Keeping Track of the Digital - DANS

The DANS site visit ~

The visit to the DANS was probably one of the most informative for the MLIS students, and it contained topics that I had been thinking about, but had not encountered in classes yet. The first talk, by Andrea Scharnhorst, we listened to had to do with digital archiving of journal articles, mostly for the Netherlands. We discussed also the trouble plaguing research universities the world over with the publishing industry and its total lack of understanding that money does not, and never will, grow on trees ripe for the plucking. In short, the prices are so outrageously high, that research universities are struggling to keep up with subscription prices. The use of the word struggle is probably no longer accurate, with the phrase “desperate gasping last attempts to stay above the water level,” being more accurate. This has been happening across the board with digital articles and books, resulting in some universities (we’re looking at you California), leaving the negotiation table entirely, in favor of finding an alternative. I can’t say that I entirely disagree with that decision. 

From what I understood the DANS is a digital archive for works of a scientific nature that relate to the Netherlands, but Andrea also talked about other formats, or search platforms, that organize and assist in finding journal articles you need. Unfortunately some of those articles are behind paywalls, and that has a lot to do with the publishing companies. It was interesting to see an overview of the patchwork systems from different universities that are used to search for relevant articles. Since it’s patchwork though many things that are relevant to a researcher’s topic may not be found however. One of the things that may work to step around the publishers, is to install ways to connect university databases, and it sounds like there was some luck with this along with a lot of failures because not enough universities use the same search platforms or organization tools. If someone did build a system that allowed for everyone to link their systems for search, that would be amazing. Technically you could do something like this, but use the basis of a public search engine. Google Scholar does this to some extent, but only for articles that are in a venue that it can reach. You’d need a specific journal article crawler capable of reading files from multiple code platforms. Not easy, but probably doable at a huge expense.

Another issue with digital articles and information found on the net is that links break, and addresses may stay the same, but content changes. This is a problem if you have sited a work in a paper. Herbert von de Sompel (I hope I got your name right sir) has done some extensive studies in PID or Persistent Identifiers. Basically he studies ways of keeping track of digital information where ever it may be found. This particular topic is something we haven’t discussed in any of the MLIS classes I have taken, but I am most definitely familiar with it because I have a BA in history and trying to nail down a working DOI for some of my reference materials was insanely difficult and it shouldn’t have been! I only got the answer of why I was having such trouble with some sources came from this lecture, because instructors certainly never said a word about this, and help desks for reference citation don’t say a word about it either. Basically a company gets bought out by another company and they migrate all the digital articles over, and install a new DOI, just leaving the old one ... orphaned. As an academic student, that is an infuriating revelation. I always double check my DOI citations to make sure links are active before turning in a paper, and when they don’t work, I spend literally hours tracking one down that works in case my instructor actually clicks the link to read the source article. Those companies sleep in disgusting piles of wealth every night... the least they could do is not be sloppy with their acquisitions. This is a pet peeve of mine apparently. Frustration levels with paper writing are not helped by this at all.

Currently solutions for digital drift and broken links are unfortunately complicated, and some don’t work very well. For the time being our lecturer at the DANS suggested making a ‘momento’ file in which you snapshot the URI, Date Time stamp and the original URI, and put it all together so you have something to show that it was actually like that when you visited the page. This is especially important if you aren’t using a journal article, but a blog or website that at the time of writing a paper was full of the information you used. But those sources may only stay good for a limited amount of time. Sometimes they go down, the web address is sold, or even blocked by governments. Basically nothing on the web is going to remain the same, and changes just like everything else in the world. It was a very eye opening and very relevant subject for me, and I very much appreciated the lecturer’s time. 

After our, now infamous, lunch, Kathleen Gregory, a PhD candidate who studies how people search for information gave us a lecture. This was also interesting because it showed what people may be looking for and how they would go about searching for that material. Admittedly, I’m fairly terrible at setting up ways of search for topics that work. No talent for this at all, which is sort of sad given I like organizing things. But it was interesting to see how, during our activities, each group found different ways of organizing information into a format that made it findable. And no group was wrong, because each would have worked just fine for the context of the information used. I’m sure not everyone agreed with everyone else’s way of doing things, but they all would have worked. I very much enjoyed these activities, not only because they gave me a new perspective on knowledge organization, but gave me an idea of how people are going to look for a topic. Ways that will look nothing like mine and possibly boggle my mind, but they will still work with some instruction. 

Overall this was one of my favorite site visits, because it dealt with what I call front line issues that I had and am tackling as I make my way through this MLIS degree. It’s not only something that I deal with myself, but while I was a librarian, I had to help student navigate organization systems in order to find information, track down webpages that moved or find DOIs that actually worked. Given that so much information is being moved to a digital format, or is already in a digital format, these problems will increase, and academic papers and articles will suffer for it if we don’t start implementing new ways of doing things. Granted, when I did try to remedy orphaned DOIs by adding more DOIs or links, I got in trouble for improper citation and had to go to bat for myself in explaining the need for reliable source availability and the web’s lack there of. It is almost an invisible problem that most students doing their undergrad aren’t really thinking about, and a lot of professors aren’t double checking, thus there is no outcry. But what do we do when nothing we source in a paper citation remains? How do you separate the real work, with real sources from the ones that were written in haste, and the person only threw in citations to make it look good. In either case looking at the sourced work won’t help you determine the through, because there has been digital drift, broken links or orphaned DOIs that no one has bothered to clean up. Not only that, how do you double check source work when the only link is behind a paywall that you don’t have access to? These are very very relevant questions and they urgently need addressing. 

