Participatory and Transformative Engagement in Libraries and Museums: Exploring and Expanding the Salzburg Curriculum

IntroductionIn 2011 library and museum professionals from more than 31 countries came together in Salzburg, Austria to share ideas in a program titled "Libraries and Museums in an Era of Participatory Culture." During the event, co-sponsored by the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), one of the discussion groups developed recommendations for skills needed by librarians and museum professionals in today's connected and participatory world.The working group identified the isolation of library skills from museum and other professional skill sets as a weakness, and developed a framework for a comprehensive and joint library/museum curriculum. The group focused on the concepts, knowledge, and processes that both librarians and museum professionals need to understand and know, realizing that participatory culture has ramifications both for traditional functions and emerging skills. The initial framework was an overview because of limited time, but many seminar participants, including major library science programs and museum continuing education coordinators pledged to use it. The next step is extending the discussion. By opening the conversation to the library and museum worlds, it is proposed that the two systems of education and continuing education will experience positive and possibly unexpected synergistic benefits.BackgroundThe Salzburg Global Seminar is described as "a place dedicated to candid dialogue, fresh thinking, and the search for innovative but practical solutions" (Mack, 2012). During the Salzburg program, "Libraries and Museums in an Era of Participatory Culture," seminar fellows discussed ideas and insights about the potential and future of libraries and museums in a time when consumers have become participants. Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robison, and Weigel (2006) defined participatory culture as such:A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one's creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created). (p. 3)Applying the affordances of participatory culture to libraries has occurred mainly in libraries through technology initiatives and user-focused services, highlighted in practice-based articles in the professional literature, via conference presentations on topics such as "Library 2.0," and in work being done in other regions (Nguyen, Partridge, Edwards, 2012).Imperatives for the FutureAs an outcome of the session, participants identified several "Imperatives for the Future." These concepts were synthesized in the report Libraries and Museums in an Era of Participatory Culture (Mack, 2012) to provide a future framework for libraries and museums. An era of participatory culture demands that we:* Recognize the importance of cultural, economic, and social diversity in our communities.* Accept the principle of democratic access.* Acknowledge the need for new language and vocabulary to describe our work, reflecting the changing realities and expectations for our institutions.* Create innovative partnerships with the community and community organizations.* Accept new obligations, accountability, and responsibilities within our institutions.* Place a major emphasis on public value and impact.* Embrace the changing nature of authority, allowing for co-creation of content and input from both on-site and virtual visitors as an accepted part of our work.* Recognize the blurring of distinctions between in-school and out-of-school learning.* Embrace early and lifelong learning as key to our mission. …