How Do We Library That?: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:32, 27 September 2023

Tasks of the Contingent Librarian (2020)
Making a Common Index Zine at the Hold and Release Partyline (2022)
k!words Conversation Map from Keleketla! Library (2021)
HyperCard, a pre-web hypermedia system released by Apple Macintosh (1987)

A moment for Temporary Indexing at Varia (2021)
The digital bootleg library
Jumbie Library at Alice Yard, Trinidad & Tobago
Leeszaal Rotterdam West
Marginal Conversations annotation pack (2019)

Context

Libraries are complex social infrastructures. It's difficult to describe them without using the plural "libraries", or singular "a library/the library"; as if they were all the same. Universalisms won't help in understanding what is particular about libraries and collections of texts, or their value to their readers.

Public libraries are more than just access points to knowledge. They are social sites where readers cross over while reading together, annotating, organising and structuring. These places are slowly fading away, threatened by a business logic that sees them as just containers for files and books. But as public libraries are replaced by self-service software and paywalls, shadow and fugitive libraries appear in their wake, founded upon values of local community, cultural literacy and open access.

What might be called a library, a book or a text has radically changed in the post-digital age. A text could be editorial (a sequence), technical (a process), social (a framework). A book could be bound at the spine, or an electronic file gathered together with digital binding. A library could be an accumulated stack of printed books, a modular collection of software packages, a method of distributing e-books, a writing machine, and so on, and so on.

Special Issue 19

In this Special Issue, we will start by considering the word "library" as a verb; actions that sustains the production, collection and distribution of texts. We will question indexical attitudes that lean towards universalisms and search for proposals for how we "library" our particular collection.

How are texts made new? How to make a collection understandable to others? What are the access points to the collection, and where do readers and writers cross paths?

Rather than looking only at what a library stores, we will also think about what it produces. We will begin at the level of text, experimenting with personal and collective methods of recording and distributing individual notes and thoughts, alongside their organisation into collections. We will look into library spaces, opening boxes and opening texts, finding moments of surprise and seeds of inspiration that deserve to be shared and linked. We will explore librarying as sets of actions that produce; writing machines, networks of accumulated practices and distribution methods, sites of cultural literacy and learning, social spaces of text.

Guest Editor

Simon Browne is an artist, designer, researcher and self-proclaimed "contingent librarian"; convenient shorthand for the caretaking of an ever-expanding list of collective actions. He is the initiator of the bootleg library, a digital/physical/social collection of texts. His work engages with the social dimension of publishing, free software and infrastructure that supports interpersonal knowledge-sharing networks. Simon lives and works in Rotterdam, where he is active as a member of Varia.

Schedule

One: Tasks of the Contingent Librarian

Summary: Contingent librarianship - opening up a set of actions

Monday, September 19th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Introduction to the Special Issue with Simon in the Aquarium

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-09-19

To introduce ourselves we will use cards from Tasks of the Contingent Librarian:

52 cards on the table (e.g. bootlegging, indexing, scanning, reading, technologising the word, et cetera)
Choose 3 cards that match your curiosities and interests
Exchange a card with someone, describing how you relate to the task
Pass on the card you received to a new person, describe the relationship you heard about
Take notes on what you hear, paying attention to the note-taking method and interface (e.g. pen/paper, laptop) you choose

Assignment for next week:

Make a new task card. What information does it need to be legible to someone else?
Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/cards_in_bags_20220922

Tuesday, September 20th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-1

Install ourselves into XPUB, sandboxes, servers, web servers, Hello World!

Booklet: File:Install-myself-in-the-sandbox.pdf

Wednesday September 21st, 2022

11:00-17:00 Introduction to Reading, Writing and Research Methodologies with Steve

Le Guin, acacia seeds and un-naming.

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/LeGuinAcaciaSeeds

NotesWedSeshOne

Two: Print Screen

Summary: Plain text & annotation, from markup to markdown

Monday, September 26th, 2022

With Simon in the Aquarium, Print & Publication Station & XML

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-09-26

Assignment for next week: Edit your vosk-transcribed text to make it legible to an uninitiated reader.

