Designing Collection Experiences: 1. The Experience Library
Roy Kenagy [email protected]
www.whatwouldranganathando.org September 10, 2013
Waterloo Public Library
Design
Experience
Collection
Ludwig Wittgenstein
“The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have always known. Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.” Philosophical Investigations, § 109
Exercise
Inventory tasks in collections work
Professional frames
Donald Schön and Martin Rein. Frame Reflection: Toward the Resolution of Intractable Policy Controversies. New York: BasicBooks, 1994.
The Progression of Economic Value
B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore. The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre and Every Business a Stage. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999.
Commodity
Product
Service
Experience
Transformation
Cathy De Rosa and Jenny Johnson. From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America: A Report to the OCLC Membership. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC, 2008; available at http://www.oclc.org/reports/funding/default.htm.
One of three findings called out in the introductory web page of OCLC’s From Awareness to Funding:
“Voters who see the library as a 'transformational' force as opposed to an 'informational' source are more likely to increase taxes in its support”
The Collection as a Designed Artifact
Affordances in Design
Donald A. Norman. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Doubleday, 1990.
Exercise
What are some affordances of
board books? Then, what are some affordances of collections as artifacts?
Discovery
Brian C. O'Connor, Jud H. Copeland, and Jodi L. Kearns. Hunting and Gathering on the Information Savanna: Conversations on Modeling Human Search Abilities. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 2003.
But all the VSPs (Very Serious People) say libraries aren’t about
artifacts anymore!
Libraries are about information/ knowledge/ makerspaces/ anything
but artifacts
Exercise
Anything But Artifacts: Read and discuss “Meet Your Makers,” then
inventory all the phenomena that will replace artifacts in libraries.
And for my next trick, I will make All the Information in the Universe disappear.
The Conduit Metaphor
Michael Reddy. "The Conduit Metaphor." In Metaphor and Thought, edited by Andrew Ortony, 164-201. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Available online at http//www.reddyworks.com/reddy-writes/the-conduit-metaphor.
Antoine Lavoisier, who made All the Phlogiston in the Universe disappear.
Nominalization
Helen Sword. "Zombie Nouns," The New York Times (July 23, 2012): http//opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012-07/23/zombie-nouns/.
Technology Changes Everything™
Unlock Your Potential
Change the Way the World Looks at You
Toolmaking
Alexandra
Doni
Edie
The Mission of Librarians is to Improve Society through Facilitating Knowledge Creation in their Communities.
R. David Lankes
“I hate the READ posters. There, I’ve said it.”
R. David Lankes. The Atlas of New Librarianship. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2011. p. 73.
The Curse of Knowledge
Chip and Dan Heath. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. New York: Random, 2007.
Two Frames for Reading
Reading as consumption
vs.
Reading as making
Exercise
Is reading consumption, making, or a little of both? Hint: I think there is a
wrong answer.
If reading is making, what do we make when we read?
Meaning
Almost always, narrative meaning
People transform themselves when they make meaning.
Especially narrative meaning
Waterloo Public Library August 2013 Checkouts - All collections
Rhizome Sum of Checkout % of Checkout
Exposition 5,011 16.26%
Narrative 25,798 83.73%
Total 30,812 100.00%
Does not include renewals
The mission of librarians is to help create transformative meaning in the lives of readers and the conversations of communities.
C. Roy Kenagy
Now for some bullet points
• Public library collections work is about designing transformative experiences
• Readers experience collections as unitary artifacts that afford practice, play, and praxis
• Public library collections are overwhelmingly about narrative, not information
• Creating meaning is hard work, and our readers deserve our respect
Ludwig Wittgenstein
“don’t think, just look!”
Philosophical Investigations, § 66
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