How Do We Library That?

From XPUB & Lens-Based wiki

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; a set of 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?

We will attempt to answer these questions while asking ourselves: How do we library that? 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.

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 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, a collective-space for everyday technology.

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

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 card. What information does it need to be legible to someone else?

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!

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

Two: Print Screen

Summary: Plain text & annotation, from markup to markdown

Monday, September 26th, 2022

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Tuesday, September 27th, 2022

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

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Three: Text, TBC

Summary: Dimensions of text - editorial, technical, social

Monday, October 3rd, 2022

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Tuesday, October 4th, 2022

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

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Wednesday October 5th, 2022

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

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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

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References:

Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

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

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Wednesday October 12th, 2022

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

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Five: Do e-books dream of electronic spreadsheets?

Summary: Logics of databases

Monday, October 17th, 2022

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Tuesday, October 18th, 2022

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

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Wednesday October 19th, 2022

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

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🍁🍁🍁

24th October - 28th October

Autumn Vacation

Six: Binding Along the Spine

Summary: Digital and analog binding

Monday, October 31st, 2022

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Tuesday, November 1st, 2022

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

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Wednesday November 2nd, 2022

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

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Seven: A Textile, A Framework

Summary: Texts woven together

Monday, November 7th, 2022

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Tuesday, November 8th, 2022

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

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Wednesday November 9th, 2022

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

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Eight: Paper Machines

Summary: Analog interfaces for digital collections

Monday, November 14th, 2022

References:

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Tuesday, November 15th, 2022

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

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Wednesday November 16th, 2022

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

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Nine

Monday, November 21st, 2022

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Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022

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

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Wednesday November 23rd, 2022

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

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Ten

Monday, November 28th, 2022

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Tuesday, November 29th, 2022

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

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Wednesday November 30th, 2022

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

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Eleven

Monday, December 5th, 2022

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Tuesday, December 6th, 2022

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

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Wednesday December 7th, 2022

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

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Twelve

Monday, December 12th, 2022

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Tuesday, December 13th, 2022

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Wednesday December 14th, 2022


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