Inspire, Innovate, Transform: Forefronting Imagination and Creativity in the Library

I recently was privileged to hear Viola Davis, Oscar, Tony, and Emmy award-winning actress and producer, talk with Andrew Medlar from the New York Public Library about her life and her new upcoming children’s book, Corduroy Takes a Bow. While I am looking forward to seeing the book; Corduroy was a favorite of one of my sons, I was struck by her comments that imagination was crucial to her survival and growth – they were her only way to believe that life could be different. Another comment, “the slow burn of imagination,” also struck me. Imagination isn’t always quick, a flash of inspiration, but rather a lived experience for the long term.

In academe, we often relegate imagination, to the creative arts, and do not give enough explicit room for imagination in other areas of research and scholarship. In his inaugural address, President Steven Leath, of Auburn University, capitalized on the phase “Inspire, Innovate, Transform” and used these three words to speak quite passionately about research and what Auburn is doing to solve critical problems for citizens of Alabama, the US, and the world. While you would certainly expect that many university presidents would say some of the same things, I was impressed because at the heart of these three words, “inspire, innovate, transform” lies imagination and creativity, elements, in my mind, that makes a difference for the research enterprise. Forefronting imagination and creativity allows us to believe that life can be different, that new solutions to the world’s grand problems are indeed possible. This imaginative spirit infuses inspiration, innovation, and transformation to move from the predictable, to the new, the novel, the unusual, and to both right brain and left-brain thinking to take research to a new level.

One of the things that I love about the 21^st-century library is an increasing realization that libraries are creative spaces that go beyond writing an academic paper or writing your first novel. Libraries are space that can and should support a broad range of creative activity, and that imagination and creativity are two key elements of all research. Providing opportunities for students to develop these skills in an environment that supports disciplinary and interdisciplinary engagement will further support the university’s mission.

I think there are four things we can consider for the academic library that will help in making the library a place of creativity and innovation.

Makerspace: Makerspaces are becoming quite common in libraries, especially with an increased recognition that many students learn best by doing. Makerspaces or fab labs appeared early on in engineering buildings and or in architectural design studios. As these became available, it quickly became apparent that there were applications for these type of facilities that supported students from a broad range of programs. Makerspaces typically include 3D printers, small programmable computers like Raspberry PI’s or Arduino’s, drills, soldering irons, laser cutters, sewing machines, etc. These tools support creativity for student research and student projects in the arts, humanities, social sciences, as well as in STEM disciplines. The makerspaces are often collaborative units supported by the library, student clubs, and IT. Examples include The Edge at the University of Oklahoma Libraries - https://libraries.ou.edu/content/innovation-edge and NCSU Libraries Makerspace - https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/services/makerspace. Makerspaces may also include other non-technology manipulables such as Legos (Rutgers University art library - https://news.rutgers.edu/feature/legos-new-frontier-libraries/20160522#.W0gXXtVKjIU)  or wooden planks (Keva at Duke University Libraries - http://www.kevaplanks.com/college-1/).

Digital studios/digital walls: The ability to create and display digital content (photographs, video, animation, art) is a cross-disciplinary activity. While high-end studio equipment is likely to be present in media and journalism/communications programs, there are students from across the university that will benefit from having access to this type of equipment. Examples include U Mass Amherst Green Screen rooms - https://www.library.umass.edu/locations/dml/media-production/greenscreenroom/ and NCSU Libraries Green Screen Studio - https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/spaces/green-screen-studio. As big data becomes primary source material across disciplines, data visualization studios that are open to students from across campus will build creative data skills as part of their skill set.  Faculty can also capitalize on this equipment if the digital wall is robust enough to support large-scale data visualization. Examples include CURVE at Georgia State Libraries - http://research.library.gsu.edu/c.php?g=115829&p=753263, and the NCSU Libraries Visualization Studio - https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/spaces/visualization-studio

Virtual reality/AI Labs: Virtual reality and artificial intelligence are becoming commonplace terms in our world. On university campuses, they are often found and used within STEM fields and are located in STEM buildings. VR and AI have wide applications and having such labs and equipment in the university library exposes these technologies to students across the disciplines and allows students to experiment with these new technologies and ways of working and incorporating them into their skill set. Examples include the Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab at Indiana University Purdue University Indiana Libraries http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/tech/VR and the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Rhode Island Libraries - https://today.uri.edu/news/uri-to-launch-artificial-intelligence-lab/

Coding/Hackathon space: Hackathons are quite common in computer science programs but they have expanded beyond straight coding and software design to other areas. Hacking is basically a type of creative problem solving (Tauber https://hackathon.guide/), usually done in teams, and often involves some form of design thinking. It does not necessarily involve a technology solution. Hackathons can teach students essential skills of problem-solving. Working in teams, creativity, innovation, and can bring students from multiple disciplines together for new solutions. Providing space in the library to support this type of activity and building support from across campus on interdisciplinary hackathons will pay benefits for students. This is a type of high impact practice that leads to student success.

Let us use our libraries to support imagination and creativity and build a culture that Inspires, Innovates, and Transforms.