This is my last blog entry for my Netherlands trip. I was super sick, but I also really loved the trip and I am extremely sad that I missed so many site visits. I will have to go back when it is not tourist season, and it’s cold and raining all the time and visit some of these places again when it is quiet, and I can hear myself think... and I am not feeling like death warmed over. There are places that I was upset about missing, like the archive at the ICC. I was not all that excited over seeing an active trial, but I did want to see the archive. On the other hand, being sick allowed me a great deal of time to talk with Dutch staff, and get an idea of what things are like in the Netherlands, an opportunity that I am abundantly grateful for in many respects. Overall I had an excellent time both in and outside our hotels, getting to know people and seeing such amazing places and hearing lectures about such timely subjects. Very well worth the trip, especially with such an amazing group of people. My hat is off to you all!!

Safe Spaces

We moved to the hotel in Delft on the 8th of July. I was feeling pretty good that day, so I was optimistic that I would be feeling good for the rest of the trip. It was sort of a crazy morning with everyone moving out at once, and on more than a few occasions I was fairly sure someone was going to get dragged unwillingly down the stairs by their overly huge suitcase, but I worried for nothing. Everyone moved out in remarkably orderly fashion. My group went last, and it was relatively small. It was nice to sit and talk with everyone in the dining area. Scott, our tallest classmate took some time to straighten out things on the chandelier in the dining area without the aid of a ladder or chair, (we were all rather impressed) and we said goodbye to the owner and staff. The trip to Delft itself wasn’t bad, however I am afraid I overdid it on the way there. I got to go to one site visit on the following Monday, and then I was sick all over again, complete with high fever. 

The one site visit was to see the National Library of the Netherlands, aka Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB). I have to admit to not really understanding how we were going to get into the building because it seemed to be buried among other buildings, and on the outside it was an unassuming neutral white. In short, it really did not outwardly represent itself as a library. Once we got inside, it became evident that what it lacked on the outside, flourished on the inside with bright open spaces, inviting work areas, and gave multiple nods to pieces of the library’s past and to the current transition under way from hardcopy records to digital formats. A portion of a card catalog still sits on one of the floors, in a side room sit old school microfiche machines to view old newspapers, and wall sculpture pays homage to the original National Library building. It was a very comfortable space.

I think what really made this trip memorable was getting the lecture from Erik Boekesteijn, as he gave us a tour of what innovation really looks like, because I think he pretty much embodied ever single innovator type from the Ten Faces book. He was all of them at once, and perhaps a bit of a white knight, champion of making libraries and other public entities step out of their comfort zone. Granted it was scare tactics, but honestly sometimes there is no other choice. Having taken a class with Rolf this past spring on community engagement made this talk a really nice companion to that class. More so when it became apparent that they had worked together on DOK1 in Aarhus, Denmark. Trying to imagine these two working together on a project inspires visions of fantastic ideas flying in every direction. 

As Erik spoke about the innovative spaces, it made me think of some community response papers I had seen while taking David Hendry’s class on design thinking. The pubic had been asked to think of their perfect library, and then draw it with explanations on the side. What is needed in a library? I am not sure what the initial project was for this feedback, but we used them for in class exercises. None of the responses I saw looked anything like a library currently out there, except perhaps DOK1 comes close. People wanted more from a library than just books, and it showed, with people asking for sleeping spaces, gaming rooms, meeting spaces for the public, garden areas or heavily planted interiors. But most of all, they wanted large open spaces, with lots of light, and plant life. Books were always on the list, but in a secondary capacity. The focus was much more on an inviting space, rather than focus on the books or learning materials. What it really came down to was safe space in which you could do anything you needed to, or wanted to. 

Safe space. I have to wonder when the public view of the library changed from a place to gain information or read a book, to a place that was a safe space. This also came up at a seminar I was at for children’s activities and other elements of running a good children’s library section. I can no longer remember her name, but the very first things she said was that if children didn’t feel safe in the space you had already lost them. As an example, she spoke of being in charge of a branch library in Oakland, CA. That’s a fairly tough area, high crime, lots of tension. She said every morning during the summer she’d walk past basketball courts behind the high school next to her branch, and she’d wave at the kids playing basketball. They never waved back, but watched he walk past. October 17th, 1989 rolls around, and she and her staff are getting ready to close up and there are a couple of patrons looking for books, when a 7.2 earthquake hits. The lights go out in the library and all anyone can here is things crashing to the floor, car alarms going on and the city emergency siren. When the shaking stops, she and her staff go to make sure everyone is okay, and discover that they not only have the couple of patrons still there, but all the kids from the basketball court there too. Those kids ran to a safe place. The library. A safe space. As a librarian we’re looking at our library as a book collection that serves the public. From the public standpoint, libraries are so much more than that. It’s something to keep in mind when someone wants to try something outrageous with a library and the staff are freaking out about it because it would not be traditional. I suspect that the public is more than willing to give the library some leeway.

So, in short, Erik’s talk reaffirmed a lot of things I had always thought true along my time as a library manager. Just make sure, first and foremost, that whatever space you make it safe space. Don’t be afraid to go big with something, although if you’re on a tight budget be careful with that. But as libraries move into a future were they will almost certainly be expected to do things that never entered the minds of a librarian, I suspect going large on something is going to become a normal event. Something never before seen in libraries to meet a need. It is something to think about. 

Meermano Museum -

By the time we left the KB, I wasn’t feeling my best. Mostly because I was worn out I think so unfortunately my attention for this museum was not the best. Sorry! We ventured out after lunch to the Meermano museum, which houses very old books, printing presses and type sets for some of the books in the collection, and what I think might be considered something of a cabinet of curiosities given the eclectic nature of the non-book collection. The book collection was exquisite and I would have liked a lot more time to explore it with the curator, but I suspect we were on a schedule. I also would have liked to have been feeling better because I had a difficult time paying attention. 

