Hyperlinked Communities: Hyperfluid hyperlinks

“Hyperlinks are people, too,” says Prof. Michael Stephens. This statement is the heart of the matter. People are linked by a variety of networks: school, culture, neighborhood, city, nationality, family… and on and on. As individuals, we “wear many masks” as per George Orwell, and therefore we are hyper-linked. These links don’t often have a brick-and-mortar building associated or necessary to establish or confirm their validity. The link between siblings, parent-to-child, student-to-student/teacher, boss to employee, are all intangible, but very real links. And they are the first types of “networks” we create as humans. Simply put, our hyperlinks are infinite.

With the onset of communication technology, our links went beyond the colloquial “three degrees of separation.” Suddenly, we had the ability to open a devise, log-on, and have instantaneous new connections to people of equal interest in a subject, be it academic or social, with which we could share thoughts, findings, and interests. We may never meet any of these people, other than online. Danah Boyd (2016) said, “Looking back, I think of the Internet as my saving grace because the people that I met — the strangers that I met — helped me take the path that I’m on today. I fell in love with the Internet as a portal to the complex, interconnected society that we live in.” But the amount of information we share, consider, and elevate into new ideas and thoughts as a community has me scratching my head wondering what will the interests of tomorrow be? The jobs that my children will take are likely not yet invented.

How, then, do we prepare ourselves for this unknown future? We connect. We again turn to the one dedicated brick-and-mortar-and-beyond hyperlink: the library. But as a library staff and community, how do we possibly serve all of these unknown needs, and be everything to everyone all of the time? It’s impossible, and seems an overwhelming task. Many libraries have wonderful programs that serve their community’s needs beyond reading and entertainment materials. Libraries are then linked to each other in a vast and nearly endless web, linking ideas and programs.

As librarians we are in the business of “lending” materials and ideas, kindnesses, services, and even things. What is it, then, that is a library? How do we define who we are, and what we do? Cory Greenwood (2022) writes about the library being a place to combat health-related challenges, both mentally and physically. Beyond programs enacted by any library, it is first and foremost a free place to be yourself. To come and know you are not alone in this world. And from there, the possibilities and opportunities are endless.

Going back to my favorite reference, the ancient Greek agora: the community center where ideas and goods are bartered, shared, and traded. Libraries are going through growing pains of stretching and accommodating more than an adolescent body. We know where we have been, and we have a concept of where we’d like to go. But just like those jobs that are yet undefined or even identified, we are shapeshifting along the way until we get “there.” And once “there” we will shift and change again. Hyperlinks are hyperfluid connections: solid in their relationship, but fluid in how they serve.

Resources

Boyd, D. (2016, 25 Jan). What world are we building? Medium. https://medium.com/datasociety-points/what-world-are-we-building-9978495dd9ad

Greenwood, C. (2022). Healthy library, healthy life. Incite, 43(6), 24. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.764132483269438