Engines of Social Infrastructure: libraries reducing barriers to local goods
Channel: Jeffrey Davis
Date: 22/10/2021

Social infrastructure is inherently local and idiosyncratic. Wherever it’s found, it’s created and maintained by its community and grounded in its place. Library spaces are limited, though, and the benefits of more social infrastructure are profound. How do we make more of it?

This video provides a very short introduction, arguing that many familiar library practices can be understood as pulling local, private or less-accessible resources toward the public, social end of the spectrum. The techniques to do this are generally universal, while the results take unique, locally constituted forms. 

Prepared for New Librarianship Symposium: International Influences, 2021.