I remember the curator, whose name escapes me at the moment, talking about the paintings, Roman, Greek and Egyptian objects and what to do with them because the building was not properly equipped to store such items without causing decay. It was quite warm in that room, and I could understand his concern. If you don’t have the money to install climate control systems, then what do you do? It’s a good question. Especially in the Netherlands with the high humidity and the very weird weather patterns that are probably only going to get worse. Fragile things, such as the mummies of the cat and the child will not fair well. 

I as also not sure on some of the labeling for some of the objects in the museum area. One marked Greek appeared to be Minoan and a small statue that looked Assyrian was mixed in with Roman objects. Then again, I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, I just happen to recognize certain aspects from ancient cultures. 

What really had my attention though, were the books, and being able to get so close to them, even if some were under glass. The ones that the fellow pulled out by Moore with the incredible attention to detail was amazing. I was going to ask for a closer look, but others had made requests for other items, and I decided not to ask. So amazing though. I had seen one or two books this old before while in Australia, which were copies of bibles or scripture like the ones he showed us in the beginning. That’s something I could spend days looking at. The rose garden was also lovely, even though it technically had nothing to do with the books and small museum collection of objects from ancient empires. But I very much appreciated the opportunity to sit outside and enjoy somewhat drippy weather and talk with new friends. 

I’ve only got one more post to go having to do with the DANS visit, and then I think I’m out of things to talk about. Hopefully will have the DANS post up tomorrow. 

A Tail of Little Monkeys

ARTIS Zoo has one of the most unique open area exhibits I've ever seen, in that it appears to be one thing, and turns out to be so much more than you are expecting. When you enter the ARTIS Zoo, the first thing you see are the Watusi Bulls, with their enormous horns and their placid nature, comfortably sharing space with Camels and Donkeys. The space is small, but they showed no signs of frustration or agitation, by pacing the enclosure. That's saying something about a zoo or wildlife park. Too often when visiting these places the animals are pacing, even in a large area they pace the walls. The tighter the pacing pattern the more agitated the animal. In the ARTIS Zoo, which has very little space to afford each animal group, there was little to no signs of this behavior. The animals were content enough to nap, to groom each other in family groups, to play and to eat without much worry.

Nowhere else is this more apparent, than with some of the smallest of the Zoo's inhabitants. Their house is covered in plant life on the outside, each providing extraordinary amounts of cover for the birds that live in each area. So much foliage is in each enclosure that visitors can't see if there are birds in there or not. It also hides entrances to inside spaces when the weather is bad. This may be frustrating for the visitor to the zoo, but for the bird this is very comforting. To see the inside of the bird house, there is a timed entrance. It keeps crowds from entering at once by waiting for five minute intervals, opens for a brief period of time and then closes for another five minutes. Inside, you are met  with a hot house, high humidity and warm. There are trees and shrubs, and areas of running water, but it isn't as dense as the outside areas. There are no birds in this area, but it does have many small inhabitants. Pygmy Marmosets.

They are among the smallest of monkeys, and fit in the palm of your hand. Having seen other exhibits for these tiny creatures, they are usually set up to shield the view of humans from them. In other words, humans can see the marmosets, but they can't see the humans. Generally this makes for some fairly awkward looking enclosures that block a lot of sunlight. A second reason for these heavy duty enclosures is because humanity has a habit of taking what they want, and unfortunately this has resulted in marmosets being taken from their homes to be kept as pets. There is also a third reason for the lengths many zoos go to to keep humans away from the marmosets. Marmosets see humans as predators, and seeing humans in many cases can cause them to have heart attacks.

So, when I walked into this area in the bird house and realized that I was standing eight inches from a pygmy marmoset was not only a shock, but also showed just how well ARTIS zoo caters to the animals in their care. I don't know of another zoo that has managed an exhibit in which you can get this close to marmosets and have them be so completely comfortable with that, that they continue their normal social behaviors. For me that really set the tone for the whole zoo.

There are of course minders to keep people from grabbing a marmoset, but for the most part, it was such a well balanced exhibit. A rare magical moment in time when the wild and the human exist together and no harm comes to either species. It is only calm and wonder, singular genuine curiosity in both parties. Humans marveling at how close these little monkeys were, and little monkeys eating lunch and watching all the different humans walk by. You just aren't going to get this type of experience very often, and this includes some of the best zoos in the world. This was an ingenious exhibit.

The relationship building for pygmy marmosets, humans and visitors from all over the world is evident. Buy providing this type of encounter, people become invested in the animals and thereby the zoo itself. It is difficult not to care about tiny monkeys who allow you so close while they stuff their mouths with small pieces of fruit. It creates connections. I met an older lady who said she'd been coming there twice a week for 15 years. As we walked through the rest of the bird house, which did indeed have birds in it, some of them knew her and came to say hello. She spent time showing me all the bird's favorite hiding spots that no one else knew about. She also introduced me to people she knew from coming there every week. She said she'd watched some of them grow up, and then bring their kids to the zoo. Some of them even worked there now. All of them really loved coming to ARTIS, and cared about it. I saw many tourists, but there were so many more Dutch there with their families than tourists, invested in this place through memories and amazing exhibit/enclosure spaces that allowed the animals to have what they needed to be content, but also to allow people to be there too.

Tropenmuseum

Later the same day I visited the Tropenmuseum. I missed the class site visit, so I'm sure I missed out on a tour, or a lecture. It's a beautiful museum to spend time in, if for nothing else simply to admire the stunning architecture. But I soon found myself lost among the exhibits, which varied widely. I appreciated the fact that this was one of the very few museums that confronted Dutch colonialism, or tried to as much as possible, which is difficult with established long standing exhibits. Some plates appeared to have been changed to indicate items stolen or appropriated without consent, while other plates hadn't been touched at all. There were full exhibits talking about Islamic faith, and the journey to Mecca, which I honestly did not know much about, so I spent quite a lot time there listening to the video stops and reading. Another exhibit fully delved into colonialism, with interviews and information boards having to do with slavery in Dutch Colonies. Because I don't know that much about Dutch Colonial history, I need to do some reading up on the subject before I would feel comfortable giving an opinion on how well it represented the topic. I suspect that it makes necessary inroads into the subject, but probably not far enough.

