Finding Light in the Library: The January Challenge
At the beginning of 2023, CILIPS board member and West College Scotland Senior Librarian Joy McLean introduced the CILIPS team to Jemima Frankel from 64 Million Artists. Over the next year, in the lead up to January of 2024, this team would embark on a journey creating the most innovative ways for libraries to get involved with an activity called The January Challenge.
In essence The January Challenge is 31 days of creativity throughout the month of January, consisting of a very simple creative challenge for users to undertake to enhance wellbeing and creative confidence every day. We really don’t have to try hard to illustrate how suited a challenge like this is to the Library space. Creativity is at home in the Library, as they are spaces where the words in books come alive in our minds, and on pages, where we can look around and observe human nature and often, living green spaces. The people breathing life into this library space, encouraging patrons to discover and enliven the rooms, are the Librarians. They are the ones stocking, filing, creating, smiling, typing, answering, writing, drawing, displaying, finding and so so much more.
Knowing all of this, Joy brought us together so that Jemima and the CILIPS team could work on a Libraries Pack which would encourage libraries to take part in this challenge, bringing creativity in the dreariest of months to the many patrons who brighten their doorstep. Over the course of the year the CILIPS team met with Jemima, becoming the bridge between 64 Million Artists and library and information professionals across the country.
In June we held a session in which library professionals could come along and get a taste of the challenge before using an interactive Miro board to explore creativity through feelings and actions to find inspiration. We were amazed by the wealth of experience and sectors who came and lent their user experience and expertise to informing how The January Challenge could and would work for library professionals. After this session, in November, we held another to explain and outline the challenge to those wishing to take part. You can watch the recap of this training video here:
With so much inspiration shared, it was time to settle on a date for The January Challenge Libraries Day! We decided that the 24th of January would become libraries day, meaning that all those participating in The January Challenge would celebrate that day with a challenge created by CILIPS’ own Digital Assistant, Leah Higgins. The team spent another afternoon annotating the Libraries Pack, adding comments and top tips to the challenges which meant the pack was entirely suitable to be used in a library of any shape or size- or by library staff wishing to unleash their inner artist!
Day 24: Shadow Moments of The January Challenge Libraries Pack
As Christmas and New Year of 2023 came and went, we eagerly awaited Libraries Day- and 24 short days later the day was upon us!
To rewind and set the scene slightly, we watched our social media light up every day with libraries across Scotland getting involved and tagging us in their creative prompts and creations from both staff and library patrons. Special shout-outs go to Glasgow School of Art Library Service, City of Glasgow College Library Service, Shetland Public Library, West College Scotland Library, Dundee Libraries, Inverclyde Libraries and Glasgow Clyde College Library– thank you for inspiring us and taking part every day!
With this in mind we wanted to celebrate libraries day by visiting some of these lovely places, but if you’ll remember storm Jocelyn had other plans… Nevertheless, we persisted as no inclement weather could stop us showcasing the power of creativity and libraries! Whilst we had to stay centrally in Glasgow, we still managed to visit the wonderful Glasgow School of Art Library and both campuses of City of Glasgow College Libraries! With the power of social media we were also able to keep up to date with West College Scotland and their Libraries Day workshop, which was very well attended by both students and staff who literally braved the storm to attend! Below you can find some of the submissions from participants of the workshop:
We started off the day by visiting the Glasgow School of Art Library, and received a tour from Andrew, who had been responsible for sharing the challenge each day with students. We were shown the zine collection held by the Library, with a little SLIC-funded post box for student zine submissions! Andrew shared about the Library’s unique colour coding scheme, which helps neurodiverse and learning disabled students to identify and locate items more easily. The Library also has a dedicated wellbeing room, which is a calming, lamp-lit space containing self help books and puzzles for students. Plus plenty of Art from the Library’s archives lines the walls! On this first stop we grabbed a few free magazines (take home ones- we didn’t vandalise the stock don’t worry!), and began to trace the shadows from the pages below.
Membership Officer Kirsten finding interesting ways to create shadow art!
The second stop on the tour was to hit up the City of Glasgow College City campus library! We were welcomed by John who showed us around the library and shared how involved and enthusiastic students had been to the various challenges throughout the months. We were able to see the whole set up including college-made guides on how to create DIY Pocket Zines, with a few examples to flick through too!
A zine creation station at the City of Glasgow College City Campus Library.
The City of Glasgow College Library Service made their own January Challenge and created a Flame tree!
Here were our submissions to the flame tree!
We waved goodbye to City campus and headed across the water to the College’s Riverside campus, which hosts the college’s nautical and STEM students. We heard that the staff had a more difficult time engaging with students here, as class schedules don’t always allow for much library time, especially when students often have a sea phase in their studies. This didn’t stop the determined team from trying though, and they were able to come up with a massively popular “match the flag game” which appealed to the largely international student base!
Apparently they also love a sea-themed puzzle at this campus…
We were so lucky that within walking distance of the CILIPS office, we were able to visit three incredible libraries who are doing so much to inspire their students, peers and staff! We really did not have to go far to find what a great impact The January Challenge was making in these places. Thank you to the amazing library staff who hosted (and also those who offered) us on this day!
At the end of the day, as we showed Jemima back to the train station before her long journey home, she asked us to finish the sentence, “Creativity is…”. It felt hard to answer not because of a lack of answers, but rather too many, too many ways to advocate for libraries in this answer. I hope this blog goes some way to answer this question, and I also hope that it leaves room and inspiration for creativity to keep growing in libraries. Despite a very grey day, with minimal sunlight participants were still able to find the light in the library to create their shadow art. It reminds me of the Ella Baker quote, used by artist Rabiya Choudhry to illuminate the Glasgow Women’s Library as a beacon for the people, “Give light and people will find the way.”
Page 5 of the Libraries pack with quote from Kirsten and Image of Rabiya Choudhry’s work at GWL.
With so many people across the UK taking part in The January Challenge and contributing their shadow art to Libraries Day, we hope that it served as a reminder of how creativity is at home in the Library. It’s a place of serenity or laughter, the Library’s form shifts to accommodate the needs of it’s patrons, and at the heart of that, making the tangible changes are the Librarians. So we’ll leave you with the sentence that not only #LibrariesAreEssential but #LibrariansAreEssentialToCreativity.