Project Bamboo, second day, afternoon session
Four/six, John Laudun, University of Louisiana
Folklorist on English faculty: finding intelligence and beauty where no one expects to find it, expanding the historical and archeological record on what it is to be a human being. Current research: duck boats (land/water).
III.4: “For the humanist, the library is his/her laboratory, the place in which is found or hidden the raw materials of research.” His reaction: the library is not raw! The world is raw. 75% of the world isn’t anywhere near a library, never mind the scholarly record—that is rawness. 75% of our lives is bills! So much of the world isn’t in records, not in any library or archive or museum.
Library as place from which he draws data and into which he puts products. No. Instead: putting in notes from fieldwork, in audio/video form as well as text, and he wants infrastructure so these data can appear in libraries finally! The new-media landscape lets him capture this, lowering the cost of production/documentation. Ordinary people can produce broadcast-quality work. Beyond notion of “multimedia” (the more the better) to expanded, more flexible production that fits your topic, without broadcast media’s constraints.
Presentation available online.
Q: How do you see your role now that many of the people you study can produce their own work? Are you becoming more meta? A: Becoming more of a collaborator. Engaging students in projects and conversations instead of passive knowledge inculcation. Really what he likes!
Q: Does this materials put different demands on the library vis-a-vis preservation and access? A: Yes. Some of this material has to be access-restricted, at least for a time. Courtesy to subjects, not just IP questions. Increases the number of stakeholders and the layers of things to think about. Interesting circular process: as they gather/curate stuff and increase access to it, it makes us uncomfortable, but people are also bringing us stuff and then examining and reusing it themselves.
Q: What do you think about what libraries call collection development and collection management? We might not want to restrict access. A: He’s as confused and torn as everybody else by that. Realizes he ought to meet with campus librarians more often; they have their own culture, passions, and limitations. Is going to go home and make that appointment! (Applause.)