The Cool Japan exhibit was almost out of place given the topics of surrounding themes, but it was interesting to walk through. Especially because I've been watching Anime and reading Manga for a very long time, and I lived in Japan for a while, so I was familiar with popular characters that the exhibit represented... and could name just about every character without having to look at the information placards. I think my favorite spot was the area where you could sit down and watch Anime clips, or read through a manga on one of the couches the museum provided. I have no idea where they managed to find the Japanese drum game, but that was very popular while I was there. Perhaps a little too popular, as I watched a group of teens beat the drums with steadily increasing force and enthusiasm. I kept waiting for something to crack. But that room was very engaging for someone with an interest in Japanese entertainment culture.

Looking back on all the museums I visited while in the Netherlands, I think the Tropenmuseum was my favorite simply because it was not afraid to be eclectic or look difficult topics head on. While the rest of the museums in the Netherlands tended to be nationalistic in nature, the Tropenmuseum goes around a lot of that by presenting their collection in a different light, and showing completely different cultures that are out there. While it did still have collections that spoke of a colonial past, it also had very new topics to the Netherlands, introducing cultures that were joining the landscape as more and more peoples from all over the world move. This is not just a trend as the weather pattern changes, forcing large movements of people because of lack of resources. Currently the movements have been attributed to conflict for the most part, but some countries have begun to see a higher rate of movement due to encroaching sea levels, or lack of rainfall, or too much in an area that hasn't seen rain in literally hundreds of years (the Atacama Desert). The Dutch seem to be rather tolerant of those moving into the country, but having had some long conversations with the locals, that tolerance and understanding is beginning to wane as anti-immigrant sentiments are voiced among certain Dutch political parties.

The Tropenmuseum is doing some really good work, with well thought out exhibits, and taking steps that I didn't see in other museums. Actively engaging the public in their exhibits was well done, but they also spoke with the public and included them in some of the exhibits. That's an excellent step forward outside "the lane". I have a suspicion that museums may have farther to go in changing with the times than libraries do, because there seems to be a sense of being upper crust so to speak? I'm not sure if that makes sense, but there is this inflated sense to a lot of the older museum people I've spoken with, as if they have a certain privilege that other public offices don't. Libraries by their very nature must adapt with their community, but museums seem to think they are above that to some extent. Just an impression I had while speaking with some of the staff, especially at the Van Gogh Museum. They weren't rude exactly, but they sure were very full of themselves.

Catching up.... Way too slow!!

I’m finally feeling somewhat good, so I decided to take Friday (July 5th), which was the day that everyone was supposed to be going to Efteling Amusement park and catch up on Museums I missed while I was sick. To the average person Efteling sounds like a fun, but because of an old back injury I can’t ride the rides even if they are low key. This means I end up sitting on a bench, reading a book on my phone, watching everyone’s bags while they go on all the rides. Or I wander aimlessly around the park, which is fun for a while, but it gets old quickly. So, I ended up going to three museums today instead. Or rather, two and a half. The Moco Museum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijks Museum... except the last we quite abbreviated.

I had planned to go to the Van Gogh Museum first, but I didn’t manage to get ticket times until noon, which was fine. It wasn’t crowded while I was there, no huge lines, although it was rather substantial. Given the crowds they must get, the strategy of having people buy tickets online, or from ticket machines at a different part of the museum upon arrive helps to alleviate the giant lines seen at some other tourist attractions I’ve been to in other countries. In this case it allowed the museum to clump attendees into clusters that would be manageable to move in and out. 

Considering I had some time to kill before being able to enter the Van Gogh Museum, and it was fairly earlier, I went down to the Moco Museum and went in to see what it was like. Almost no one was in there when I was there, so I got to really look at the exhibits, most of which are Banksy works, with other other artists mixed in. I think I said this to a couple of people who asked me what I thought of the Banksy museum and I was sort of weirded out by the fact that they were hanging in a museum rather than on the street which is generally their natural environment. I missed the outdoor art museum talk, so unfortunately I can’t compare and contrast, but ... knowing what I do about Banksy’s reasons for putting up his art, it was truly bizarre seeing them inside a building, when i think they would have had a much larger impact for the viewer outside, where art is often much more feral, territorial and aggressive. It states something when you see art in the street. It is meant to talk, even if all it says is, “I was here! View my scribble!! Hear my colorful roar!” Banksy’s work is generally statements on politics, injustice and anti-capitalist in nature. It’s blunt, simple and to the point.... but by putting it in a museum, it loses much of its momentum with it’s removal from place and context, the streets. It was very much like viewing a caged big cat that had had it’s fangs and claws removed for “public safety” and left to pace it’s container, a benign object to view, robbed of effectiveness. 

Leaving the Moco, feeling off kilter and confused about how I felt about the Moco’s contents, I made my way over to the food stands and got a cup of tea. I sat in the shade and watched tourists go here and there without really making up their minds. Several people sat down at the table I occupied. An older lady and her daughter from Italy. Neither spoke English well, but they had decided to take a holiday together after the recent passing the husband and father. The older lady said it was a long illness and neither could stand to stay in the house for a while, so they decided on a long trip. I made my condolences, and the older lady smiled and patted my hand and said that it was okay, that it was a blessing he passed because it had gone on too long, and that she and her daughter were finding little bits of joy easier and easier to find every day. Such sweet people. They sat with me the longest asking about Seattle, and what it was like. I asked about their town and it sounded beautiful. A German couple sat down next, but didn’t say much, which was okay. They did say goodbye when they left, and lastly, I sat with a couple from Spain, who were very young and very head over heels for each other. They were cute, and kept trying to share their enormous lunch. Very emotive and funny, always looking for ways to make each other smile, and me. I left them with a wave laughing at something the guy said. He was a big tease, and I think he mostly said things to me to make his girl jealous, but they both knew exactly what they were doing. There was a lot of trust there. I wished them the best. 

