TILT-y Mail # 16
Disruption is Maybe Bullshit
So I’m writing this newsletter somewhat late in the day from the empty basement of the Harvard Law Library where I’ve been “jumped in” to Harvard’s Library Innovation Lab. By which I mean I’ve gotten some free snacks, sat through a design review for a homeless veterans project, sat on a yoga ball, saw a massive scanning project in action, made suggestions about selfies, joined the Slack, discovered I went to the same high school as one of the other LIL folks, tried to get a handle on org charts, got my Harvard ID, learned to use the button machine, put some new stickers on my laptop, and schemed for ways that I could sleep here at night.
Stupidly amused they let me keep my sunglasses on (I asked)
The answer to that last part seems to be “Do what you want but maybe don’t tell us about it…?” Everyone else has now gone home and I’m waiting for my partner Jim to swing by so we can grab dinner. He has worked at Harvard for 16 years. He told me a little bit about what to expect.
I am happy to be here but, as always, wondering what I am doing here. This is my issue, not the Library Innovation Lab’s. It’s a good partnership when both sides of it say “I’m so excited to work with you!” and I think that’s what we’ve got going on here. My general topic of this unfunded fellowship is to talk about inclusion and access issues in libraries and at Harvard Libraries specifically.
[One day later…] Other than a tour of Houghton (thank you John Overholt!) I’ve never been inside a library at Harvard before today. I’ve wanted to but they’re (mostly) not open to the public and I haven’t felt like pulling strings to make it happen. Jim and I went to the Lamont Library to check out the cafe — completely denuded thanks to the food service workers’ strike (solidarity!) — and wound up spending the most time in the Woodberry Poetry Room wondering what it would be like to listen to some poetry on one of the many record players they have in there. We’ll be back.
I walked around to see every floor, checked out some graphic novels, and marveled at what a well-funded academic library can look like, and at some of the things it still maybe doesn’t do. Two libraries down, seventy-eight-ish to go.
Lots of tech to play with at Lamont
The whole reason I was in town in the first place was to give a talk at BU as part of their Digital Learning Initiative Program. I usually talk about the digital divide and rural technology instruction so it was interesting to expand my range somewhat and stretch to talk about ideas of innovation and disruption and their applicability to longstanding institutions such as libraries. A little more snarky than my usual talk because I have a skeptical view of disruption.
Notes and slides are here. Unfortunately the talk was not recorded, though the notes have the bulk of my talk but are maybe missing some of my best jokes. The talk and discussion afterwards went really well and I appreciate the invitation.
Next week I’ll be giving a keynote talk more along my standard topics in Painted Post, New York for the Southern Tier Library System. I am the dinner speaker which is always a bit of a weird gig but I’m looking forward to the long October drive through upstate New York and meeting even more librarians. If you see me there please do say hello.
TILT-Y MAIL is written irregularly by Jessamyn West who also maintains librarian.net. It’s also available in your inbox via TinyLetter. Thanks for reading.
