The Fruits of the Hyperlinked Library

The Gardener does not create the Garden. The Garden creates the Gardener.
Alan Chadwick

The best gardens are a perfect balance of order and chaos. The tension created by this constantly threatened balance is the pulse of the garden itself. (Helen Humphreys, The Lost Garden, p. 19)

In examining the foundational readings for this course and the hyperlinked library model readings, I was particularly struck by Brian Mathews’ article, Cultivating Complexity, and his metaphor of managing staff like a community gardener. As a gardener myself, I focused this lens of garden and gardener on the idea of the hyperlinked library at large and found many parallels that helped me to make sense of the core concepts.

The only constant is change

There is no “set it and forget it” in the garden or the hyperlinked library. Gardens are in a constant state of flux due to weather, soil health, insect populations, etc. Likewise, everything is beta in the HLL. New programs and IR systems must be flexible and proprioceptive. As Mathews explains in Facing the Future, “test it, improve it, then try it again (p.6)”, and eventually replace it. HL librarians must be open to the fact that change will be constant and should be embraced, not feared.

Plant Many Seeds and Thin Them

As Brian Mathews states in Facing the Future, “instead of focusing on one perfect idea, try lots of decent ideas instead.” By thinning out the failures quickly and nurturing the ideas that show potential, programs develop organically instead of formulaically. This opens the door to increased innovation and unexpected solutions to problems. Instead of fearing “what could go wrong”, the HL librarian should embrace the “why can’t we” mindset. New technologies should be discovered and explored. Failure and play should be embraced as productive paths towards advancement of the eventual goals of the library.

Companion Plantings

Just as in the garden where certain plants are helped by close proximity to other types of plants, library programs can be augmented and supported by outside organizations. By viewing bookstores, movie theaters, and other local businesses not as competitors but as collaborators, the library can expand its reach into the community and bring in fresh ideas.  

Pollination

In a garden, many plants can’t thrive without the outside influence of pollinators. The library is also stunted when it blocks outside influences, or when departments “silo” themselves away from the organization as a whole. The HLL should make patron feedback a priority, it can provide concrete ideas for service improvements and reveal unmet needs. Likewise, the HL librarian should look outside of their department and field for fresh ideas and perspectives.

The Importance of a Good Root System

Just as plants communicate with each other beneath the ground, the people within the library form webs of constant communication. As Weinberger describes in The Hyperlinked Organization, “hyperlinks are the connections made by real individuals based on what they care about and what they know, the paths that emerge because that’s where the feet are walking, as opposed to the highways bulldozed into existence according to a centralized plan.” The HLL must strive to keep these links as open as possible by promoting horizontal communication and collaboration.

Decisions Made on Best Possible Knowledge

Every day a gardener must make fallible decisions based on intuition, existing knowledge, and future forecasts. Similarly, HL librarians must not be hung up on perfection; change is constant and unpredictable. Decisions must be made quickly and emphatically with the knowledge that humans make mistakes, and that situations can change quickly. The fear of failure must not impede forward progress.

Delight

Finally, I was so pleased to see the word “delight” crop up in several of our readings as an ultimate goal of the HLL. Just as a garden is not the sum of its parts but the beautiful orchestration of everything working together to bring joy, so it is with a vibrant and successful library. In order to stay relevant in an ever-changing world, libraries must think outside of the brand “books” while still retaining what makes them unique. I loved Barbara Fister’s quote in Mattern’s article that “libraries should slow people down and seduce them with the unexpected, the irrelevant, the odd, and the unexplainable.” This speaks to me of treasuring the magic that libraries still hold in the face of relentless disruption. As the user-centered library has replaced the transactional library, we must innovate to retain relevance as the “third place” for our community. Mattern’s quote that a “well-designed library–a contextually-designed library–can reflect the community back to itself” highlights the importance of the building itself as an integral piece of the HLL.   

It appears from these readings that many amazing changes are already in place, and that in some places the HLL is riding the bleeding edge of our institutional future.

References

Mattern, S. (2014). Library as Infrastructure. https://placesjournal.org/article/library-as-infrastructure/

Mathews, B. (2012). Facing the Future. https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/18649/Think%20like%20a%20STARTUP.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Mathews, B (2017). Cultivation Complexity. https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/78886

Weinberger, D. (2001). The Hyperlinked Organization. https://www.cluetrain.com/book/hyperorg.html

Casey, M. E., & Savastinuk, L. C. (2007). Library 2.0: A guide to participatory library service. Medford, N.J: Information Today. https://287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Library2.0Text.pdf

Buckland, Michael. Redesigning Library Services: A Manifesto (1992).  https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/sunsite/Redesigning%20Library%20Services_%20A%20Manifesto%20(HTML).pdf

Leferink, S. (2018). https://blog.oclc.org/next/to-keep-people-happy-keep-some-books/