David Smith Teaching Librarian

The seeds of this project can be traced back to the positions of reflection and revision I regularly undertake as a librarian.  An approach that follow’s Marshall’s first principle of action research as an ongoing inquiry, a process of “engaging in repeated cycles of anticipation, planning (perhaps), acting, reviewing”. (Marshall, 2016) Specifically over the summer of 2024 the Library at LCC carried out a thorough review of its print publication collection in preparation for the move to its new building in three-years-time.  A colleague and I developed a model that reviewed item borrowing rates and reading list conditions as principle for deaccession; a strategy informed by my attendance at the 2023 M25 Library Research Conference, where a colleague from the University of Westminster had presented research entitled – ‘Weeding at Westminster -wins, woes, and ways forward’, that used user metrics as a decision making tool.(2023, O’Farrell) However, as we undertook this work, we reflected on the results.  Yes, many items we were removing were old and no longer relevant, however there were items, specifically in the areas of postcolonial theory and postcolonial literature that had not been loaned in recent years, but fulfilled the decolonising and social justice aims of the library – see for example Crilly’s literature review of this work within the library sector  (Crilly, 2024).  We had to revise our strategy and add new criteria to our weeding mandate. It also, as good action research does, encouraged us to reflect on our process, and ask the question why these items were not being discovered, and how we might help our users find and use them.

Parallel to this a second conversation was unfolding in our librarians’ forum, that saw us debating how notions of serendipity as a form of discovery might support our users’ creative practice. A colleague had returned from the LILAC24 Conference and presented to our internal librarian’s group a paper that looked at innovative ways of supporting art students in their engagement with libraries through serendipitous means (2024, Mckinnery). It once again asked us to reflect on our information literacy delivery, rethinking it in terms of supporting creative art students who seek inspiration as well as answers to research questions.  For me, it offered a concrete proposal that might address the discovery question we were encountering in our weeding project.

This began my own research in the area, and the development of a way of thinking that started to formulate a plan to help students engage with and synthesise unexpected sources. Two pertinent books informed this work Gamification in Higher Education (Adare-Tasiwoopa ápi and Silva, 2024) and The librarians’ book on teaching through games and play. (Walsh, 2018) This led me to an idea of a journaling game, whereby something less abstract than serendipity, a set of prompts and rules, could be used to guide and engage students with a range of sources in pursuit of a creative outcome. The next part of the project would need me to develop a “fun” game, which would be able to act as a catalyst for a creative and unexpected encounter with our library sources; ideally bringing together different cultures, forms and voices and “see things from a different perspective as a result”. (Walsh, 2018, p.147)

References

Having established a research question and a possible creative approach, my next step was to consider in more detail how a game played within the library might achieve this. This led to the development of a statement that would guide my research ethics process (Research Ethics Form):

• To create a library journaling/solo roleplaying session (open to all to attend and hosted in LCC’s newly refurbished Learning Lounge).  The session will use a range of gaming and serendipitous methods to draw prompts from a curated selection of material from the library’s various collections. It will draw from current library research literature on gaming and chance as modes of information discovery. In this case new and intersectional relations are encouraged via a curational process, engaging with themes of coloniality and climate justice that are found in the LCC collection (potentially the historical print, zines, and photobooks/photojournalism collections). The aim being to encourage participants to creatively experience a storytelling experience where they encounter information (and connect unexpected information) from a perspective other than their own. This playful approach will be used as an alternative adjunct to more traditional social justice approaches, which focus on critical social discourse. It will aim to be creatively rewarding, fun and illuminating.

• This session will form part of the autumn term launch events for the LCC library’s new Learning Lounge space. It will be set outside the criteria of any specific course or level of study.  Students from all sites – as well as staff – are encouraged to sign up.  There will be a cap of 18 participants based on resources and space requirements.  The session is anticipated to take 2 hours.

