Electronic literature (e lit) in public libraries
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Transcript of Electronic literature (e lit) in public libraries
Presented by MA student in
LIS (Library and Information Science) from
HIOA (Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus)
Alexandr Belov
MA Thesis
Curating, Facilitating and Archiving E-Lit in Public Libraries’ physical and digital spaces
How do the public libraries manage organizing information infrastructure for E-Lit information artifacts, both creative and critical, for both physical and digital library environments?
What prevents or makes it difficult to realize this information infrastructure fully? Why are E-Lit information artifacts and conversations around them are still largely absent from the libraries’ collections and facilitation process? What are the existing ways of implementing them into the public library physical and digital space?
What are the potential possibilities to improve facilitation of E-Lit visibility, use and knowledge creation in public libraries?
Close proximity and relation to local E-Lit community
Local E-Lit community’s work on the richest database of
E-Lit, ELMCIP Knowledge Base, Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice
Local E-Lit’s high level of internationalization through various partnerships and collaborations outside Norway ELMCIP’s inclusion in CELL (Consortium of Electronic
Literature) Regular site visits, conferences, workshops, exhibitions,
scholars exchange on knowledge, student involvement etc.
Positive reactions about the ease of use, quality and richness of information on E-Lit: The depth of descriptions
Contextuality
Cross-reference
Generalness of content
Possibility to use the platform as pedagogical material
Special research collections to deepen the knowledge
Digital space for sharing research on E-Lit
ELMCIP Knowledge Base of E-Lit
A lot of open access resources online Free ≠ Without value
Eastgate Publisher vs. WWW
Focus on “communitizing” than “monetizing”
Electronic Literature Collection Volume 1
Electronic Literature Collection Volume 2
Electronic Literature Directory
“electronic literature is like a library written in invisible ink, vanishing before our eyes” (Scott Rettberg) “works with important literary aspects that take
advantage of the capabilities and contexts provided by the stand-alone or networked computer” (ELO, Electronic Literature Organization)
field of artistic and literary practice
born-digital artifacts
labirinthine arrays of genres and types
Hypertext fiction
Interactive fiction
Flash and Kinetic Poetry
Email, SMS and Blog novels
Literary performance
Chatterbot
Codework
Game Poetry
88 Constellations by David Clark
The Sweet Old Etcetera by Alison Clifford
Textopia by Anders Sundnes Løvlie
From Ireland with Letters by Judy Malloy
Entropy Edition by Johannes Helden
No public demand
Lack of knowledge
Weak system of publishing
Vanishing journals and publishers
Obsolescence of electronic platforms and programs
The disadvantage of being an electronic writer and teaching electronic writing
E-Lit Community
vs.
Poetry Community
The most successful local collaboration of Digital Culture and E-Lit research groups: Monthly E-Lit
readings, events, performances, presentations, workshops and discussions
International artists, scholars and guests
Varied program of events
Unique opportunity to connect E-lit community in Europe
The library’s enthusiasm and support in making E-Lit more visible in Norway
Possibility to experience first-hand E-Lit works
Narrow circle of the visiting audience
Weak marketing and advertising of the event: Catch-attention approach 1 (smarter posters, brighter colors, E-Lit
logo/brand)
Uncertainty of what to expect at such an event: Catch-attention approach 2 (permanent screen installations with E-Lit
collections/temporary exhibitions/interactive purpose-made works in visible physical places)
Lack of varied discourse on E-lit in library’s digital spaces: Integrating most interesting E-Lit resources and collections into the
library’s web-site and blog (ELC, ELD and ELMCIP)
Lack of preparation and pre-event/event information facilitation: Introduce the event’s theme, rhetoric and ideas Link them to the existing knowledge and find relationships to more
popular concepts and print-based culture
Focus
on children and young adults
as audience
for some events
Evaluate the library users’ expectations, thoughts, wishes and
uncertainties
through surveys
Find parallels with
print-based literature,
computer games, films,
music videos
and other more traditional information resources
and mediate these
to the audience
Provide
native language works (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish)
and easier English text works
for some events
to engage the simpler-minded audience
Both librarians and their patrons have difficulties to understand the concept of E-Lit It is important to provide conceptual framework
, background, idea of storytelling and changing nature of literature
Demonstrate the various tools literature used in order to be created and expressed historically(stones, woods, papyrus, hand-written manuscripts, various prints, silent films, textual art etc. ) and in digital age (e-mails, social media, blogs, e-books, forums etc.).
