Public Library. Rethinking the Infrastructures of Knowledge Production
- Submitting institution
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Coventry University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 21492579
- Type
- L - Artefact
- Location
- Württembergsicher Kunstverein, Stuttgart; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Galerija Nova / Multimedia Institute, Zagreb
- Open access status
- -
- Month of production
- October
- Year of production
- 2014
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Public Library is a series of installations as a body of work that present, within the gallery space, public access to knowledge in a context where shrinking welfare and a rapid commercialisation of publishing has limited people’s access to libraries. Responding to this, we use the concept of the public library as a narrative device to address questions of general access to knowledge and how this has shifted in the digital age. Installations operate to create and maintain digital books and the digitisation and activisation of personal collections through research that sought to put into practice debates about open access resources and the role of ‘the library’ and the role of ‘citizen/amateur librarianship’.
Central to the research methods of the project has been the introduction of the scandromat, a scanner that allows users to become citizen librarians. Using the scandromat, our methods include:
1. Creating public libraries in the context of a gallery space, which allows us to show the public good of knowledge and culture sharing in this context;
2. Providing visitors with information on how to archive books and become familiar with the retrieval of information that is usually difficult to access. These methods are presented on a libre basis, incorporating a distributed infrastructure;
3. Using a form of public library to enact discursive exchanges with visitors about the types of knowledge we need to support the progress towards positive social change
Public Libraries were activated in three sites; Württembergsicher Kunstverein, Stuttgart; Reina Sofía, Madrid; and Multimedia Institute – mi2, Zagreb. The research has been disseminated in a chapter in Archives (2019) 'System of a Takedown: Control and De-Commodification in the Circuits of Academic Publishing' (Medak and Mars), and at international conferences, workshops and seminars. A contextual document is provided that details project’s the aims, process, and insights.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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