15 Weeks, 15 Slides, 5 Minutes | Symposium

15 Weeks, 15 Slides, 5 Minutes

Symposium

 

Hello, and welcome to my Virtual Symposium for INFO 287: The Hyperlinked Library instructed by Dr. Michael Stephens with the SJSU iSchool. I styled my presentation after the IgniteTalks public speaking based on the standout concepts from this semester that I think will stick with me as I develop professionally in this program and in my career as a whole. The basic constraints for this project was that it had to be fifteen slides presented in five minutes – so, that’s what I did!

 

 

Also, yes, it’s a poem. You can find a transcript of the video below:

 

So here we are, the end of the course.

I’m here to reinforce some thoughts I’ve had

that really ought to be added to my repertoire

so that in the long term, in reaffirming the things I’ve learned,

I hope I won’t forget.

 

Let’s start at the beginning, week one and the next, 

reading the material that would be underpinning

our projects and the rest of the class.

I amassed some folders in my Google Drive, blogged a short hello

and conceptualized the online archive with Buckland’s Redesigning Manifesto.

 

The Model itself came week three – what is a “hyperlink”?

Well, it’s more than just a some blue text you see

synced up mid-thinkpiece. It’s a representation of the way we lease

connections across borders and lines and people and nations –

the ceaseless “fearless organization” of mobile, malleable modernity’s measureless gives and takes.

 

Participatory service came week four, and with it I observed 

the Free Range Librarian’s insistence that the User is Not Broken,

that, when put into words and spoken, has since changed me to the core.

Assignment X found its footing in this didactic, fantastic attack on arranging form over function

Culminating in a dramatic reenactment of how I brainstormed a change and solved some nonfiction dysfunction.

 

A quote from Neil Gaiman, my favorite author and muse

Kicked off week five as we perused how communities are created and maintained

In the online space, transcending barriers and order and finding place

For ideas and their carriers to flourish. The power of suggestion was my takeaway key

As I lamented a BookTok-digestion that I will say, I loved to hate-read.

 

Enter week six, a choose-your-own-adventure in which

I explored how museums and galleries and archives can center their stuff

In a global conversation, and mentor their patrons through some really tough truths.

Here I reflected on how youths are able to cross transtemporal boundaries

With the storytelling holograms of the National Holocaust Museum.

 

Back to Participatory Design at the bottom of the seventh,

Learning the innings and outings of technology’s heavens and hells and, well, 

how easy it is to get lost in the field when we wield 

so many options for how to hit the homerun. If we yield to technolust, effective programming 

will get tossed overhead – because we’re all too busy looking at the sun.

 

Week eight introduced us to New Models of service

and how libraries shouldn’t be nervous to challenge the norm,

to anythink outside the box at mach velocity and to reform what is known and secure –

Says Pam Sandlian, “You can learn anything if you make it playful.”

like bringing in 300 goats earning five weekdays full of pure curiosity:

 

In the ninth week of class we circle back to some tech

looking forward to how AI might affect the way libraries

engage with information sharing and learning in the future and whatnot,

and hopefully turning predominant thought to see it as a net positive affair

rather than causing stagnation as we scare away change and beware innovation.

 

The Power of Stories came in like a locomotive machine

a steam-powered lesson in how we can make others be seen and be heard

being conductors for the electric current that somebody’s words can impart

on the heart of a community. How intrinsic it is to want to christen others

with our stories, and how glorious it is to be there to listen.

 

Let’s not forget my Innovation Strategy & Roadmap design.

Inspired by a library on South Australia’s coastline, I scrapped together

a proposal for my school to make an Unstacked Library website

That would take and display circulation statistics which then might create

An interactive tool for students to learn about a book’s characteristics.

 

Eleven and twelve were a combined trove of knowledge

Where, struck with inspiration and memory alike,

I designed a reflection about how, childlike, I drove an ice cream truck

To learn about math and money and revenue streams

I know it sounds weird but I promise it’s on-theme.

 

Finally we come to my Inspiration Report, which I labored over

Because i found my topic too important for it to lack fervor and order:

That is, Reporters Without Borders’s Uncensored Library Minecraft server.

I explored the impact of such a contentious project

And inspected how Minecraft could attract a lasting communal effect.

 

And so concludes my hyperlinked adventure, INFO 287

I hope that this poem can leaven your day as it summarizes

what has come from our projects and reflections and essays.

So I’ll leave you here with my ultimate hardwon conclusion:

Do not be disillusioned with the hyperlinked library – because it’s not going away.