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Oh such an argument for fixing the copyright laws right there! The idea that ephemera might be lost due to copyright issues is pretty disturbing. A provision for digitisation for archival purposes surely makes more sense than letting fragile but culturally important works disintegrate!
Great reflection :).
Do libraries utilise social media effectively? I guess it really depends, I know BCC libraries don’t. Is that through lack of interest, lack of understanding, policy, etc? This sounds really interesting Katherine and I wonder if the library did market research to see if it would be used. Mediation is probably unnecessary as pinterest already censors pinned items, but perhaps if not mediated people might pin the same item multiple times? Anyway, fascinating topic!
Haha tell us how you really feel Steph ;).
I like the idea of being a defender of the arts and culture!
Perhaps labels would still be useful, but instead of labels that imply a value judgement, descriptive labels would make more sense? I’m thinking quickly that there could be provocative art, critical art, entertaining art, personal art, etc. Both high and low art could use any one of these labels. There will always be arts critique and I think there always should be, but I do think “high” and “low” is pretty subjective and you’ve given great examples of the blurred lines (SORRY couldn’t resist!).
I don’t get nervous because of the kids, I get nervous because of the adults! I think there must be a real skill to just immerse yourself in the experience of the kids and ignore the adults sitting there ;).
Yes! I guess as a younger person I would have disliked doing story time myself, but now that I’m older (and have my own kids) I think it’s pretty fun to entertain them like that. I’m stuck on the singing thing though, I really don’t like singing nursery rhymes and would hate it if I was the centre of attention. I’d have to find other ways of doing it I think… with drums. Haha.
Haha I wear button up shirts because I figure I need to make more of an effort to offset my dreads ;). But I work in an academic library, so different context ;).
I love Gloom! We have it :D. I reckon a library would be a great space to run a D&D (or similar RPG) game too. TBH, as a teenager I didn’t go to the library much. My local library was small and dingy and the lighting was awful. So I just borrowed books and returned them and that’s all I did there. I think a lot of modern libraries are much nicer spaces, but they still have the “this is an adult’s space” feel to them (except the kids’ section, but teens don’t want to hang out there and I don’t blame them).
Wasn’t it Goldilocks who said “just right”? I’m confused! Haha.
It’s great the library has put thought into the design of the tech for kids. I had a laugh at “if they happen to be stopping a sibling from singlehandedly dismantling the neatly shelved children’s book section or simply trying to eat the merchandise.” because yes, I can relate to that!
Really liked this reflection Luke. Do you think teens relate to librarians better if they are closer to their age demographic? (So younger librarians, essentially). Also if they don’t look as conservative? I know there are some super funky librarians getting around on twitter and I wonder if looking like you’re savvy with youth culture helps to make librarians more accessible to a wider range of kids.
Admission fees can really be off-putting if you have kids. It’s lovely to expose kids to art and culture occasionally but if you have 2 kids at admission age then it can end up costing over $30 to see an exhibition. And it’s dubious what a kid will get out of one specific exhibition (I take them more so they feel confident to go to them when they are older, and hoping that maybe something will spark some interest in something). Often kids don’t want to read the information provided, and rush you through, so you don’t really get the full benefit yourself either. So it would be good if kids’ fees were substantially discounted (rather than only a couple of dollars cheaper as is usually the case).
I will happily pay for things I am really interested in though. I remember when the Surrealist exhibition was on at QAG when I was a teenager (so back in the 90s, people). We went as part of a school excursion and that exhibition changed me and influenced the development of my art. I appreciate how expensive exhibitions like that are to arrange and display. My answer to that these days would be to go without the kids (or go again, without them, after first taking them perhaps!) If an exhibition of female Surrealist art was to be offered any time in the future I’d pay to see that!
I think libraries do occasionally charge for programs though (the Edge is a case in point). It’s a complicated thing and I think where possible programs should be fully funded, but I realise it’s not always possible.
I remember when Kenmore library opened there was a letter to the editor from an irate woman complaining about the shrieking children. Kenmore is a small library with a little corner for a children’s area, which always kills me because kids (mine anyway) love to run off into the adult sections. It’s incredibly stressful as a parent to have a noisy kid and be trying to get them to stop because you don’t want them to disturb other people, but you also actually can’t make a young kid stop being noisy in any way that is legal or kind! So yes, I agree, separate areas would be ideal and would actually meet the needs of patrons in a far better way than open plan. Open plan is fine for patrons who are able to moderate their volume, but it’s even tricky for people who want to meet up to do group work and not loudly at that.
That said, I do love Mount Ommaney’s refurbished library, and noise from kids doesn’t bother me that much because if it’s not my kid I tune out ;).
Interesting! It sounds like we might have attended the same library for our story time experiences. You drew some very similar observations to what I did, and I have to say I’d be curious to know if it’s just this particular library that isn’t very “into” the whole story time thing.
Having run my own impromptu story time at my school last week though I have to say I can understand the temptation to not do songs etc. I HATE singing nursery rhymes ;).
Thanks Katherine! I tend to use “humanities” as a catch-all that includes the CI subjects as well. In my PhD I was actually doing what anyone would term a ” liberal arts/humanities” topic, a crossover between film studies and cultural studies, although I came from a music background. I do understand though that at QUT the Creative Industries definitely has taken “arts” and encouraged a commercial sensibility which makes it a little hard to justify the humanities tag, BUT, that said, a lot of students go into CI degrees not really liking the commercial aspect of it (I tutored them for a couple of years and a lot of them complained about the “businessy” stuff).
I definitely agree with you, I’m a big believer in arts in partnership/collaboration with science and vice versa.
