Creativity & (academic) libraries

Creativity &
(academic) libraries
@malbooth

UTS:
LIBRARY

This is a presentation I gave on 3 October as part of the Library 2.012 online conference that was run by the School of Library and
Information Science at San Jose State University.
I was the second part, a practitioner’s view, in a tandem presentation with Kathryn Greenhill who comes from where the sun goes
down: the West.
I am grateful to the following colleagues and collaborators from the UTS Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, UTS:Gallery
and UTS:Library who shared their views about creativity with me recently: Kate Sweetapple, Zoë Sadokierski, Aaron Seymour,
Adam Jasper, Holly Williams, Chris Gaul, Tom Fethers, Jemima McDonald, & Belinda Tiﬀen. They have inspired and encourage me
to explore the largely untapped potential for original design and creativity in our library.
I think it is a mistake to think that creativity is not a critical element in the day-to-day work of an academic library. Many fall into
the trap of thinking that we should just purchase, describe, arrange and provide collections of information (via shelves or terribly
cluttered websites that only provide search interfaces). Encouraging true discovery and exploration requires a diﬀerent perspective,
more understanding of our users, collaboration and a better understanding of the creative process.

Creativity & (academic) libraries

WHAT?

I am dividing the presentation into What?, Why?, Who? & How?


events | competitions |
exhibitions | films |
collaborations | services |
readings | spaces | media |
sustainability | designs |
collection-development |
theft | culture
These are the “Whats” as I see it so far. There are many more I could have shown or listed, but these were the ﬁrst to spring to mind
and the easiest to illustrate or explain brieﬂy.
It is all a bit of a work-in-progress but in each of these areas I think we have been creative. Although the following slides illustrate
each of these points it is important to remember they are all connected in some way and not isolated creative initiatives. Many led
on to others in this group and they also provide evidence of our creativity. Most are current or continuing, demonstrating both
ongoing creative practice and continual engagement as these traits are critical too, at least for libraries.

Creativity & (academic)
libraries

2012 is the National Year of Reading (at least in Australia). You might think it odd that a tertiary institution is doing so much to
encourage and facilitate reading of the English language, but it is a major need here and we in the Library are doing what we can to
assit in interesting and stimulating ways. Hearing authors talk about there work right in the centre of our most popular learning
commons is a recent Library initiative to bring events to the clients, in the middle of their space.
Hearing creators talk about their work and their creative process has also been very useful.

http://vimeo.com/chrisgaul/shelflife

libraries

Chirs Gaul was our inaugural Artist-in-Residence. This was his conceptual exhibition in the DAB Lab Research Gallery and it
featured new ways of looking at and comparing different library collections and two very different ways of exploring and discovering
library collections (via sound). We documented this exhibition via film with the beautiful work of cinematographer Dave Katague.
You can view three short film clips here:
http://vimeo.com/chrisgaul/shelflife
Chris has helped us to understand more about Discovery by not “knowing”. There are some more of my thoughts about how this
Residency has helped us later in this presentation.

libraries

New and constantly changing visual displays to engage our users and to encourage reading and small but eﬀective attempts to “put
the magic on display”.

libraries

Play Days for first year students started a few years ago for us and we improve them each year. Each year the activities get crazier
and crazier, but it provides a different way for the Library to engage with new students and shows us in a very different light. Above
is an example of gaming in the Library: a murder mystery to solve with clues to be found all over the Library. This was found to be a
very effective way to provide familiarisation tours of the Library.
We also have paper plane throwing contests, face painting, a technology petting zoo, giant jenga, treasure hunts and Kinect
activities like dancing: http://youtu.be/lpoycjmxxRM

libraries

This is from our central stairs. It has recently been redesigned: entirely by our own staﬀ to be more welcoming to those entering the
Library and climbing the stairs. The central screen has lived in this space for a few years now and hosts our Wallwisher feedback
interface. There used to be a complaint book in the same location, but we’ve found this interface to be far more engaging and useful.
It creates conversations between library staﬀ and students and many are both useful and very amusing.

Map of Sydney by Dr
Kate Sweetapple

libraries

This is one of three data maps of Sydney by Kate Sweetapple. It is an example of us collecting creative and research material from
UTS academics and staﬀ as new inspiring special collections for the Library. So collection development itself becomes more
proactive, enjoyable and productive than simple purchasing whatever the academic publishers churn out. It engages our own
creative community, stimulates many and provides inspiration within the Library.
Kate mapped out the locations of people in Sydney (from the phone book) by selecting those with avian, ﬁsh or constellation
surnames in three large data maps like the one shown above. See http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/dablab/2010/mr-salmon-mrs-sparrow/


This is just one showcase from the creative work of a Doctor of Creative Arts. His multi-media work was displayed and examined in
the Library. See also http://youtu.be/tDvw5LIh4rY & http://youtu.be/WvxeDbgBSkA & http://youtu.be/pwCc7NOc01Q


For the National Year of Reading we have tried to engage our users in many diﬀerent ways, including the showing of some popular
and classic ﬁlms. Most of these screenings have been well attended.