I arrived at the Van Gogh Museum a little bit early, but the lady said they weren’t as busy as they had expected, and let me in. It’s a striking building, in which you have go in one building to get into the other. Interesting use of misdirection so the entrance doesn’t get mobbed. Most of those waiting to get in had their tickets and wandered away to one of the other museums while waiting for their time slot. Entering the building it’s very striking, with the open area, and the escalator heading downward. The light makes you want to breath more deeply stretch. I refrained, because I didn’t want to fall down the moving stairs with the teeth. 

After checking my backpack and getting several different answers for, “Can I take pictures with my camera?” I took my camera along. I should have brought my phone. The official answer is, “No. Only in designated areas.” Hmmm.... I glanced away from the guy I was talking to only to witness about 75 people snapping pictures of everything with their phones. 

“So, you can take pictures with your phone?”

“.... no”

I turned back to the wall of people all snapping pictures. Hmm...... I turned back and squinted at the fellow, as several people used their cameras with the flash on. He looked uncomfortable and said, “It is to prevent reproductions.” 

.... okay. I have a 10 year old camera. It’s lens hasn’t been at the top of its game for years, and it has trouble focusing at the best of times. There is no way that my camera would ever come close to the pixel density that can be achieved nowadays with an iPhone. Easily reproduction capable! I decided to just cut my losses and not take any pictures rather than argue with him. 

The lens cap stayed firmly in place for my entire visit, and despite this every monitor on every floor felt the need to tell me not to take pictures, despite the fact that massive picture taking was going on within 4 feet of them. The thing is, I’m not even really annoyed with this, it just boggled my mind that they hadn’t reassessed this particular issue. Or if they had, they certainly didn’t tell the people who monitored the floors. 

Aside from that I very much enjoyed seeing some beautiful artwork by several different masters, some of which were a surprise. I probably should have looked to see whose works the Van Gogh Museum had hanging in their galleries, but it didn’t occur to me. Of all the exhibits I viewed that day my favorite was the one having to do with Van Gogh’s dreams. This really brought him to life for me, his thoughts, fears and curious twists that take place while one is asleep often shapes a person. That they had tried to bring some of it into reality through sight and sound was something I found very innovative because it requires that you stop, listen, and look. It also opens the door to reflect on Van Gogh’s life through his eyes and how to saw the world, his fear and worries. A lot of understanding is gained there. For those who are sight impaired I think this would have worked well, because it was voice and there were things that could be touched. My friend who is legally blind would have very much enjoyed this exhibit because she would have been able to hear it, and touch. It didn’t rely heavily on things hanging on walls that she can’t interact with. Because she is not completely blind, she may also have been able to see some of the colored lights as well. It was a well thought out exhibit that I very much enjoyed

Yes, I’ve been told about the exhibit they did for the blind, but unfortunately this was another day I missed. I was so looking forward to that site visit with the class because I wanted to tell my friend about it, but I was so sick that day there was just no way I was going to make it. The dream rooms made up for that. 

Leaving the museum got a little tricky because for reasons unknown, there was a literal hoard outside the exit doors. I turned around and went right back down to the cafe and had lunch, and did a little shopping. I’m afraid my suitcase it half full of Miffy the Rabbit dolls now. I am a sucker for those, and it doesn’t help that they tailor make them for all the different places in Amsterdam. When I get home, the challenge will be where to put them all.

The Rijks museum was going to be my last stop of the day, but that got cut off very quickly as 4 different hoards (tourist groups I think) descended on the museum at the same time and I decided to get out while I still could. Inside was almost as bad. I think my timing was just bad. I have a couple of days after the program ends, and I might be able to sneak back down to take a look before my flight back to the states. We shall see though. I am done with pushing myself with this illness, because I’m so very tired of being sick. 

Next on the agenda: ARTIS Zoo and the Tropenmuseum! (Quite possibly pre-empted by the Innovation story which I know I was supposed to do, but will show up soon!)

More Bears....

Bear with me on this post, because I have had trouble uploading to my blog, but I’ve been writing posts! So everything is stuck together, but with clear delineation between different subject topics and lectures we attended, complete with dates. If I manage to get this uploaded it’s going to be extremely long. 

July 2, 2019 - Utrecht University - Utrecht

It’s the second week already. I can’t believe I spent the majority of the first week sick, but sometimes this stuff happens. My fingers are crossed for my voice coming back today or tomorrow so I can actually say something instead of hissing words at everyone. It’s not the way I was hoping to interact, with from what I’ve observed, an amazing set of people, but they’ve been willing to step up and have conversations with the voiceless classmate. 

I have to say that yesterday (July 1st), when I couldn’t talk for my group, Stephanie and Emily really stepped up. We sat and talked about what we were going to do the night before and although the idea was simple, seeing it in action was so very effective and satisfying. The discussion and sharing rather than having my group talk really highlighted what a good director should be, and do, and Stephanie really didn’t underline that until the end. The Director lets everyone else shine, and works behind the scenes to showcase and support the group as a whole. And that is what she did. SO impressed with them both!! 

Today we spent the day out at Utrecht University listening so a very interesting talk by Dr. Nienke Boesveldt and her research into stopping the loop of homelessness in the Netherlands. From questions asked for clarification and what Dr Boesveldt was saying, the research to stop this cyclical process of people losing their homes repeatedly for various reasons only deals with a very small part of that demographic. Agencies that deal with housing and mental health assistance appear to be siloed and don’t interact with one another and this results in people falling through safety nets that were put in place to keep this from happening. Others factors have to do with drug addiction and mental health issues, and aging out of protective child services. In short there are many many reasons for someone to be homeless in the Netherlands, as with anywhere else in the world. 

