The Poet thinks of community

All of this talk of libraries and how important they are to the communities in which they live has taken place without ever thinking of an underlying question: I have not yet taken the time to articulate exactly how I define community. To be honest, it seems hardly appropriate to take that responsibility on myself. The world in which I live is populated and changing. I acknowledge the clade - slightly modified for a social group whose common ancestor is more likely to be Biological Sciences or The Coffee House than a trilobite. Similarity does not necessitate contact, particularly not the continued contact over time and life changes that are, to me, indicators of the presence of community. 

Indicators, oblique and suggestive as they are, do much to define an event: the health of a pasture (leadplant); the presence of a city (population, population density, architectural diversity) or an empire (colonization, mono-language). 

Thinking about what defines community and all of the communities in my world inspired me to put together a list of similar indicators:

Geography: some defined site (web or corporeal) that is shared or is, as the horrible Library 2.0-ians have it, a destination. That destination is part of the community, and occasionally defines it by name.

Characteristic: an inside joke, shared attitude toward beanie babies, common belief system.

Artifacts: pamphlets, tattoos, you could make the argument for memories, behavioral patterns, obelisks.

Self-referential definition: membership in a community defines someone as a specific kind of person; the community's members define the present and future course of that community.

I have no personal evidence to suggest that a community must only be created or must only happen "organically" (as if organic growth is not deliberate, but I digress).  Time is a factor: time to develop relationships, time to earn/gain/pick a name, time to grow into an entity, however difficult to define. And members must share in the life of the community: events must be attended, the community must be referenced and perpetually re-defined (particularly if the definition is one that isn't supposed to change), the burden of obligations to the community must be justified.

All of the indicators that I've thought of and about require involvement and time. People have to maintain communities in order for them to continue, and if they do not continue then they remain social or political or work or neighbor groups.

I live in a town that has been around for about 150 years. There are artifacts of its earliest US history on every block, and everyone goes to church. What church is almost entirely defined by family and/or profession. I could spend days talking about everything that isn't being done to provide for a sustainable future as an independent community. I could spend just as much time talking about what is being done. There are more empty store fronts than full ones on the square, more than half of the restaurants in town are franchises, and the only grocery store is a Hy-Vee.

And yet, they all know each other. There is a fairly regular system of stratification that places you first at or not at the university, and then working or not working. They all eat at the crappy food places and at all the good food places and they all know Fred at the Hy-Vee (to be fair, there are few people who spend more than a few hours in Maryville who do not know Fred at the Hy-Vee). So, it may not be a self-sustainable community right now, but that wasn't the question, was it?

And on the much less serious side: I think a real community has its own indie self-assured love song:



And also: secret twitters at the ALA Conference. I love a good professional conference.

All communities need an underground to prove that the foundation is sitting on something.


*thanks to C and to A for the brilliant links, btw*

The Love Blog for October 8

I almost wanted to call it the "Luuurve" Blog because you know how happy I get about Freakangels every week and all.

Then I remembered all of the Other stuff I've got open on my toolbar up there for sharing and thought that perhaps this is not the time to get all squishy.

I've been doing limited research on just how much it's going to cost me to get into graduate school for this mythical job that I want to make happen (and, oh, it will, believe me. (even if I hafta carve it out of some micromanager's ass)). PhD confirmed that my brain is configured for it, so really, it's just a matter of picking, right? Right?

If the book didn't have a bit of mold, this would be far more exciting news: McGraw Hill has an entire series of books on Library Education and they don't suck! The footnotes are subtle and stay at the foot of the page, and the bibliography is enough to make out with. Seriously.

I'm working back to up my 100 pages a day of not-light reading, which makes very little sense as in less than a month, NaNoWriMo begins and I've got this big crazy idea in mind that means I'll have 2 weeks to write 50K words. If the writing and the crazy did not bring absolute joy, this would not even begin to be an idea, much less an incredibly possible one.

Libraries do not exist in vacuums, they are constructed. They are, in fact, one of the few social constructs that work against the standardization of humans that so many other social constructs require and create. They are, as has been discussed frequently of late in my clade, indicators of community, of the growth and health of a city or any other more socially defined group (because I weigh economy more heavily in my understanding of 'city' than of a social group). Issues of community, its definition, difficulties and how it is perceived keep cropping up in my Google Reader. (While I do not believe it is appropriate for this to exist to the exclusion of all other feed readers, I really do love my Google Reader. I feed it good things and then they show up every day - in great numbers of braingasm!)

Anything but social network self awareness, please!!! The British Library has a fairly large number of regularly updated blogs. The map showed up on facecrack yesterday, and on this blog that I read and enjoy: Growing Knowledge: The Evolution of Research. The exhibit opens on October 14. So. When do we leave?

Speaking of social networks, a beloved OL friend writes a fantastic review of the NewTwitter. He is also fantastic snarky and writes a webcomic called PitchBlack. You go read now.

There will be tea and more to talk about when you get back.