Creativity &
(academic) libraries

We have our own You Tube channel and we’ve found this venture into the use of popular social media to have been a great learning
experience and a fantastic way to present and maintain re-usable material that can be quickly consumed by our target audience.
Making these short clips has been an eﬀective creative process for both staﬀ and clients.


Keep Ya Crap Lug-A-Mug Ecoboxes

In 2012 we have run three staff-initiated in-house projects to raise awareness of sustainability, by starting small and thinking big.
These all have potential to reduce waste and to lead to further staff-led initiatives in the Library.
Keep Ya Crap ran for a week and staff keep non-organic waste, targeting waste reduction. Waste was weighed and compared at the
end of the week.
Through Lug-A-Mug we hope to reduce the waste from discarded brew cups & containers, with discounts arranged at many popular
local cafes and from suppliers of re-usable cups. A score-sheet is provided so we can keep track of actual savings over the remainder
of 2012.
Ecoboxes have been provided for staff to use in tea rooms when purchasing local take-away meals. Again, a score sheet is provided.
Visibility of such programs is extremely important.


This is our reading blog that many contribute to. http://read.lib.uts.edu.au/


And this is our Research blog containing information speciﬁcally targeted at our research community. http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/
blog/research


Shut up and Write is one of those ideas that we stole from someone else and then developed further for our own needs. It has
proved very popular with some HDR students struggling with the writing process. Again, I see this as a very creative initiative, run
by our own staﬀ who collaborated with other research support staﬀ to deliver a much needed new service to our research
community. http://www.facebook.com/shutupwrite


Research Week is yet another thematic and targeted event created for a particular need: researchers. This is an event we’ve run for
the last couple of years and it too has proven popular with researchers and collaborators alike. Library as connector: http://
www.lib.uts.edu.au/news/6118/research-week-2012

Creativity & (academic) libraries “A Book Spotter’s Guide to Avian Titled Literature”
by Zoë Sadokierski and Kate Sweetapple

This is a wonderful installation of the research interests of Zoë Sadokierski and Kate Sweetapple in our central stair well. The work
was entirely initiated, created and researcher by them for that space. It is an example to me of how libraries can beneﬁt from
expressing interest in the work of our community members. See also http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/
72157631028991656/

Creativity & (academic) libraries “A Book Spotter’s Guide to Avian Titled Literature”
by Zoë Sadokierski and Kate Sweetapple

Detail. I could not resist as I simply love this work and what it has done to improve our central stairs.


Quite a few of my colleagues in the Library participated in Bike Tank, a design thinking initiative in 2011 by U.lab See http://
frommelbin.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/biketank-and-service-design.html
At Bike Tank we learned more about the design thinking approach to creativity and innovation and we connected with many others
from wider Sydney.


This is a space experiment we made a few years ago in a boring old law seminar room. We brightened it up with some whiteboard
paint and funky furniture and addressed a student demand for bigger whiteboards. It has proved pretty popular ever since.


The following slides show the work of our Designer Tom Fethers and his collaborator on this new visual identity, Chris Gaul (our
2012 Artist-in-Residence). They’ve developed a new identity for us based on the 12 nets of a cube. It is a dynamic identity based on
the pairing of colours that gives us more contemporary branding and hopefully helps us to engage with our student community. If
you step through the slides pretty quickly you’ll get the feel for the animation of the new logo and see how it might look on some of
our publications, way ﬁnding signage, on a smart phone app and other collateral.


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LEVEL

200s
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300s
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SPECIAL NEEDS
ROOM

Creativity &
(academic)
libraries
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ISSUE 05 / 2012

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Creativity &
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SEMESTER E X AM


WHY?

So now, a little more on why creativity is important in academic libraries.
Let me start here by saying that I do not think that creativity in libraries should always be applied simply as problem solving. Sure it
can also be applied as a better approach to a task or a challenge, but sometimes just being creative can make some problems
irrelevant.


UNDERSTANDING
ENGAGING
CULTURAL CHANGE
ENVIRONMENT
BRANDING
These are the reasons I think we need to embrace creativity in academic libraries:
to understand and fully appreciate the creative process itself (I don’t think we can even hope to stimulate or encourage creativity in
libraries if we don’t first attempt to understand it by trying to create, ourselves);
to engage with creators and also to engage more effectively with our community by BEING more creative ourselves;
because I think it assists in cultural change within organisations ands that makes them more flexible and willing to adapt in a world
of constant change;
creative environments are productive and enjoyable to work in and more creative library environments are both welcomed and
requested by our patrons; and
I think there is a lot of benefit in branding one’s institution as more creative in terms of reputation, collaboration, attractiveness (for
staff and patrons) and inspiration. Real creativity is almost magnetic.
There’s even more on the next slide ...