Create storytelling workshops to draw parallels to oral traditions, for example
Avoid
print-centricity
in your library
Learning and Knowledge come via Conversation
Artifacts are just tools to serve the Conversation
Conversation Theory
Conversants Agreements
Language Memory
L₀
used to negotiate conversation
used by conversants with low pre-existing knowledge
L₁
used to further and develop conversation
used as long as conversants learn more and more about the domain
Bring the patrons to the L₁
is
the dominant approach by contemporary libraries
realized
in
classic information literacy instruction
The Systems Approach
…….
Value-Added model of information systems by Robert Taylor: If a system does not make a user’s life better, no matter
how good the technology is, it is still useless
But
“Users have no idea what they want, and they are lousy at telling you what they need” (Andrew Dillon)
Moreover,
the system serves diversity of population:
everyone uses L₁,
but
not all of them use the same L₁
Patrons build the systems themselves
Tuning towards the patron’s understanding and language use
Applications of functionality: Want to search for databases?
Add an app.
Want to search for E-Lit works?
Add an app.
Etc…
Don’t start with what you have (collections), but with your community needs (if they need rather a workshop or a blog, make them instead).
You cannot collect everything in a massive WWW-dominated world of information: How will you catalog a facebook page, a blog, a
webpage?
To keep track of previous agreements and make them available in new situations
We remember and think relationally: tangled web of ideas and their contexts: “OMG” stands for Oh My God, Object Management
Group, and a dozen of other concepts
Give patrons a big table from which to work
They begin to pile artifacts
As they find more information they begin to build piles (pile A and pile B), which they connect with strings and note what the relationship is
They can invite friends in to help or experts to consult with
In the end, if nothing helps, they can invite librarians to help
Now the librarian has not only the question, but also can see the table of what they have already looked at and how they are conceptualizing their worldview
The patrons can add other people’s scapes, collaborate and link things
The more explicit your scape looks like the more chance you have to find people who share the common relationships
Means of Facilitation
as
set of new digital divides
Access Knowledge
Environment Motivation
Open access publishing
Online conversations
Providing access as a two-way street: From patron to patron, from one community to another
community and vice versa
Making the community’s content accessible
Acquisition as a matter of production, not purchasing
Librarians as publishers of community
Information organization Core librarianship skills are not enough Contextualized knowledge with focus on relationships (“more
like this” approach as a holy grail of new librarianship)
Addressing Massive scale Go beyond artifacts and items Structure beyond metadata Change at the core of the library
Integrated Library System (ILS) problem: Need to abandon all ideas about next-generation catalog and
build instead a set of modular functions that can be replaced and combined
Library as the collection of member collections
Librarians collecting the expertise
Need for hybrid meeting spaces: Online environment is not only a place to fetch
information, but a place to facilitate knowledge and conversation
Facilitating access to the online dissemination of scholarly work
Access
is not enough
to increase someone’s knowledge
One needs to know
how to use the resources,
in short to be information literate
Big 6 Information Literacy Skills by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz: Task Definition Information Seeking Location and Access Use of Information Synthesis Evaluation
The need to expand the notion of information literacy as individual empowerment
Social literacy beyond Social media: privacy issues, communication skills, authenticity, credibility
and social good
Facilitating equal safety (physical, intellectual, cultural) and participation
Supporting patrons’ memory in physical and digital space
We need not only bring people to the library, but bring library to people
Be aware of people’s extrinsic and intrinsic motivation
If we want our patrons to come back we must recognize and reward their reasons to use library services
Combining E-Lit events, installations and activities with other famous festivals and events:
Roskilde Library bringing E-Lit installations and performances to Roskilde Music Festival and to other public libraries of Denmark
Poetry Hall at Roskilde Music Festival as a room for reflection and a place specific literary activity : Roskilde Dream
Poetry Bingo
Interactive Poetry Wall
Librarians and project workers engagement in marketing the project
Focus on collective and social experiences involving multi-user possibilities
Focus on making E-Lit interesting to average public
How to facilitate the understanding of the E-Lit’sinteractive, processing and programmable nature?