• Research will be made via an analysis of the completed participants’ journals (following an arts-based research model (Leavy, 2018) and using a coding of the journals following qualitative research methods (Cohen, Morrison and Manion, 2007)).  Students will be asked if they would be happy for this to take place, with an explanation that all analysis would be anonymous and that the research aim would be to use these to help understand how successful alternative discovery methods are at exploring our collection in.

Following this I began a more systematic review of literature related to sessions of this type.

Games and serendipity as an approach to learning in the library

Walsh’s collection of library-based learning games provided my first thoughts regarding the potential of playful approaches for my session (Walsh, 2018). His game SEEK, which used the dealing of assignment cards to players as a way of mapping “detective work” as a roleplaying element onto the often dryer task of resource assessment and authority analysis, started me thinking about the ways tasks can be assigned playfully (2018, p.68-71). Whilst inspiring, the games he laid out here put their focus on information literacy, rather than the narrative driven and intentionally creative approach I was pursuing. In a comparative work, focussed on the gallery/heritage sector, a different approach was put forward by Champion and Emery, one which placed value on the content and meaning found in encountered books or exhibitions, and the development of more thoughtful, reflective and creative games that communed with its sources; these spoke more clearly to the aims of my session. (Champion and Emery,2024). 

A different study, entitled Research for Expired Outdoors, carried out in Norway (Borchgrevink, 2024) saw the collection of weeded books from local libraries relocated as mini collections in alternative spaces, where passers-by could pick them up and take away unexpected information; counter creative responses were then made including textual street collages.  This idea of curating an unexpected encounter spoke to the aims of my game, and confirmed the appeal and fun experienced in such a process. If this idea could be steered further, to align material which hadn’t just been randomly selected, but rather coordinated to open-up critical and social justice themes, it could create a “transformative information encounter or TIE”, a meaningful transformation or understanding, generated by the coordination of new or unexpected data. (Lowe, 2023). From this point forward my game started to cohere.

Whilst there was clear evidence for curating a book collection and basing games around it, according to recent literature in library studies, I was still looking to expand an understanding of the roleplaying element of this process. Interestingly, this is a theme little explored in library literature.  I turned instead to a piece from the field of psychology and counselling practice within the university sector. (Karayigit and Ozier, 2023) Here culturally empathy is explored in a journaling scenario, with students taking on the role of popular characters from film who have experienced prejudice. Even though the aims of these sessions were very different to those I was developing, I did take away from the study the power of empathy and potentially how in my game by taking on the roles of other characters (with very different lives to those of the players) a conduit for channelling TIEs could be created.  A few weeks after reading this article I attended a talk hosted at LCC Library by Amita Nijhawan, where she talked about the playful encounter with library and research sources as part of the creation of characters in her novels. (Nijhawan, 2024) Listening to her process I became convinced that empathy and character creation should be the focus of my game.

The library and decolonisation

Alongside the debates relating to the use of games in the library teaching context, citational justice and decolonisation remained key aims of the project. Crilly’s literature review of recent decolonising research within libraries (Crilly, 2024) provided the launchpad for much of my reading, however it was her earlier piece on narrative expansions (Crilly and Everitt, 2022) that set the focus for my work.  Here the step is taken beyond representation and inclusion, speaking powerfully to changes in curriculum being created by reflection on and additions to reading lists facilitated by the library, and the important critical reflections and discussions it generates within the classroom and students’ work as a result. I also discovered the inspiring book Arts-based methods for decolonising participatory research (Seppälä, Sarantou and Miettinen, 2021), which provided a whole range of creative collaborative projects that helped steer my thinking as to the practical realisation of my project – literally how could I create a creative moment that would allow a thinking for its participants empathetically beyond their own lives.

Journaling Games

The third aspect of research I undertook, looked at a range of journaling games, for inspiration and technical guidance.  Many of these are published in print runs, and as such and for a separate library collections acquisition project I collated a list of possible items to acquire.  I also looked at the wide array of games made within the DIY gaming community and shared through https://itch.io/physical-games/tag-journaling.