FUN
LEARNING
BECAUSE WE CAN
CREDIBILITY
PERSPECTIVE
Being creative:
because basically it is fun to do and fun to look back on;
it is a rich learning process - trying, producing and sometimes failing and then trying again;
because we can, and we should;
it gives us more credibility with so many in our community who make or produce things; and
it gives us a diﬀerent perspective on things a bit like changing from “why we should not” (the default for so many in libraries) to “how
we can make this work”.


This one is self explanatory.


How Our Artist In Residence
Has Helped



Has Helped

Libraries
Rational
Efficient
Logical



Has Helped

Libraries Artists
Rational Emotive
Efficient Intuitive
Logical Questioning



Has Helped

> Understanding beyond what
we know
> Fresh Perspective
> New & Original Ideas



Artists ask the questions
that others are afraid to
ask and that money
cannot answer.

John Maeda, President RISD, Wired Opinion, September 2012

And so is this.


WHO &
HOW?

I combined these two because I was not sure I had the time or the ability to do them both justice.


STUDENTS
ACADEMICS
ALL STAFF
MENTORS
CO-CREATION
As far as “Who?” goes it is basically everyone, but the last two are particularly important because everyone is telling me that the
best creativity for those in institutions like libraries is collaborative creativity. So that means mentors (and we have many creative
mentors including those I mentioned on the ﬁrst slide) and we have some experience at co-creation. We do not, however, have as
much experience at this as Brooklyn Museum: see http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/blogosphere/
Everyone probably does have the ability to be creative in their work, but for some the opportunity, permission, scope and trust is
lacking. I see a big part of my role here to be making sure that those who would like to be more creative can be in this workplace. I
think we’ve also done some really creative things here from an IT perspective and I’ve failed to mention the amazing work of our
IT Services team, but it is evident in facilitating some of the services you saw above, particularly those with an online presence.


Mentors
Sustainability

Discovery (UX)

Planning

Service Design

We have tried several different design mentorships (for want of a better expression):
1. To understand both design thinking and being more sustainable at work, we asked Grant Young from Zumio to lead a team of
our supervisors and team leaders (the level beneath our layer of department managers) in a project to get all staff involved in some
meaningful sustainability initiatives. This project went in a very different direction to what I had in mind, but the initiatives they
came up with were successful, my ideas proved to be not be required and most participants learnt much from the process itself.
2. We began a serious two-phased approach towards improving our collection discovery services and online interfaces in 2011. As a
first element of this we embarked on some ethnographic research to better understand our clients and that was led by Digital
Eskimo professionals. This was our first real attempt at professional UX research on a significant scale and it also proved to be a
valuable first step for this project.
3. As I mentioned before, this year (2012) we used u.lab to facilitate our two half-day planning sessions. They helped us plan out the
activities and goals for each day and encouraged us to invite some external guest speakers to inspire us for each day. Both were
brilliant: Steve Baty from Meld on Day #1; and Alison Heller from Urban Affect on Day #2.
4. We have three design challenges as we look at the challenge of imagining our future library: spatial, service and organisational


how to tell? participants |
visits | views | likes |
remarks | comments |
interest-expressed |
requests | surveys |
momentum | partners |
invitations
As I said above I think some of the creative initiatives that I’ve highlighted already are proof that we are being more creative in our
approach.
I do not really think that creativity is easily or eﬀectively measured or counted like a more tangible asset might be. Trying to explain
it is sometimes a bit like analysing comedy: not funny and rather pointless. I do, however, think that it is a desirable and something
that is simply crushed out of people in far too many workplaces. Certainly I think that in cultural institutions like libraries we
should be encouraging more free play, valuing divergent thinking, imaginatively engaging with our community and providing an
environment that is conducive to collaborative creativity.
I’ve listed some of the easy to ﬁnd indicators above in this slide, most are easy to understand so I won’t cover all of them here, but I
think several are worthy of a note or two. For requests I was thinking about requests to do something creative within or with the
library. Momentum is something that I think can grow as a result of more creative activity. It creates a kind of infectious enthusiasm
that is obvious when you have it. Then others see it and want to partner with you on new ventures or they invite you to talk about
what you do more and more. This list came straight out of my head after thinking about how I knew we were being more creative. It
isn’t exhaustive or prescriptive, just the indicators that came to mind.


REMEMBER: creative
practice requires practice
& in a library ... TRUST

Creators must produce something original and to keep the skills honed it requires ongoing practice. Fear can block creative
experimentation, so a big part of management’s role is creating a climate of trust in which people are not too fearful to play, learn
how to trust their instincts and each other and feel trusted to try new things.

THANK YOU
DESIGN: TOM FETHERS
CHRIS GAUL

UTS:
LIBRARY

Creativity & (academic) libraries

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