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_Print_Screen_transcriptions

Tuesday, September 27th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

the internet, the web, mark up that text

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-2

Three: Text, TBC

Summary: Dimensions of text - editorial, technical, social

With Simon in the Aquarium, Kunstkelder and Research Station (introduced by Wilma Knol)

Monday, October 3rd, 2022

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-10-03

Assignment for next week:

We use a short section of the audio recording of Wilma (we liked the part where she describes the box with the ornamental garden inside, and also the part when she remembered the two students/staff who borrowed the Philip Guston book).

In groups of two people, make the recording legible, as text. How you choose to do this is up to you and your partner, but think about how to make it legible to each other. What happens when you begin to edit and organise the text, how does it fit into a bigger system that may include other texts?

You can use any method or media you like (digital text, printed matter, pen and paper also ok). Make a minimum of 1, maximum of 5 "cards" from the text, and bring them to Varia next week.

Tuesday, October 4th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-3

Wednesday October 5th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Reading, Writing and Research Methodologies with Steve

Pad:https://pad.xpub.nl/p/Methods5Oct22

Four: Scribes Getting Personal ☞

Summary: different ways to indicate/index/point to things

Monday, October 10th, 2022

A day at the Varia library (Gouwstraat 3, Rotterdam) with Simon

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-10-10

Assignment for next week:

Devise a proof of concept for your "HTML gardening". Next week we meet again at Varia to materialise the outcomes.

Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-4

Five: Gardening the Library

Summary: Gardening as approach

Monday, October 17th, 2022

Another day in the Varia library (Gouwstraat 3), with Simon

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-10-17

Tuesday, October 18th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Python, House of dust, generating cards in HTML, git

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-5

Wednesday October 19th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Reading, Writing and Research Methodologies with Steve

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/Methods19Oct22

Main assignment

It was really wonderful to see you produce a set of printed cards this week. Over the break, see how they work in a game. What happens when you use the cards this way? Can the system you are prototyping be extended, or augmented? How many cards do you need in a full set? Does anything change when the game takes place somewhere else?

🍁🍁🍁

Monday 24th October to Friday 28th October, 2022

Autumn Vacation

Readings:

Vannevar Bush, 'As We May Think', from The Atlantic magazine, July 1945: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/
- republished in Life Magazine, with ads: https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/book/788
- an animated video explaining the basic principles of Bush's Memex: https://youtu.be/c539cK58ees

Lisa Gitelman, 'Near Print and Beyond Paper Knowing by *.pdf', (pp 111-135), from Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents: https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/280/pdf#page=126

Daniel Rosenberg, 'An Archive of Words', (pp 271-305) from Science in the Archives: Pasts, Presents, Futures: https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/732/pdf#page=280

Six: Paper Machines

Summary: Analog interfaces for digital collections

Monday, October 31st, 2022

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-10-31

Assignment for next week: Use the method you have developed to apply to the text you are writing to establish the rules of the game. The aim is to have a set of cards that we can take with us to the Social Practice Library on Monday, November 7th. We can use them to find out more about the particular collection that is being "libraried" there. More about Jeanne here: https://www.jeanneworks.net/

Readings for next week: Choose one of the following texts from last week to read. Be ready to discuss it on Monday, after our visit to the Social Practice Library. These readings are:

Lisa Gitelman, 'Near Print and Beyond Paper Knowing by *.pdf', (pp 111-135), from Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents: https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/280/pdf#page=126
Daniel Rosenberg, 'An Archive of Words', (pp 271-305) from Science in the Archives: Pasts, Presents, Futures: https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/732/pdf#page=280

Tuesday, November 1st, 2022

11:00-15:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-6

15:30-17:30 SI19 Midpoint Meeting

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-midpoint-meeting

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022

Gardening the XML

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-20221102

Seven: A Textile, A Framework

Summary: Weaving texts together

At the Social Practice Library, Sint Andriesstraat 194

Monday, November 7th, 2022

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-11-07

Tuesday, November 8th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-7

Wednesday November 9th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Reading, Writing and Research Methodologies with Steve

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-20221109

Eight: Permutations

Summary: Generating rules for generating rules

Monday, November 14th, 2022

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-11-14

Tuesday, November 15th, 2022

11:00-16:00 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-8

16:00-17:30 Midpoint meeting

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-midpoint-meeting

Nine: Materialising the Metaphor

Summary: Why does a garden matter?