One particular game, The Last Tea Shop (Spring Villages, 2022), caught my attention.  It used archetypes as keywords to generate stories that reflected on the lives of characters who visit a Japanese tea shop just before passing onto the afterlife.  It asked the player to consider a range of abstract prompts and put themselves into the place of someone else trying to understand a problem in their life. As an empathetic foil, this mechanic was something I could develop in my own game.

References

Borchgrevink, H. (2024) ‘Finding objects, connecting dots: Exploring serendipity as interruptive artistic strategy for audience interaction in public spaces’, Nordic Journal of Art & Research, 13(2). doi: 10.7577/ar.5797.

Champion, E. and Emery, S. (2024) ‘Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums [GLAM]-focussed Games and Gamification’, in Nichols, J. and Mehra, B. (eds.) Data Curation and Information Systems Design from Australasia: Implications for Cataloguing of Vernacular Knowledge in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 67–83.

Cohen, L., Morrison, K. and Manion, L. (2007) Research methods in education. Sixth edition. edn. London: Routledge.

Crilly, J. (2024) ‘Diversifying, decentering and decolonising academic libraries: a literature review’, New Review of Academic Librarianship, 30(2-3), pp. 112–152. doi: 10.1080/13614533.2023.2287450.

Crilly, J. and Everitt, R. (2022) Narrative expansions: interpreting decolonisation in academic libraries. London: Facet Publishing.

Karayigit, C. and Ozier, M. (2023) ‘Using character connection journaling to develop cultural empathy’, British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 51(5), pp. 727–738. doi: 10.1080/03069885.2021.1961210.

Leavy, P. (2018) Handbook of arts-based research. New York, New York, London, England]: The Guilford Press.

Lowe, C.V. (2023) ‘Promoting transformative encounters in libraries and archives’, Journal of Documentation, 79(2), pp. 431–441. doi: 10.1108/JD-03-2022-0053.

Nijhawan, A. (2024) ‘Storytelling and Identity’ [Lecture]. Learning Lounge Talks, UAL, 29 October 2024

Seppälä, T., Sarantou, M. and Miettinen, S. (2021) Arts-based methods for decolonising participatory research. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group.

Spring Villages (2022) Last Tea Shop Classic. Available at: https://springvillager.itch.io/last-tea-shop (Accessed: Jan 7, 2025).

Walsh, A. (2018) The librarians’ book on teaching through games and play. Tallinn, Harju Maakond: Innovative Libraries.

Following my contextual research, I was now able to start developing the game.  I started with a name: Character Defining. The principle being that the players in the room would use a range of library resources to help them create a central character; perhaps for a novel, play script, television show, screenplay, video game narrative or any other kind of artistic form that needed a character.  This I believed would appeal to the creative aspirations of many of the students at UAL, whilst still being accessible to anyone who enjoys storytelling.  

The game hoped to challenge a common trope, “write what you know”, and the assumption that a character one creates must be developed from a set of lived experiences and familiar cultural forms. Of course this is a legitimate approach, but this game would turn the idea on its head: can you create from the empathetic point of discovering things, places and people you are not?

At the beginning of the game the players would not know who their central character is and instead would start to try and understand them, by revealing four very important people in their life. These four characters would be: a family member, a romantic interest, a mentor and a rival.

These secondary characters are created in the game through the process of selecting books.  Players would proceed by drawing playing cards, each of which would be linked to a range of library books, categorised and filed under each suit and relating to different geographical locations, professions, events and objects. It would be my job to curate a diverse range of books from the library to fulfil this process (see the next blog entry). Over a period of round players would assign the different books they selected to the four important characters in their central character’s life.  Time would then be given to read, study and investigate this material, with the aim of using it to synthesis a short narrative description of each.  Importantly the range of material would necessarily require a stepping away from the comfort of what one knows, and instead require the placing of oneself into the shoes of other lives, other places and other values. Using parts of our library collection, previously undiscovered by the players, as seeds for original creation.

Finally, rather than defining their main character by way of characteristics unique to them, the players would narrate them through the relationships they have with the four other characters. Again, reasserting a creative process that values relations with others as a way describing an identity through empathy, rather than establishing self through familiarity and self-determination.

