2022-06-03 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 10, Issue 5
Featured Story
Futures School
When you think about the future, what is the first thing that comes to mind? What emotions do you experience when you think about the future? For me, it’s hard to think too far ahead. Part of it is because I actively try to stay in the present as much as possible. Thinking of the past can sometimes make me sad, and thinking of the future can make me anxious. I think the future makes me especially anxious because I have a good eye for pattern recognition and it doesn’t look like things are going on a great track right now for the future of humanity. When I think about the future too much, I constantly feel as if I am waiting for things to happen and forgetting to appreciate the day. Therefore, I work a lot on being here in my present state of existence.
Even so, one thing that I always make sure to take note of each and every day is the consistent way that nature changes almost every moment. For example, today I noticed on my lunch break that the tree by our staff door is starting to bud. Soon there will be leaves and then it will blossom. Perhaps by the time this article comes out, the leaves will already be in full bloom and the ducklings will be swimming around the pond that I live by. The consistent changes of nature and the expectation that most things will follow a recognizable path into the future gives me comfort.
Can the same mindset be applied to the less certain, yet recognizable patterns we see in other aspects of our future, such as changes with society, technology, economics, environment, and politics? How would we even go about recognizing what we can create and influence and what is beyond our limitations? If we cannot change something, would there be a way to prepare ourselves for the future that is meant to be? Perhaps by doing these things, we could not only provide ourselves with a better future, but we could also ease some of the anxiety around the approaching unknown.
Interested in thinking more proactively about the future, and learning how to navigate through our rapidly and constantly changing world? The Futures School helps to develop a foresight mindset and skillset, ensuring you are primed for market-leading innovation, successful opportunity development, and revenue-generating futures intelligence. Check out more about Futures School here and apply for a 3-day virtual professional development opportunity here: https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/dld/FuturesSchool.
– Monique Gaddy
Fail Forward
We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.
Label Locations
Our library has been trying to rein in the large number of different labels we have been using throughout the library. The simplification is to help our patrons, our processing staff, and to unify the look of our collections. Unfortunately, we had an instance where this went too far. One of our smaller collections had both the adult’ and teen’ sections shelved next to each other. Originally the Teen and Adult books had different colored labels on them, which made it easy to differentiate. During our label evaluation, we chose to make all of the genre labels the same color and use the call numbers to show the collection. This worked great for the youth section, which was located on a different floor, but the teen and adult were too close! The only easy way to tell the difference was now the word TEEN on the spine label. This caused the books to be mis-shelved more often, and caused confusion for patrons, who didn’t always look at the spine label when searching.
We decided to move the adult’ part of the collection to a different part of the library. This allowed us to give more room to the teen items, and gave each area more of an identity. This was a benefit to both parts of the collection.
– Mike Sloan
Crush Corner
Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!
The Human Library
I have always been fascinated by people and their life stories, which is why I fell in love with the idea of the Human Library from the first time I read about it. It is an organization which allows patrons to borrow people, rather than books. People of all different backgrounds volunteer to talk with patrons about their life story. The aim is to help patrons see beyond a stereotype or initial assumptions. People experiencing homelessness, single-parenthood, and drug addiction are some of the books patrons can meet.
Though this organization replaces inanimate books with breathing humans, I love how similar the two concepts are. Through reading, we are able to experience different lifestyles and learn a wide variety of skills. It encourages people to open their minds and empathize with someone very different from them. This project does much of the same. Patrons are able to pick a book by its cover, but they are then encouraged to read it and fully understand the full story.
To learn more about The Human Library, please go here: https://humanlibrary.org
– Brooke Urbaniak
SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org
SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-246156-OLS-20). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.