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/.