I suspect for the research that Dr. Boesveldt did, she needed hard numbers and facts that could be verified because her target audience were government officials. To get a ball rolling in political arenas you often have to start with what they can see and understand, so many facets of homelessness reality in the Netherlands are not touched on. My classmates seemed concerned about this, because back home those aspects are talked about, seen, noted all the time, so we’re all sensitized to it. The lack of it in this report I suspect got some people ruffled. The thing is when dealing with a problem this big, you have to start somewhere and often that’s with the demographic that are recognized by the government entity being addressed.

Hopefully the program Dr Boesveldt was talking about will be adopted by the Dutch government, because it seems like one that would work given a chance. I remember hearing about something similar on a much small scale for refugees coming to New Zealand from refugee camps. A disused house is seized by the government, and the community is encouraged to fix it up, furnish it, and then welcome the family coming in. Other support systems are also put in place to support the new family or people. This has been highly successful there. I realize the circumstances are different, but it CAN be done successfully if the people involved are willing to take the necessary steps. (I’d put a link in here, but the discussion was one taking place on a Zoom guest lecture in a class and I’m fairly sure it was not recorded and archived. Ricardo Gomez’s Information and Migration 598 - Fall 2018).

Later the talk by the fellow at the Salvation Army shelter really illustrated the issues on the ground having to do with homelessness. Many of the situations discussed were ones I encountered when working for public libraries. I did not have a fall back system of a relationship with the social services office or the local sheriffs department. However I did have good relationships with some of the homeless who would come to sit in my library for a few hours, and because they knew I was often working alone in a rural area, they policed themselves. If they saw someone coming that they knew was trouble, they’d go run interference for the library. I was told it was for their benefit as much as mine. By keeping the library a safe space, they kept a safe space for themselves. Honestly I did not mind. My only rule was that they come in sober and stay that way while they were there, and for my time as manager there I did not have trouble at all. This was not the case for other managers so I count myself lucky. Eventually we had panic buttons installed at all the libraries, because a lot of us ran rural branches alone.

Ultimately I think there is a third aspect to the issues facing government and other agencies trying to do something about the homeless, and that’s a cultural viewpoint. In the U.S. as soon as you are unable to keep a home, you’re viewed as a failure. In the Netherlands I was a bit unclear on how the homeless are viewed, but it seemed that it was agreed that yes, the homeless should be helped... but no one seems to actually pick up the ball. Or if they do, it is done without the coordination across agencies to be successful. Lastly... the people who are homeless have to want the help. If there is no effort there, then all the help in the world isn’t going to work. I met a lot of homeless who were homeless because they liked the freedom it afforded them. “No strings to tie me down,” I was told years ago, and that they liked it that way. 

July 3, 2019 - Het Nieuwe Instituut - Rotterdam

My voice was still gone this morning when I set out with the class to Rotterdam to see the institute there and I think I was supposed to be learning or hearing about how the institute was exploring new ways of exploring the future and what that might look like. I got through the video about Beyoncé and Jay Z’s music, “Apeshit”, and the responses they got from those asked to comment on it. I would talk about this further, because I was just getting into the topic when I had a pretty bad coughing fit, and to keep from disturbing the class I left so I could cough up a lung (not literally). Downside, I missed the rest of the talk while I was in the bathroom coughing. Upside, after the coughing fit, my voice was starting to come back. I know this isn’t supposed to be about coughing and my voice, but because it impacted so much of my time here... 

So, I missed the talk, but I did very much like the institute and the interactive exhibits they had set up for the public. I can’t say I understood all of them, but there were some I did enjoy playing with. Emily and I played with a computer screen and camera that layered pictures on top of older ones as you went, and the resulting pictures were really fun. We had hands and fingers and a teddy bear layered all over the computer screen. It was an interesting concept of time too. How many people, items, things had been there before us? All the things that weren’t captured in that space? It makes you think about use of space and what the concept of space actually is. Everything moves through this small spot eventually. What did all of that look like? It was interesting. 

There was also the timeline explaining how the intranet, became the internet. I could hear Joe Janes in my head talking about this from the 520 MLIS class, as I looked over this exhibit. It was quite well done, explaining concepts of distribution differences that usually baffle the general public. I was also very interested in what appeared to be a 3D printer, and figures it had created. I remember reading about how advanced this tech was getting, being able to use DNA sequencing to write different organs or even skin to match the person who needed the organ. That’s all still in testing phase, but the possibilities are enormous. 

Moving on to the Sonneveld House and taking the guided tour was really interesting. Not just because of the restoration, but because of all seeing what the innovations of the era where, some of which I thought had pretty good potential, but apparently never really caught on. Or perhaps they were just something that the rich could afford and the company discontinued production after they failed to sell as well as expected. The entire house was built with comfort in mind with every convenience that worked for the house and those living there. It could be said it was ahead of it’s time with multiple phones for everyone, phones that could be used to call directly throughout the house and those that called outside lines. Cell phones today could be considered the equivalent with the ability to call anyone anywhere. I found the heated towel racks a nice addition to the bathrooms, but I suspect, much like the multiple shower head situation in Mr and Mrs Sonneveld’s private bath, that such things are not common place today. Or if they are, they are only found in opulent hotels or in lavish editions to the restrooms of the rich and famous. 

The renovation and restoration of the house was also very well done, with original furnishings used when they could be found, or rebuilt using pictures of the items. The attention to detail was lovely. I think it shows in each generation what the height of modern living could be, and it is interesting to see what they thought would be fabulously popular, but never really took off. Again it was a bit of time frozen in place, and had me asking myself about the layered nature of what space is. It changes and stays exactly the same all at once. In the case of the Sonneveld house, it stood still while the rest of the world evolved around it with very little interference from the outside except for age. Restoration of age related deterioration was really the only thing they really did to the house, leaving it’s thoughtful architecture to showcase itself. It is a lovely house although I’m not sure I’d want to live in it. Although I did like it, there was a very creepy feel to walking through it. Akin to walking back in time, and seeing everything as it was, but missing the people who lived in it. 

