Incubating Creativity at Your Library: A Sourcebook for Connecting with Communities

by Erinn Batykefer, Laura C Damon-Moore (Contributor)

Creativity needs a platform. As technology consultant David Weinberger puts it, "A platform provides resources that lets other people build things." The library is an ideal platform, and in this book Batykefer and Damon-Moore, creators of the , share the experiences of numerous creative library workers and artists who are making it happen. Their stories will show you how to move beyond merely responding to community needs towards actively building a platform with your community. And best of all, you don't need to start from scratch―rather, you amplify what’s already working. Filled with ideas and initiatives that can be customized to suit your library and its community, this book By building on existing elements at your library and filling in the gaps with community-driven additions, your library can be a space that cultivates creativity in both its users and staff.

Genres: Librarianship

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Erinn Batykefer is the author of Incubating Creativity (new from ALA Editions!) as well as Allegheny, Monongahela and The Artist's Library: A Field Guide. She served as co-founder and editor of The Library as Incubator Project from 2010-2017 and was named a 2014 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her work at the intersection of libraries and creativity. She is a librarian and a writer. It's pretty rad.

Reviews

[Barbara Band · Rating 4 out of 5]

A library is perfect for creating a platform to learn new skills, expand networks, and inspire and engage; however, as every community is different so the role of the library in fostering creativity will vary. This book looks at the four elements needed to incubate creativity: resources; invitations; partnerships; and staff. Both print and digital collections are considered as well as the physical space and equipment, looking at how you can utilise, as well as add to, what you already have. There are suggested steps on how to survey the community landscape for artistic endeavours as well as making connections with individuals, organisations and community groups. The book is filled with practical ideas and examples in action from the simple – such as a community jigsaw puzzle table – to more ambitious projects – such as an adult day camp for young professionals and community takeovers of the library. How to undertake effective evaluation, assessment tools, references at the end of each section, a bibliography and index make this a useful book for those wanting to encourage creativity and, although aimed at the public library, many of the projects could be adapted for use within school libraries.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pacy read with examples of these ideas being described from actual library experience. If you have read the Library as incubator project blog or The Artist's Library: A Field Guide you will have already seen much of the content in this book, however, this book is still well worth reading. While the premise of the book is how to incorporate more creativity in your library, the ideas would also be applicable for thinking about how to better connect with many groups and individuals in your community (and the authors suggest this). The chapter on evaluation has some useful ideas to consider to help people think more effectively about how to evaluate programs. The book looks at resources, partnerships, staff, evaluation, community and more. Sustainability is important as is looking at long running programs to see if they should continue, be changed or stopped.

I also enjoyed the shout out to BiblioCraft: The Modern Crafter's Guide to Using Library Resources to Jumpstart Creative Projects as I am a fan of this work and they way it shows different ways to think about collections.

I realised that changed work practices at this time meant that I was not managing as much professional reading, so I am experimenting with ways to still include it.