You're back? Good. Because this is where it gets interesting. (-er.)(yeah, that's not a word.)(*shrug*)

Two people contemplating the same sort of solution to a jointly witnessed problem hardly defines a meme. It does, however, lead to the kind of focused thought and conversation that makes it possible to go from a texted conversation about one person not wanting to own a bookshop to the desire to go and visit private libraries in far-flung (from the middle of the US) and exotic places to writing down a big crazy idea only to find David Byrne writing my soundtrack in photographs and bicycles. 

We're going to take a moment for me to be just happy that David Byrne is in the world. And by in the world, I mean IN the world, dammit.

My idea is not the same as my friend A's idea. She would have a privately run public library. It is worth noting that both of us started thinking along these lines because we believe that our colleagues at the library and those patrons who do not wish to be customers formed a kind of community, and that group was and is being disrespected and disacknowledged. I do not know that there is something inherent in the world of library and librarians (who are different than bibliophiles and very much not the same beasts (and I do mean beasts) as bibliomaniacs) that is cohesive, or if this is an experience that is shared by members of a variety of workplaces. Libraries have been around for a few thousand years. Librarians live in their timeline.

And then, Detroit came back into the conversation.

It seems that A and I are in good company with our little ideas. The Public Professor writes about a guy who is working in Detroit (seriously, this all showed up within a week of each other) to get folks to grow gardens. Brilliant! Food and work and a sense of belonging and contribution. You really ought to read more there. Some good stuff. And more on social networks.

We must live in the 21st century or something.

Edited about an hour later: Just in case it is possible that I wasn't riding a larger wave, I hopped over to Whitechapel and found this: Detroit Lives, part 1 of 3

Yes. 200 white kids on bicycles. Sometimes it is good.

Big Crazy Project Idea (the one-th)

K Street Power Plant in Lincoln, NE sits at the intersection of 9th and K. My grandfather worked there. My father has memories of visiting him and of the noise and the heat and the boilers that dwarfed houses and also of orange soda that he drank as a treat on those days in that hot place.

The building is filled with boxes of stuff that the city of Lincoln is saving against the time when it will need to know that Mr and Mrs OffTheirRocker decided to home school their children instead of committing blasphemy by allowing someone not God or themselves to do so in 1985. According to the 1998 Annual Report of the Library/Archives Division of the Nebraska State Historical Society, "This space will accommodate the acquisition and storage of state, county, and local government records, as well as security copies of government microfilm."

I have a better idea.

The K Street Power Plant Foundation, a community based privately run library and art space. The library's collection features mostly periodicals, classics, comics, graphic novels and webcomic based publications and collections.

The periodicals collection specifically and deliberately includes every issue of Foreign Affairs, History Today, Biblical Archaeology Review, any title in the classics, literature, urban studies, libraries, geosciences and titles collected from the offal of libraries whose collections are cut in the name of "better customer service." We, of course, encourage all private citizens and university departments to do the same; to house these collections and make them available as they can.

The Librarians have a soft spot for comics and comic artists and so have amassed a collection that appeals mostly to them. They have diverse tastes. Supporting individual artists is part of the function of strong communities, and in this world of the internet and globalization, community is no longer defined solely by physical proximity. Forum proximity does make a difference, and many of the artists whose work is on the walls, or has inspired the Steampunk themed interior design, particularly of the main reading room and its balconies are known to The Librarians personally or through one of a few very specifically chosen online fora.

The Librarians also believe that knowledge of the thought patterns of the past and present lend foundation to the thought patterns of the future. Work of Greek and Roman and Arabic and Byzantine and Mesopotamian and Indian and Chinese and Japanese and so on thinkers have been collected for perusal and nibbling and discussion. Seminal works in different genres have been collected in duplicate or triplicate where possible.

The Librarians do not feel that it is appropriate to expose curious minds to tripe and dreck and would therefore appreciate it if you would keep your suggestions that they include more vampire romance, girl mysteries and crackpot conspiracy histories to yourself. This is a private library. Membership can be revoked based on just how stupid The Librarian thinks you are that day. They are trained to maim. Be aware, and be thoughtful.

This is a privately run library for several reasons. We felt that it would be prudent to allow the city to learn us as we learned them, that would be slowly. That relationship ought to be kept as positive as possible, therefore we felt that it was better for us, situated as we are in a very tense little city, to place limits on who could interact with our collections. We decided that anyone over the age of 16 could become a member without parental consent, thereby reflecting the policy of the public library system. Given the more, eh, naked or violent or heretical or downright ridiculous nature of some of the material in this collection, we realized that we were not suffering by imposing limitations. Sometime avoidance works. We call it deflection.


We also chose to manage this privately because of our need for control. We wanted control over everything that came into this building. We wanted to choose it all individually and with purpose. We wanted to be the only ones dictating where the radiant heating would be, how many solar panels we expected, where the glass forge and the kiln would go downstairs, how much gallery space, how much studio space and how comfortable the upstairs apartments would be. We wanted to make sure that the designs for the leaded glass windows that face 9th Street would be left to their creator to design and to us and our friends to build and install. In short, we wanted to be The Queen.

It is written into our mission statement and our bylaws that this Foundation has as one of its long term goals integration with the Lincoln City Libraries. Twenty years seems a good time to determine what role the Power Plant will play in this community and how well-funded it will manage to make itself.

