Cultivating a Culture of Curiosity in our Communities
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The document discusses the importance of cultivating a culture of curiosity within communities, particularly in library settings. It highlights how curiosity can wane as we age and offers strategies for librarians to reignite curiosity both in themselves and in their patrons through engaging practices and resources. The author emphasizes the role of curiosity as a fundamental aspect of discovery and suggests various methods to encourage exploration and learning in library environments.
Cultivating a Culture of Curiosity in our Communities
- 1. CULTIVATING A CULTURE OF CURIOSITY IN OUR COMMUNITIES Don Boozer We are born curious. When we’re young, we have an insatiable curiosity about the world. Everything is “What?”, “Why?” and “How?”. The world is an exciting place, and discovering new things is a joy. However, as we grow older, some of us begin to lose that curiosity - what Einstein called “the sacred curiosity of enquiry”. Many of us get caught up in our work and the quotidian necessities of everyday life. Our focus becomes narrower and narrower. Maybe some people find a few things that still spark their curiosity. However, many things fall by the wayside. As librarians, how do we cultivate that sacred curiosity in our communities when it begins to fade to indifference? That indifference is the opposite of curiosity. “What?” “Why?” and “How?” are potential gateways to discovery; however, “So what?” and “Who cares?” shut those doors. How do we make curiosity relevant to the indifferent person again. How do we rekindle curiosity if we’ve lost it ourselves? As those who serve in libraries, we must not only nurture the curiosity of those who are already jazzed on the joy of discovery, we must also help re-ignite the intellectual fire of the indifferent. But how? Let’s take a step back. What does it mean to have “curiosity” in the first place? The word curiosity itself is related to the word “cure” and both can be traced back over 5,000 years to a root meaning “to look, to perceive” and even “to beware of.” Cousins of the words curiosity and cure include caution and caveat as well as accurate and even show . I really like the connections those words make with each other:
- 2. ● Curiosity and cure reveal the connection between recognizing one’s ignorance in a certain area and providing a remedy for that gap in one’s knowledge. ● Curiosity, caution, and caveat reflect the danger of being curious. If you’re curious and open-minded, you may have your pre-conceived notions challenged or become aware of ideas that surprise, astound, or possibly even offend you. ● Curiosity and accurate express the need for our discoveries to be grounded in reality and to be backed up by authoritative sources. A “good-enough” answer is not good enough. We should strive for accurate and trustworthy information. ● Curiosity and show express the desire to share new discoveries with other people, to show them what we’ve found interesting. But we’re not just concerned with curiosity itself. What about cultivating that culture? Both these words go back to an ancient root connected to the tilling of the soil, the turning over of the sod with a wheeled-plow. As librarians, our highest-calling is to allow people to cultivate the soil of their own minds, to be receptive to new ideas, and to nurture the unadulterated joy of discovery. This cultivation of curiosity does not happen in a vacuum. It happens within our communities. Not community, but communities - plural. We are bound together in multiple communities as we move through our life including: - the community made up of ourselves and our colleagues within our institutions - And the community comprised of ourselves and our patrons What does it mean then to “cultivate a culture of curiosity in our communities”? The cultivation of curiosity has to begin with us as individuals: ● We must be open-minded and receptive to new ideas and to challenge old ones.