With the principles of the game complete I was able to write up a detailed rule set the players could use during the game.

Character Defining rules

In addition my colleague Mara Della Vedova helped with the graphic design of player sheets, prompt sheets and promotional material.  With only a few weeks till the date of the session, I reached out to the Students Union as well as the Library’s promotional networks, to help encourage sign up for the event.

Players Character Sheet

A major part of the development of the Character Defining game was the curation and amassing of the books needed to run the session. Taking my initial estimate of a maximum of 15 players attending, all of whom would need to select 16 books to generate the prompts for their important characters, left me with a base number of 288 items to identify and locate – but probably more would be needed given the probability that some items would be chosen twice and require alternatives or replacements.  Working from the fact that selections would be made from decks of cards and dice, I multiplied the 52 cards by 6 to arrive at a list of 312 books.

Each card suit was then allocated a theme: place (cities), people (professions), objects and events. The principle being that these areas would encourage relations to lived experiences. The thirteen sub-headings were then allocated their terms from archetype-lists; for example the cities that provided the 13 place cards were drawn from a list of the world’s most important cities. I made adjustments, adding balance; for example, moving some cities from the Global South up the list. Once the prompts were set, the task began to identify six books for each card.

As a librarian this task spoke to my profession and specifically the work I do teaching referencing practice and discussing citational justice with UAL’s research students.  As I made selections, I had in mind this statement by Kieran Healy regarding citational justice: “Highly cited articles become the centres of gravity that define what a field is about… Success means you structure the substance of the field.” (Healy, 2015) In response to this, I choose six books for each prompt that would include as diverse a range of voices and practices, that would necessarily challenge a notion of a centre or singular way of approaching each theme. Another great citational justice principle I hoped would transfer over into this random/curated approach to accessing book, was the idea of open and “promiscuous reading”, of looking at things from new and inspiring angles indiscriminately across topics.  (Craven, 2021) Whilst, it may not be apparent to the players as they took part in the game, every step of the way was informed by practices of citational justice, that aimed to increase and surprise by the range depth and variety of artists, writers and practices it presented.

In a manner not untypical to action research projects, this part of the process added a new space for reflection for me as a professional librarian.  Our assessment of our collection has been made according to reading lists and new acquisitions, which of course bring in new ideas and studies, in line with a range of decolonising and social justice aims.  However, a deeper analysis as to the shape and form of our historical holdings has not been carried out.  The data I derived from making several thousand keyword searches across a range of archetypical themes was very revealing.  The disparity in depth and range across geographical location being very apparent, as too was the intense focus on certain aspects of social justice themes and the minimalization of others.  These observations are still very much anecdotal in tone rather than analytical.  They do however suggest a future research project that takes a more systematic approach to our collection’s scope, accessed through archetypical keywords.

After a long and intensive selection and gathering process, the following bibliographical lists were gathered.

References

Craven, C. (2021) ‘Teaching Antiracist Citational Politics as a Project of Transformation: Lessons from the Cite Black Women Movement for White Feminist Anthropologists’, Feminist Anthropology, 2(1), pp. 120–129. doi: 10.1002/fea2.12036.

Healy, K. (2015) Gender and Citation in Four General-Interest Philosophy Journals, 1993-2013. Available at: https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2015/02/25/gender-and-citation-in-four-general-interest-philosophy-journals-1993-2013/ (Accessed: Jan 8, 2025).

Leading up to the running of the Character Defining session, a number of decisions and adjustments were made to its delivery:

• A total of nine participants had booked to attend the session, with this in mind I reduced the bibliography accordingly for reasons of practical ease.
• Initially I had intended to play the game alongside the participants. Play testing with individuals had shown me that there was a definite need to act as a games master and guide during the session.  As such I would present myself as such and act as a present source of help and coordination.
• The range of books would be presented on library trolleys, separated using bespoke playing card dividers, which Print Finishing services at LCC helped me create.
• Whilst the primary research would remain an art-based research project that codes and analyses the players’ outcomes (see the next blog entry), this would be supplemented by an ethnographic approach, taking guidance from (Tjora, 2006) specifically its elucidation of Erlandson’s focus on the documentation and analysis of ‘critical events’. (Erlandson, D.A., Harris, E.L., Skipper, B.L. and Allen, S.D, 1993) As such I would keep a note of critical events that occurred during the session whilst also taking note of direct feedback as it was offered.

