Burning Librarian Cocktail Party!

First of all, there’s a BM camp called HUSHVILLE, ‘an oasis of quiet’ that doesn’t allow amps. Second of all, they’re hosting a LIBRARIAN COCKTAIL PARTY at Burning Man! My life just got 179% better.

This guy will be there, in fun fur and pigtails.

The Evolution of Useful Things

Thanks to Emily in Toronto, we have a lovely new member of the 2009 Collection. Like Origin of the Species, The Evolution of Useful Things follows an evolutionary theme, but focuses on the development of everyday objects like forks and paperclips. I’m not sure if this sounds boring to a normal person, but it sounds really interesting to me.

Libraries on wheels…and in boats…and on burros….

For me, the library experience has always been about public space. The Burning Library was originally conceived as an experiment in library space, an inquiry into what makes a library a library. Can you just bring a bunch of books to the desert and call it a library? Do you need shelves? Do you need carpeting? What makes a library feel like a library?

Somewhere along the line, the emphasis shifted to the Burning Library as a mobile library. Maybe it was the logistics of getting items from Halifax to Toronto, acquiring more items in Toronto, bringing the resulting collection by plane to San Fransisco, and finally by van to Black Rock City. We had bookshelves in San Fransisco that had to be abandoned because there simply wasn’t room in the van. The library became, like so much of the Burning Man experience, a logistical challenge. Simply getting the (amazingly generous) donations was victory number one. Transporting them to Burning Man was victory number two. And putting material into the hands of fellow burners was victory number three.

On the day we left BM, I found myself walking through what remained of the city, makeshift bookshelves in hand. The city was already melting back into the sand as revelers slowly collapsed their tents and pulled rebar out of the ground. I pounced on anyone who didn’t look too busy, proffering the remaining books. I felt like a host offering guests a plate of those spiral cream cheese pita things. I wanted people to help themselves, but I didn’t want them to feel pressured if they weren’t interested. It was a delicate balance to strike, but I pulled it off.

People who didn’t want any books were still pleased with the interaction, and pleased about the project. Out of a week of extreme and awe-inspiring experiences, I will never forget how wonderful it felt to be walking around and distributing books. The two women sitting in the back of a truck who were intrigued and excited about Sonia Edworthy’s haircut zine. The Indo-Canadian-American newlywed couple who took Desmond Morris’ Catwatching because of their new kitten. Best of all, the man who took the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so happy to get their hands on a book before. As I walked around, I realized that I wanted to be doing this all the time, not just once a year.

Since then, I have been researching the many different forms of mobile libraries. I have been making not-so-secret plans for an urban mobile library service – one that does not need an engine to run. This blog was started as a means of tracking the Burning Library project as it developed, and the next stage of the library will involve a transubstantiation into an experimental mobile library. So, for the next little while, I will be using the blog to explore some of the rich variety of mobile libraries that exist. Enjoy!

Burning Down the House

Now that I am back in the land of internet, I am looking forward to unpacking some of the magnificence of the burning man/ burning library experience. I think there’s a lot to be talked about, so it will probably end up being a series of posts, in no particular order of relevance.

Getting to Burning Man was an interesting exercise in efficient packing, patience, and giving up personal space. The unusually long dust storm on the night we drove in meant that we ended up spending half the night in a parking lot. Which was better than it sounds, because people were overcoming their driving frustrations and getting to know one another (read: multiple dance parties). The upshot of this was that we ended up in a great spot, camping beside a fabulous bunch of people.

When I woke up the next morning to discover our neighbour’s van emblazoned with ‘Stop Making Cents’, it was confirmed that coming to Black Rock City was like coming home. In addition to Talking Heads fans, our immediate neighbours included one library student and a librarian’s daughter!

Most of the first two days were spent setting up the camp and getting to know our way around the neighbourhood. For the record, Black Rock City is the most confusing environment I have ever encountered. I think the only rival in my experience would be bustling Mumbai –  and almost everyone in BRC was speaking English! So Jessamyn West was indeed addressing a need by offering reference services there (which raises some questions for me about librarianship’s service orientation – more thoughts on that later).

The first task was letting people know we were there! We had some cardboard boxes that we used for packing, some dowelling originally intended for nunchaku, a scarf, duct tape and an extra bottle of water. Which resulted in the infamously fabulous library sign.