- 3. ● We must seek out the most authoritative sources of information on which to base our ideas. ● We must feed our imaginations on stories, both fictional and historic. ● We must always be striving to push our intellectual envelopes and not rest on our laurels. ● And - We must give ourselves permission to explore and succumb to the wonders that our world has to offer. As we do this, we are equipping ourselves to engage the members of our communities with renewed and re-energized curiosity of our own. However, if we are going to be reference professionals, we shouldn’t think that we can only be curious about subjects that interest us. We’re all curious about something including: ● Astronomy ● Cooking ● Knitting ● Gardening ● Genealogy How about: ● Civil War re-enacting ● NASCAR Racing ● Computer Coding ● Rock collecting ● MMA and the UFC And so on and so on and so on... I’m curious. Do any of those topics not interest you at all? Are you indifferent to any of those? If we work at a general reference desk, we must be curious enough to help those who come to us even if we have no curiosity at all in the area we’re being asked about. When helping a patron in an area for which we have no
- 4. experience or even any interest, the most powerful tool we have is to admit you don’t know something and to engage our patrons with an attitude of “Now you made me curious. Let’s find out.” And, yes, finding authoritative information might mean an initial Google or Wikipedia search, so that’s another area to be curious about: learning how use Google and Wikipedia wisely. So, we come to the crux of it all. How do we nurture our own curiosity? How do we encourage our colleagues to be more curious? How do we cultivate a culture of curiosity in our communities? I’d like to share the following suggestions ranging from personal changes in habit you can do to community-wide ideas you can adapt to your own communities. ● If you want to be surprised, try clicking the “Random Article” link on Wikipedia a few times! Delve into the internal links and see where they lead you. When I did this I came up with articles on Joseph Lesniewski, Thorsten Schick, and a species of fungus from Japan. ● Think you know Google? Click on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google.com. You’ll see it change to various options like “I’m Feeling Wonderful” or “I’m Feeling Artistic”. You’ll be amazed where it can lead you. I tried it recently and ended up in Paris, the “Google-A-Day” Puzzler, and a page about Jules Verne’s birthday. ● Check out Curiosity.com on the web. There are some fascinating, short videos and additional information on plenty of topics to entice your curiosity. You can even download the app to your smart phone or subscribe for free online and every day get five tantalizing bite-size chunks of awesomeness with links to go deeper. ● There’s also a Curious.com on the internet for heavens sake! There’s a free version to give it a try. ● Use Feedly either on your computer or your smart phone to subscribe to RSS feeds that you can read over your lunch hour! You can make your feeds as diverse as you like to feed your curiosity.
- 5. ● Pocket Is another great app that brings fascinating and thought-provoking articles to you from around the internet. You can also explore the website getpocket.com and view its many highlighted articles in subjects as diverse as sports, art, travel, and technology. ● Check out Science Friday online and be amazed at all the wonders our world has to offer. ● Check out Reddit’s “Today I Learned” forum. ● Share all your discoveries on these applications with your colleagues. Have an in-house curiosity support team in your institution. Ask at your staff meetings, “What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned this week or this month?” ● Make links to all these curiosity engines on your library’s website. Highlight them on your blog, Facebook page, or twitter feed. ● Place tantalizing bits of information on the check-out receipts you give patrons along with a “Learn more at your library!” tagline. ● Consider holding a full-day TED talk marathon. Start the first one in your meeting rooms on the big screen and just let them play throughout the day. Advertise it as a Casual Day of Curiosity. You could conceivably show 30 talks in a single day. ● Bookmarks! We love bookmarks! Include various tantalizing pieces of information on them and then let them know to come to the library to learn more! And mix it up. Try using business-card-size bookmarks or different shapes. People might ask “Why?” but isn’t that one of those door-opener interrogatives? ● In addition to the free curiosity-generating applications, consider including interesting places and resources on the Internet in your library’s regular social media posts to encourage your patrons to explore! ● Set up a Curiosity Shop at your local bar, coffee-house, or other outside-the-library venue. Get out and meet your community! Hand out those “Did you know…” cards to people and encourage them to try and stump you with something they’re curious about.
- 6. And the list can go on and on. Please don’t think this is a comprehensive list. These are just some ideas off the top of *my* head. I encourage you to be creative! Think about something else Einstein said. "I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious." We may not all end up with the discoveries that Einstein uncovered, but sometimes it’s not the goal but rather what we find on the path of discovery. And curiosity is the flame that lights that path. So, how can *you* cultivate a culture of curiosity in your communities? The possibilities and the rewards can be endless. Thank you.