******
The windows facing 9th street all leaded in a design created by a local artist and crazily talented person (already chosen).

The main reading room with a second floor walkway around the outer perimeter, heated by radiant heat and active solar, cunningly designed to keep the sunlight off of the collections and the artwork. The floor warmed with rugs and computer stations for webcomic viewing and research and creating. The old boilers in pieces holding us all in to a huge open space. The desk attended by two qualified librarians and a volunteer or intern. Always with the power to revoke privileges for the day or for the ever.

Apartments (two) at the top of the building to be used by artists in residence, rent as work - 20 hours a week in the library or in a gallery, doing outreach, organizing something that we just don't feel like doing, planting the rooftop garden, teaching a child to draw, that kind of thing.

Studios for rent at reasonable rates to those who make it past us (the jury) and our peer group of advisors (who also know stuff).

Gallery space and small show space for theater, music, 2D and 3D art.

Collaborate with other galleries and venues during Lincoln-wide music and arts events. Collaborate with the university to provide alternate and creative spaces for conference presentations and events. Invite local organizations to hold fundraisers in the space on a sliding scale. (They provide the catering and the decorating and the tables and chairs, we just do space. Unless we like them and they are active and nice people and not likely to show up and piss us off. (We are sensitive to this.))
******

No idea how much it would cost. Never did get my hands on the blueprints. Don't even have a reasonably good picture of the place to shove in people's faces when I get all tangential and have to prove how brilliant and community minded I really am. Really. I am.

The city entertained bids to turn the building into condos about 8 or 9 years ago. Well, Mayor Seng acted like she was entertaining those bids. She denied them just before it was point of no return. The money would have to be physical and present and the proposal damn tight.

Patience and practice and faith.

It is still The K Street Power Plant. We power the creative.

It's more of a beginning than declarative...

The day is fine and warm and filled with wind. My walk downtown was intended to serve another purpose, but this is good, too. Universities are a joy when there is no one around to fill in the space between the steps and the air they breathe. It is a weakness, a daydream, a way of walking through the world, that all of these buildings like schools and capitols and libraries and fairgrounds, they have a very real life of their own, and that life is what I breathe in their halls when there is no one else about to do it for me.

Lately the world has seemed filled with talk. Talk of this, talk of that, lots of words and very little of it silent or considered. I know that the First Amendment guarantees US citizens the right to freedom of speech, but what about the freedom to listen, the freedom to consider audience, the freedom to speak well, the freedom to demand speech that is worth the listening.

I believe that freedom is a right is a privilege is a responsibility, and must not be left stagnant, without exploration or understanding. It is not enough to exercise the right to speak. It is not correct to speak simply because it is a freedom. It is up the speaker to accept responsibility for the choice of words others may hear. I am firmly opposed to inflammatory speech and speeches. I believe their purpose is destructive and divisive. Any audience whose ability to debate and argue is distracted by propaganda is an audience that has become a puppet.

It was difficult to acknowledge that in this world it is the right of citizenship that confers the rights of humanity. Whatever rights are bestowed, given or simply acknowledged by the country or nation or entity are the only rights any of us have. Whether I agree with this sentiment or not (and I don't) does not change what seems to be a fundamental state of being in this world. It is unnatural to be without country or place. It is not human, not valid. Though, how human anyone is or is not depends entirely on the accident of birth, unless a person chooses to change allegiance and become someone different. Born into one family or another on one continent or another, if rich, it is by blessing, if poor, it is because the choice was not made to accept the blessing.

We are an odd grouping of fundaments, we children of the Puritans.

And we have been given this right of voice, or at least of speech. Our Constitution makes room for arguments and debates, and we spend much time hearing about how there is no time for either, decisions must be made. I have wondered, more than a few times, if there were provisions made for rules of argument and debate, if perhaps we would be less inclined to such immediate action. I expect much more of the past than I have the right to. Argument has been reduced to volume - in loudness and number of words, no matter how relevant or coherent, the voice that speaks the most often with the most confidence is minded, given audience and time. There seems little point in the face of such opposition to speak up at all, knowing the voice will be little more than a squeak.

And yet. When those quieter, less familiar, more deliberate, voices are ignored, neglected or assumed to be an agreement, social injustice thrives. How to reach them, how to assure them they will be heard, how to deflect the necessary anger into something productive instead of something that perpetuates the status quo of nothing ever changes. How do we learn to listen?

I hear people everyday. I hear their stories, their jokes, their puns and barely concealed bitternesses. We all do, every time we greet someone or pass them in the hall or on the floor. Alone the comments are tweets & status updates, together over time, they become a narrative, a series of events and changes and personalities and as those statements collect, something begins to take shape, room appears for questioning, observing, patterns, history.

Without that history, my own voice feels anchorless, blown about with less purpose than an autumn leaf. With it, there is joy in the speaking, because I know what it means that I can.

These bits are beginnings. This conversation will go on. I will continue to ponder, to read, to listen, to speak.

Be well.
Be safe.
Be joyful.