Living my life as an open book: The Living Library Project at UBC’s @ikblc
A few months ago, I was invited by Glenn Drexhage (Communications Officer at the Irving K. Barber Library at UBC) to be part of the first-ever “Living Library” event on campus. I am both an alumnus from UBC and a faculty member, so I thought it would be good for me to give back to the community and share my experiences, as a “living book”.
The event ran for 3 hours, which I thought at the beginning would be A LOT of time, and in truth, I wish the event had gone for longer. 3 hours is very little time if you have a long line of people who want to “read” you. By the time the event was over, I still had someone having a conversation with me. It was really a delightful event (and, true to my social media split personality, I live-tweeted my experience).
There were several elements that stood out and made me reflect on the event itself. First, the mere fact of being a “Living Book”. I already live my life as an open book. I am a very public person, in both of my personalities. As an academic, and an educator, I am public because I teach and I publish my research findings. As a social media quasi-internet celebrity, I am public in the way I live my online (and offline) life. My Flickr account and my Twitter stream both are public, and everybody can read my tweets and see my photos. My Facebook account, on the other hand, is extremely private, and I have refused many invitations to be Facebook friends, even from people I really, really like (sorry, it’s not you, it’s me). So, it was interesting to be an “open book” in person, speaking with people much in the way I do at social media events, or when I give talks.
I was also absolutely delighted with the interactive nature of the Living Library project. Contrary to what happens with books (where the interaction is unidirectional, you read the book, it’s not like you can talk to the book), in the Living Library project I was able to learn just as much from my “readers” (those who “signed me out”). My fellow Living Books mentioned similar (and delightful) experiences. This reflexivity made me ponder the nature of interactive media and the whole process of learning. While reading academic books allows me to learn, interacting with other individuals is a much richer form of learning.
None of the “readers” asked me the same thing, which was also a real treat. I got a chance to explain why I choose to have very separate lives (as a social media power user and as an academic), how I developed my academic career, what drew me to social media and how has blogging influenced my writing, and whether it has furthered my career. Overall, it was a delightful experience, and one that I would repeat as well.
Several comments from the “readers” made my day, but one stood out from them all: the last “reader” I had said to me “WOW, I hope they can repeat this event. I would come to the library *JUST* for this!“.
THAT is the definition of a successful event. Customer satisfaction at its best.
Related posts:
- Fish Creek branch of the Calgary Public Library
- The Vancouver Public Library
- The Burnaby Public Library
- EPIC ’08 – Living a carbon-neutral life: Offsetters.ca
- Upcoming event – Spring Living Fair
I would come to the library for that, and I NEVER go that far west! Sounds like a really interesting event indeed.
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