The room

The newly refurbished learning lounge was set-up with floating tables able to sit two players each. Copies of the rules, character sheets, pens, dice, playing cards and scrap paper were all laid out to use at each desk.  The two trollies containing the playing card indexed books were set aside to one end – encouraging players to leave their seat select, retrieve and return with the items to their own research/play area. Enough space was given to store and stack the required sixteen books. A pathway was left to allow me to move between desks, address all players as well as quickly reach the books to offer assistance.

The players

Although nine people had signed up to play the game, only five turned up on the day. During introductions the players outlined who they were and interest for attending. The group included, an associate lecturer, UG students, a PG student, a recent graduate and a Librarian.  The interests noted included, writing graphic novels, game playing in general, design processes and having a creative and fun experience.

Players were asked if they were happy for copies of their character sheets to be taken to used for research purposes for my PGCERT; all agreed to doing this.

Observations of critical events during the playing of the game

The following events were noted by myself during the running of the game, many of which provide useful insight for improvement in delivery and group cohesion.

Players’ sharing and reflective comments

Detailed analysis of the players’ character sheets are undertaken in the next blog entry.  In addition to this, I have collected important points raised by the participants about their experience during the final 30-minute sharing section of the session.

How the players described their creative work:

• Player 1 noted how the material had focussed their ideas on film making themes, especially the work of Ken Loach.  Political motifs had come to fore for them, and their character had started to develop around the idea of exploring photography especially in sites of conflict from around the world.  They were surprised, as this was not the outcome they expected.
• Player 2 noted familial tensions, and resistance to political views of older generations. Their narrative developed around a love triangle that dealt with escaping the past.
• Player 3 embraced the chaos and whimsy of the various books, encouraging themselves to make links wherever possible as a way of driving their narrative forward.
• Player 4 noted that they had always found creative writing hard at school, and this exercise stumped them too.  They had not been able to write characters.  Instead, they presented abstract ideas that linked the topics together. Their work had a poetic and philosophical flavour.
• Player 5 mixed elements of fantasy with a small urban life via tales of travel and exploration. They used reference to magical realism.

How the players described the experience:

• All the players talked in depth about the freedom the game format gave them.  Player 1 noted how the structure of starting with a single allocation to a character eased you into the creative process, with each subsequent choice helping to build a framework that helped avoid the player getting stuck.  All apart from Player 4 agreed with this.
• Player 4 described the frustration of the process, but also the outcomes they had come up with. A discussion as to the value of alternative outcomes was held.
• The topic of cheating was raised, did it matter if you chose to swap books for those you preferred.  The system was raised, and while agreeing that it wouldn’t matter, one would only be cheating themselves from experiencing the novelty and value of the game.
• Player 2 noted that the dice rolling in the game was a faff and could be removed.
• Everyone note that the trolley arrangement and labelling needed to be rethought as it collapsed after multiple books had been removed.
• Travel and the notion of characters relating to journeys rather than places resonated with everyone. The session leader acknowledged this was a bias of their selection of material and the limitations of the collection.
• Everyone noted they had enjoyed the experience, Player 4 adding their caveat. Feedback forms were received that allocated a score of 4.5/5 in total for the session.

References

Erlandson, D.A., Harris, E.L., Skipper, B.L. and Allen, S.D (1993) Doing Naturalistic
Inquiry. A Guide to Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Tjora, A.H. (2006) ‘Writing small discoveries: an exploration
of fresh observers’ observations’, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Vol.(6(4)), pp. 429–451.

