as strangers open up about their challenges and triumphs.

The moral of the story is how will you build your own hyperlinked communities?

“Our role extends beyond providing resources—we become facilitators of dialogue, creators of inclusive spaces, and active participants in the lives of those we serve”. —Michael Stephens

How can I apply this strategy to my own practice? How can I foster genuine connections within my community? In what ways can the library serve as a platform for shared experiences and collective growth?