There was also a level of intrusion to the experience that made me uncomfortable after a while and eventually I just started speeding up through the rooms, not because I found the recorded tour boring, but because at the back of my mind there was a slowly increasing feeling of being unwelcome. Caught in the ambiguity of the space of someone else that has long since passed from the house, long since moved on, just still present, reflected in every piece of furniture and corner of the property. Very weird feeling. 

July 4, 2019 - Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision (NISV) - Hilversum

Voice is back! Hallelujah! Now to more important matters.

This was perhaps one of the most enjoyable visits for me because I very much loved learning about how to collect and archive media that can be problematic. Plus I learned about a bunch of websites that I didn’t know existed which I will be exploring when I get home. Very much liked the world radio website where you can find out what is being listened to in other countries. Also, the idea of marrying electronic music with heritage photos was a wonderful idea as it benefits all parties involved. It is a great way to spread awareness of them both in venues one would not normally look at. 

When we got to the part about how websites are catalogued I had to wonder if eventually their methods might trip them up. Especially the screen shot method as that takes a lot of time, and more space than the other methods mentioned at the beginning. Although they don’t at this time have their own catalogue program, it might be a good idea to look into adding one. It would be intensive writing a program for cataloging websites, but at the same time eventually it would save them time as a tool. Perhaps offer it as an open code source so that many individuals could work on it with one person that NISV hires to oversee the work to make sure there are no backdoors or hiccups in the code writing. Just a thought, as they seemed to be straddling three different gathering options. 

My very favorite thing in the NISV was the radio room, in which they stored hundreds of old radioes of every type. I would have loved to go through that room with my Dad, as he would have been extremely interested in seeing all of them, and I like discussing old tech with him. He was technician for Hewlett-Packard testing mainframes for years and knows his older tech backwards and forwards. I wanted to take a lot of pictures, but it was a closed room to the public and we were on a tight schedule. So many radios and so much history contained therein. I wrote a short paper years ago about the history of radio introduction to Australia which was at some points hysterically funny, because of how the Australian government decided to preside over broadcast systems, and the agreements they made with Marconi (who in turn was nearly as fanatical about his radios and broadcasts as the Aussie government, but for very capitalist reasons) in order to set up broadcast systems. I was unclear if they ever haul that radio collection out of mothballs, but that’s something I would love to design an exhibit for. No one really thinks about how important radio is anymore, or why in the U.S. it is illegal for foreign companies to own U.S. radio stations or have a controlling share. Anyway, just an aspect that really got me excited and had to wonder if they do anything with them besides let them sit in storage moldering away (not that they were actually moldering...). I get excited over the weirdest stuff. 

The fellow who took us on the second part of the tour to talk about audio and visual recovery for archiving purposes was also interesting, but he was trying to talk about the topic at speed, which actually slowed him down quite a lot. The process he talked about it terribly intensive and I would imagine actually takes longer than what he told us, which was anywhere from five to seven hours for audio recordings to months for video recordings. Having just two people going through all those taped materials, even with the help of machines, is going to result in lost materials no matter how fast they are able to go. Especially the nitrate film that which is extremely explosive, so they keep it in an old bunker site near the ocean. Our first guide Mel, said it’s set to explode towards the ocean if it ever goes up, away from populated areas. That’s a lovely thought. Who knew NISV dealt with such exciting materials? (Pun absolutely intended) There is also a third vault which is kept at freezing temps to preserve color film as it degrades very fast due to acids used in the film. All of this has me rethinking having anything to do with archival work dealing with recorded material. Yes, not all of it is explosive, but it is so very delicate. There would also be the problem of getting the right machines to even access some of it in the first place. Getting to a digital archival stage is also extremely expensive, involving a machine that cost nearly $750,000, and only about 100 of them exist at the moment. They are built on demand. This is not an easy process, and I suspect that they have more failures than successes, but I’m just going off impressions I got from the fellow who was showing us the process of digitizing analog material.

This whole institute was fascinating from the top down, and I mean that quite literally, as part of the place is literally below the ground level by several stories. I can see why our first speaker said he would probably be fielding questions about how to get a job in the Netherlands with NISV. It would be a seriously fascinating place to work for. At the same time, they seem a bit understaffed for some of their projects, but at the same time they have found ways to step up through partnerships, clever usage of free programs, and building what they could not find to fill those holes. It was impressive how much they have been able to do with the materials and then taking steps to make it available to the public at large for their use and knowledge building. Having the funding from the government can go a long way. Seeing something like this in the U.S would be amazing, but given the current administration, I don’t see something like that happening soon. 

I’m going to stop this blog here, because this has reached ridiculous levels of wordage, and I don’t want to choke blogspot to death. I’ll add another post for Friday after we get to Delft, for the museums I missed seeing the first week. It’s been a super fast two weeks!!

Babble Session - Be that Anthropologist from the first day...

Before I got sick, I got a chance to do a little exploring. Nothing spectacular or new, but what I really enjoy is talking to the people who live here and work here. Chatting with the some of the stall owners at Albert Cuyp Market was a lot of fun, and they would often give me directions to places most of the tourists wouldn’t know about. Found a lovely little restaurant for dinner because of a fellow selling Miffy dolls (I’ve tried twice to find his stall again to say thank you, but haven’t managed it) and later as I was walking about playing Pokemon Go, I met some really nice kids who were interested to find that I had Pokemon they wouldn’t be able to catch in Europe. They also showed me now to throw a curve ball in the game. I didn’t know about that. Also met some adults playing the same game from not just here, but from all over the world. Meeting people through the game wasn’t something I had expected, but it sure was fun to find a shared interest in it with people from ... well everywhere. 