Make people think more on media change
Reading stations with Macs and Ipads
Blæk or Poetry machine
Nettlitteratur Web, Blog and Catalog
Dene Grigar and her colleagues’ enthusiasm and full engagement in the project
The most representative creative works
Space and audience as central background ideas: Five E-Lit reading stations in the center
Five Context stations with print works on the left
Creation stations on the right
Works of art experienced in relation to one another
Keynote speakers – important scholars and artists in the field
Bringing Early E-Lit on older computers and technology
Exhibit divided by medium: Works on desktop
Mobile and Geolocative
Readings and Performances
Student assistance in curating the project
Web Archive for MLA E-Lit Exhibit
Curating vs. “Anthologizing” E-Lit
The concept of curare
Facilitating connection between E-Lit communities and their audiences in a two-way street
The libraries promise the permanent institutional support and leadership
Continuous update with knowledge and upgrading LIS life education through training, workshops, insightful meetings: Look towards Semantic Web and Linked Data nationally
(NTNU Trondheim University Library) and internationally
Hybrid profession of a librarian: curator, facilitator, knowledge organizer, marketer.
Collaborate at the core, not on the surface
Give access to both physical and digital channels of
information
Give access not only to artifacts, but to conversations
Facilitate knowledge how to create knowledge
Let them know that more knowledge gives power
Give safe and attractive environment
Support their memory
Motivate
Be there with your patrons, don’t just call them to the
library
Contextualize
Collect the patrons’ collections
Collect expertise
Think in ontologies, strings of relations
Questions, suggestions, disagreements, advice
are
welcome
“Electronic Literature Organization.” Accessed March 10, 2014. http://eliterature.org/.
Borras, Laura, Talan Memmott, Rita Raley, Brian Stefans, Electronic Literature Collection. Volume 2. Massachussetts. Electronic Literature Organization, February, 2011. http://collection.eliterature.org/2/.
Grigar, Dene. “‘On Evolving and Emerging Literary Forms: A Curatorial Statement for “Electronic Literature & Its Emerging Forms.” HASTAC, March 27, 2013. http://www.hastac.org/blogs/dgrigar/2013/03/27/%E2%80%9C-evolving-and-emerging-literary-forms-curatorial-statement-%E2%80%98electronic-lit.
Hayles, N. Katherine, Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg, Stephanie Strickland, Electronic Literature Collection. Volume 1. Maryland. Electronic Literature Orgnization, October, 2006. http://collection.eliterature.org/1/.
Hochrieser, Sabine, Michael Kargl, and Birgit Rinagl. “Curating Media/Net/Art: Extended Curatorial Practices on the Internet.” CONT3XT.NET, October 2007. http://cont3xt.net/blog/?p=266.
Kirschenbaum, Michael. “Electronic Literature as Cultural Heritage (Confessions of an Incunk).” Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, April 2013. http://mkirschenbaum.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/electronic-literature-as-cultural-heritage-confessions-of-incunk/.
Lankes, R. David. The Atlas of New Librarianship. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2011. http://www.newlibrarianship.org/wordpress/.
Pask, Gordon. Conversation Theory: Applications in Education and Epistemology. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1976.
Rettberg, Scott. “Communitizing Electronic Literature.” Digital Humanities Quarterly 3, no. 2 (2009). http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/3/2/000046/000046.html.
Roskilde Bibliotekerne. “Litteraturen Finder Sted - Ideer Til Formidling.” Issuu. Accessed March 10, 2014. http://issuu.com/roskildebibliotekerne/docs/idekatalog.
Roskilde Bibliotekerne. “Litteraturen Finder Sted - Idekatalog Til Interaktiv Og Begivenhedsorienteret Litteratur På Biblioteket.” Nettlitteratur. Accessed March 10, 2014. http://www.netlitteratur.dk/.