Overview

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 Library as Incubator Project, 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 discusses the four elements (Resources, Invitations, Partnerships & Engagement, and Staff) and the two lenses (Community-Led and Evaluation) of the Creative Library platform; outlines six steps for surveying your community’s artistic landscape; gives methods for expanding partnerships and connections with individuals and organizations through exploration, hands-on learning, and engagement with the community; shares perspectives on the “ideal library” from several artists, with three examples of artist-in-residence programs; offers examples of community invitations in action, such as the Pittsburgh Fiberarts Guild workshops on creating flowers using recycled materials; shows how to use “orphan photos” from your archives for creative inspiration; advises on using qualitative evaluations to effectively “weed” your initiatives; and shares tips for encouraging library staff to express their creativity, turning avocations into library initiatives like Handmade Crafternoons, the Yahara Music Library, or BOOKLESS. 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.

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9780838918623

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Erinn Batykefer served as co-founder and editor of the Library as Incubator Project from 2010-2017 and is a professional writer and editor in addition to her work as a librarian. Her writing has won several awards, including fellowships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Bucknell University, and her first poetry collection, Allegheny, Monongahela (Red Hen Press) won the Benjamin Saltman poetry prize. Her creative work has appeared widely in journals and literary magazines and she is the author of the forthcoming ALA Editions title Incubating Creativity: A Sourcebook for Connecting with Communities as well as The Artist's Library: A Field Guide (Coffee House Press) along with Laura Damon-Moore. She was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her work. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Laura Damon-Moore is a Community Engagement Librarian for the Central Library at Madison Public Library in Madison, Wisconsin. There, she works on identifying and facilitating opportunities for creative engagement with library space, resources, and services. These include things like the Volunteer Toolbox, a cross-agency volunteer training series, and Library Takeover, an event-planning bootcamp for teams of community members who want to learn how to plan and host great large-scale events. Laura is a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for 2014. She is the author of The Artist's Library: A Field Guide from the Library as Incubator Project (Coffee House Press 2014) and the forthcoming ALA Editions book Incubating Creativity: A Sourcebook for Connecting with Communities.

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