Monday, November 21st, 2022

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-11-21

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022

11:00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-9

Wednesday November 23rd, 2022

11:00-17:30 Reading, Writing and Research Methodologies with Steve

Pad:https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19(Steve)2309

Ten: Title Goes Here

Summary: A chance to cut is a chance to cure

Monday, November 28th, 2022

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-11-28

Tuesday, November 29th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-10

Eleven: A Release

Summary: Assembling the pieces, preparing for harvest

Monday, December 5th, 2022

Pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-12-05

Tuesday, December 6th, 2022

11:00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph

Pad:

Bibliography

Texts

Week	Title	Contributors	Link
1: Tasks of the Contingent Librarian	Tasks of the Contingent Librarian	Simon Browne	User:Simon/Tasks_of_the_Contingent_Librarian_cards
	'She Unnames Them'	Ursula K Leguin	https://pad.xpub.nl/p/LeGuinAcaciaSeeds
	The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction	Ursula K Leguin	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/book/68
2: Print Screen	'Introduction: Receiving Three Mochilas in Colombia, Carrier Bags for Staying with the Trouble', The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction	Donna Haraway	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/778/pdf#page=14
	'The Fridge, Books', Index Cards	Moyra Davey	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/book/767
	'In Praise of the Cross-reference" (pp 63-65), Paper Machines: About Cards & Catalogs, 1548-1929	Markus Krajewski	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/557/pdf#page=70
	'On the Gradual Manufacturing of Thoughts in Storage' (pp 65-68), Paper Machines: About Cards & Catalogs, 1548-1929	Markus Krajewski	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/557/pdf#page=72
	Communicating with slip boxes: An Empirical Account	Niklas Luhmann	https://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes
	Fugitive Libraries	Shannon Mattern	https://placesjournal.org/article/fugitive-libraries/
3: Text, TBC	'The General Antagonism: An Interview With Stevphen Shukaitis' (pp 103-110), The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study	Stevphen Shukaitis, Stefano Harney, Fred Moten	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/599/pdf#page=109
	'It's a Numbers Game' (pp 7-13), Radical Tactics of the Offline Library	Henry Warwick	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/366/pdf#page=9
	'From Work to Text' (pp 155-164), Image, Music, Text	Roland Barthes	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/257/pdf#page=160
4: Scribes Getting Personal	Writing Machines, (pp 26-28)	N Katherine Hayles	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/464/pdf#page=27
	'The Future of Writing' (pp 63-69), Vilém Flusser: Writings	Vilém Flusser	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/173/pdf#page=102
	El Paseo Community Garden: Recognizing Our Elders and Rebuilding Intergenerational Communities	Tamara Becerra Valdez	https://wholelife.hkw.de/un-learning-archives-in-the-age-of-the-sixth-extinction/
5: Gardening the Library	The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books	Edward Wilson-Lee	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/791/epub
6: Paper Machines	As We May Think	Vannevar Bush	https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/ and https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/book/788
	'Near Print and Beyond Paper Knowing by .pdf' (pp 111-135), Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents*	Lisa Gitelman	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/280/pdf#page=126
	'An Archive of Words', (pp 271-305) Science in the Archives: Pasts, Presents, Futures	Daniel Rosenberg	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/732/pdf#page=280
7: A Textile, A Framework	The Future Looms: Weaving Women and Cybernetics	Sadie Plant	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/335/pdf
7: A Textile, A Framework	'E-Books, Libraries and Feelies' (pp 76-97), Computing as Writing	Daniel Punday	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/573/pdf#page=93
8: Permutations	The Garden of Branching Paths	Jorge Luis Borges	https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/book/107

Films

Week	Title	Contributors	Link
2: Print Screen	'The Fridge, Books', Fifty Minutes	Moyra Davey	https://www.ubu.com/film/davey_50.html
3: Text, TBC	Digital Amnesia	Bregtje van der Haak	https://thoughtmaybe.com/digital-amnesia/
3: Text, TBC	The Internet's Own Boy: the story of Aaron Swartz	Brian Knappenberger	https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryofAaronSwartzHD
4: Scribes Getting Personal	Nuestra Herencia: Senior Legacy Project at El Paseo Community Garden	On the Real Film	https://player.vimeo.com/video/627093348?h=b106025349&dnt=1&app_id=122963
5: Gardening the Library	Short animated video of the Memex	Dynamic Diagrams	https://youtu.be/c539cK58ees
6: Paper Machines	The Jacquard Loom: A Study in Book Production	RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection	https://youtu.be/2hk5500VK2k
6: Paper Machines	The Computer Chronicles - Hypercard	The Computer Chronicles	https://youtu.be/FquNpWdf9vg

