SL2.0 Suggestion Camp: Create

Should libraries and librarians be creating and publishing? This questions was posed to me in a recent podcast interview. The initial scope of the question addressed creation in terms of libraries that are blogging and or podcasting. Should, the interviewer asked, libraries take on these new knowledge generation tasks that move beyond the traditional role of libraries as organizers and protectors of knowledge. Well, that got me thinking. Library 2.0 involves quite a bit of publication; in no small part because Web 2.0 technologies so greatly facilitate creation. But is this a “new” feature of School Library 2.0 or is it just another example of the Digital Re-Shift radically re-defining a traditional activity? My answer, possibly inspired by my thinking and preparing for the new History of Libraries grad class I start tonight, drew upon the many years of library activities.

Should libraries create and publish? How can they not, I answer. Indeed, the very act of organization is in itself an act of creation; the librarian develops order in the face of otherwise chaotic swirls of information. To say that a book should be categorized by subject heading “A” and not “B” is creation – following through on said categorization is publication. In science, there can be no exact measurement as the very act of measurement disrupts the object which one is attempting to measure – a.k.a. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle of Measurement. Well, here is Infomancy’s Creation Principle of Cataloging. Any act of cataloging – that is an attempt to encapsulate the knowledge matter of an object in some way that is less than a full and accurate reproduction of the object being cataloged for the purpose of providing a compressed, interpreted representation of the object – will invariably create some new element of understanding which then be associated with the original knowledge object. In other words, the very act of measurement disrupts the object being measured, and the very act of cataloging disrupts the object being cataloged. And isn’t that what this “library science” thing is all about?

So before we get too far from the subject (I know…that point was about a paragraph or two ago), let me return to the question of creation. Should libraries create? Yes.

Suggestions:
1) Create knowledge by organizing and interpreting knowledge. Cataloging a book using subject headings that are more appropriate for your users is a very worthy act of creation. Pulling together diverse resources in a pathfinder that makes it easier for users to find what they are looking for is a very worthy act of creation. Fostering a sense of personal connection with libraries by sharing stories and information about the library/librarians with users in a blog or podcast is a very worthy act of creation.

2) Experiment with new creations. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream tries new flavor combinations, and that is one of the big things that makes them so very popular. Feel free to make parts of your library (like the professional collection) more popular by creating new categorization methods. I wrote earlier about categorizing by topic “tags” instead of Dewey subject headings, for example.

3) School Library 2.0 publication ideas: an open blog for book reviews by readers, a podcast “book club” that can happen asynchronously, online pathfinder wikis, resource tags, reference IMs, library usage calendars, anything else you can come up with – and, as always, please share!

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