Listening to fellow Americans at the hotel I stayed at before I got to the Bicycle Hotel, like always, makes me cringe. Perhaps I am overly sensitive, but I have always found it rude to criticize a country they’re visiting because it does not work in a familiar way, or in a way that they think it should. Things said without knowing the whole story. I listen to this familiar dialogue, for it is almost always the same in its tone of superiority, and watch the staff cast glances with varying degrees of humor or annoyance. Worse, they hear it so much that, “It is okay, I am used to it,” which means it happens more frequently than just what I am hearing. I said that maybe I am being overly sensitive because when I ask, they say they hear it from many nationalities, not just mine. Being a critical and ignorant voice in a sea of many is still rude for me. I’ve never had the guts to tell my fellow Americans to have a care with their critical words, so in fact that may make me an accessory depending on your view. 

Ask, if you don’t understand something, or something seems wrong to you. Clarify the situation or do a little research. Answers or innovations to problems come in many shapes and forms and they do not always look like what you think they’ll look like. I can’t remember who said it, but one of my brilliant classmates on this trip said something only the lines of “giving an answer/solution before asking any questions,” and I hear many answers without questions being asked or the local culture by many people. Not just in our group but also among visitors to the Netherlands. Speculation, but no questions of the native population. It always surprises me how many times that happens. There are ways to ask questions that are uncomfortable without creating a confrontation. I have found that starting with “I’m curious about. ——. May I ask you about that?” Sometimes the answer is no, sometimes yes, but I come away with a deeper understanding of the culture than if I had just observed, asked nothing and made assumptions. 

This has been on my mind because we are here to see a different view on how things are done, rather than be critical of the way things are done, when all we are looking at is a window... and not the house as a whole. Tread lightly.

Innovation with an Illness Hangover - Bear with Me...

Saturday finds me somewhat recovered from a nasty upper respiratory infection that arrived with haste Tuesday afternoon while I was taking a nap. Honestly, napping usually makes me feel better, but not this time. I’ve never had an infection set in that fast, nor during what was supposed to be a restful nap. Speculation at breakfast every morning concerning what caused my viral infestation ranged from overheating myself, to an allergic reaction to something at the garden we visited on Tuesday afternoon. I honestly don’t know what happened, but I know I am glad that it is slowly leaving my system. Maybe I won’t be sleeping nearly 23 hours a day anymore and actually get to enjoy some of the places my classmates have been telling me about in the mornings. 

All is not completely lost though. During my necessary confinement (which resulted in MUCH needed rest, sleep and the intake of copious amounts of water... I think I might be somewhat aquatic in nature now) I was able to keep up on most of the readings, although I did have trouble getting to some of them. Strangely today I am having no trouble reaching the elusive links of earlier this week. 

The first group of articles talked about innovation, what it is, and what it is not. Star example was the Thailand Cave rescue of a school kids, and then Elon Musk taking a very serious situation and using it to grandstand. What was his actual intention? I don’t know. But it certainly came off as rude idiocy on his part in having something built without understanding the situation or having any respect for an expert rescue fully in progress. For most people innovation denotes something which is created that is beneficial to the populace, rather than to whoever created it. In situations where someone in power offers help, offer the resources to those in charge, because as an outsider, you lack knowledge of the situation and all the inherent myriad complications. Bow that ego to those who know, instead of flexing corporate muscles. It’s the difference between innovation and profit/image building which is what the private sector is trying to do. 

It could be said that innovation is more closely tied to community, rather than the private sector which deals with image, profit and reputation building. These things can masquerade as innovation, but in the end equates to “how much money can we make off this new product?” Innovation is beneficial to community as the primary focus, not a company looking in a our pocket books with greedy eyes. While one could point to Steve Jobs and his touch screen, when the iPod was first released, it was highly affordable. This was something that was in everyone’s hands by Christmas and it changed the very nature of owning a cell phone. The sky high prices (and the disturbing trend to ‘lending’ options) for the iPhone took off after his death, and has ceased to move forward in any real way worth mentioning. Affordable hand held computers, with touch screens, was innovative. The ‘innovations’ that have happened since the death of Steve Jobs has been a misuse of the word. If anything, it has gone entirely in the opposite direction. 

Outside of the private sector, innovation happens when something new is needed to bridge some sort of a gap, and it tends to happen naturally from what I have seen. The community does not always look to local government to fix something, but sometimes does it on it’s own. Just speaking from my own time as a library manager in a rural area, many programs already exist to be the legs for the elderly who can’t get out to the grocery store or get their mail from the post office. It might start as one person helping out a neighbor and turn into something bigger. For my library, it started as one person doing library runs for shut-ins who had trouble getting to places they needed to go. The library was one such place. The young man would come in and pick up a stack of books for people he did delivery runs for. Eventually the library became a support leg for this program, and other volunteers stepped up to spread out the area that could be reached. I personally didn’t start this program, but I did help boost it with the library’s support. It was started to fill a need in the community, and was innovative simply because someone took existing beneficial resources and tied them together. It wasn’t just one person, but a group of collaborative work that resulted in a new program. One that multiple people and communities found very helpful.

I suspect that every person asked is going to have a different variation of a definition for what innovation is. Business sectors will look at it as essential for industry growth. Community looks at it as something necessary and beneficial for them on a personal level. Libraries tend to look at it as something that happens every day to fill an unexpected need, often a quick roughshod program that comes into existence spur of the moment. A lot of my best programs happened that way because of a need of just one person. Public librarians don’t always have the time prototype and work with an idea, but a lot of times they do stick things together with creative duct tape and revisit to shore it up with what they have on hand. Using what they have in new ways to fill a gap. For me that’s innovation.