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 == Guest Editor ==
-Simon Browne is an artist, researcher and self-proclaimed "contingent librarian"; convenient shorthand for the caretaking of an ever-expanding list of collective actions. He is the initiator of the [[:User:Simon/bootleg_library|bootleg library]], a digital/physical/social collection of texts. His work engages with the social dimension of publishing, free software and infrastructure that supports interpersonal knowledge-sharing networks. Simon lives and works in Rotterdam, where he is active as a member of [https://varia.zone Varia], a collective-space for everyday technology.
+[https://simonbrowne.biz Simon Browne] is an artist, designer, researcher and self-proclaimed "contingent librarian"; convenient shorthand for the caretaking of an ever-expanding list of collective actions. He is the initiator of the [[:User:Simon/bootleg_library|bootleg library]], a digital/physical/social collection of texts. His work engages with the social dimension of publishing, free software and infrastructure that supports interpersonal knowledge-sharing networks. Simon lives and works in Rotterdam, where he is active as a member of [https://varia.zone Varia].
 == Schedule ==
@@ Line 268: / Line 268: @@
 <span style="text-shadow: 0 0 12px magenta;">Pad:</span> https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-midpoint-meeting
-=== Nine: Do ebooks dream of electronic spreadsheets? ===
+=== Nine: Materialising the Metaphor ===
-''Summary: Logics of databases''
+''Summary: Why does a garden matter?''
 '''Monday, November 21st, 2022'''
 <span style="text-shadow: 0 0 10px cyan;">Pad:</span>
+https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-11-21
 '''Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022'''
@@ Line 279: / Line 280: @@
 :00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph
-<span style="text-shadow: 0 0 12px magenta;">Pad:</span>
+<span style="text-shadow: 0 0 12px magenta;">Pad:</span> https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-9
 '''Wednesday November 23rd, 2022'''
@@ Line 285: / Line 286: @@
 :00-17:30 Reading, Writing and Research Methodologies with Steve
-<span style="text-shadow: 0 0 10px lime;">Pad:</span>
+<span style="text-shadow: 0 0 10px lime;">Pad:</span>https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19(Steve)2309
-=== Ten: Writing Machines ===
+=== Ten: Title Goes Here ===
-''Summary: TBC''
+''Summary: A chance to cut is a chance to cure''
 '''Monday, November 28th, 2022'''
 <span style="text-shadow: 0 0 10px cyan;">Pad:</span>
+https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-11-28
 '''Tuesday, November 29th, 2022'''
@@ Line 298: / Line 300: @@
 :00-17:30 Prototyping with Manetta & Joseph
-<span style="text-shadow: 0 0 12px magenta;">Pad:</span>
+<span style="text-shadow: 0 0 12px magenta;">Pad:</span> https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SI19-prototyping-10
 === Eleven: A Release ===
-''Summary: TBC''
+''Summary: Assembling the pieces, preparing for harvest''
 '''Monday, December 5th, 2022'''
 <span style="text-shadow: 0 0 10px cyan;">Pad:</span>
+https://pad.xpub.nl/p/SP19_22-12-05
 '''Tuesday, December 6th, 2022'''
@@ Line 312: / Line 315: @@
 <span style="text-shadow: 0 0 12px magenta;">Pad:</span>
-'''Wednesday December 7th, 2022'''
-:00-17:30 Reading, Writing and Research Methodologies with Steve
-<span style="text-shadow: 0 0 10px lime;">Pad:</span>
 == Bibliography ==
+=== Texts ===
-[[How_Do_We_Library_That?/Texts|Texts]]
+{{ :How_Do_We_Library_That?/Texts }}
+=== Films ===
-[[How_Do_We_Library_That?/Films|Films]]
+{{ :How_Do_We_Library_That?/Films }}
 [[Category:Special Issue]]