Shared Notes for this Session:
https://goo.gl/t6gdy2If you were invested in ensuring that music librarianship did not continue as a profession, what would you do to ensure it ended?
How are we contributing to these actions today?
How do we transform these realizations into positive, concrete actions to support our profession?
Join us for a discussion aimed at helping attendees identify ways to strengthen the music librarian profession. As positions go unfilled or expand to include multiple job duties, and branch libraries are closed or collapsed, the profession (and the MLA) shrinks. MLA has identified diversity and inclusion movements as part of its strategic vision to respond to internal and external challenges to the profession; it has also struggled to respond to a world changing outside of music and libraries. In a variety of settings in the last few years, members have had (in)formal discussions about the challenges the profession faces and shared concerns about its future. Yet, these discussions have not provided opportunities to engage with these issues openly across the membership of the association. There is a desire and a need for productive ways to engage MLA members from diverse backgrounds in a discussion that can spark ideas for action.
A model first presented at the Open Education Conference in Anaheim, CA in 2017* inspires this session. TRIZ**, a Russian acronym for creative problem solving, will provide a framework that organizers of this session will employ to invite a playful discussion about pathways to destruction of music librarianship. Building on emerging ideas of failure analysis and “failing forward,” attendees will reflect on how destruction makes room for new ideas and new paths forward for our profession.
Facilitators will provide a remote moderation and access in an attempt to make space for remote participation, and extensive notes from the discussion will be available asynchronously to both members of MLA and the wider public.
*Description of the model proposed in this session: https://blogs.ubc.ca/openeducationethics/2018/01/07/open-education-conference-2017/
**TRIZ description: http://www.liberatingstructures.com/6-making-space-with-triz/