After the Character Defining session was completed, I gathered copies of each of the players’ character sheets, after gaining consent.  As had been set out at the outset of the project, I would use these to discern patterns and levels of success regarding the breadth of associations and connections made by the players regarding diverse cultural, historical and geographical prompts. None of the players had been told that I would be investigating these factors at the outset of the game; to their knowledge the process was a purely a creative one that aided them in the creation of characters from library sources.

My approach to this analysis was grounded in art-research practices. I investigated storytelling approaches as ways of disclosure that “understand the participants” through their ways of recounting and exploring plots and characters. (Savin-Baden and Wimpenny, 2014 60) This was further nuanced using decolonising practices within the participatory art research context, where it was noted that storytelling can act as a way of processing critical and social issues in a way that shares through empathetic narratives. (Seppälä, Sarantou and Miettinen, 2021 166)

To apply this approach to the character sheets, which were predominately text-based, I looked for examples of coding and analysis of characters.  I found a short study looking at the coding and analysis of characters in Conan Doyle’s short stories. (Khalifatunnisa and Iftanty, 2023) Whilst I found certain points of contention with the article’s findings, its form of coding to draw out qualities in characters was extremely useful.  The researchers’ had used coding techniques laid out in the book Research methods in education; which I followed up and found very helpful, especially the notes on coding storytelling. (Cohen, Morrison and Manion, 2007 394–395)

Designing the coding matrix
In line with the aims of setting a coding structure designed to answer a project’s question, I created five themes that would disclose the breadth of source material that had been integrated into the players’ description of their characters.

A/B: The first two codes being used to identify whether the prompts had encouraged a wider view of the world, including a variety of practices, cultures and locations that have encouraged a more empathetic relation to ways of being other than those lived/experienced by the player.

C: This coding being used to identify where the diverse sources have produced a narrative point or character trait that raises critical or social justice issues.

D: This coding being used to identify where characters within a player’s narrative expanded the presentations of A, B or C.

E: This final coding operated as a discrete reference to collect evidence on unusual or unexpected connections which are not covered by the aforementioned expansion of cultural and geographical interactions.

Completed coding matrix

Original annotated character sheets

Analysing the results

Breadth of geographical and cultural references

Considering the development of characters who belong to or interact with a range of geographical locations and cultures, the results showed that every player included reference to a range of places. These included: Shanghai, Greece, Russia, Sheffield, Berlin, Lake Como, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Afghanistan and Calais. 

More broadly, phrases were included that suggested exploration and engagement with a world beyond a character’s immediate limits as a positive attribute; players used phrases like: “travel broadened mind”, “travelled a lot”, “speaks several languages”, “inspired world tour”, “well-travelled. Seen a lot globally”. These reflected comments made by players on the day relating to a shared sense that travel permeated their characters.

Cultural practices and professions

It was notable how expansive and diverse the various professions of characters in the players’ narratives were.  These exceeded expectations of creative practice that would naturally fit with the professions of the players (students/academics/librarians).  The following were recorded: “miner”, “working class miner”, “war photographer”, “photographer”, “MP”, “aristocrat”, “Berlin clubber”, “nursery schoolteacher”, “adventurer”, “culinary ingenuity”, “entrepreneur”, “illegal immigrant”, “lavish funerals (director)”, “feminist rock star”, “speed skater”. They also formed connections with other characters and social justice themes (see analysis below).

Critical or social justice themes

Only 3 of the 5 players explicitly raised issues that looked critically, raised ideals or described social justice scenarios in the texts (anecdotally, these themes were expressed more clearly in players verbally explanations – see next blog for discussion of this).  These themes when present were often activated by links to researched information; for example the father of the Afghan entrepreneur, links to narratives of migration through Calais, and to a father who was removed from his farm, starting the cycle of illegal immigration and exile.  Phrases that came up included: “seeks to change the world by showing truth in pictures”, “hoped for a better future”, “designer handbags all dripped in the blood of those who make them”, “mistakenly had been locked up in an asylum”, “preaches about democracy and wants peace”, “had a very different upbringing in rural Afghanistan […] driven off land by poppy growers”.

Connections with other characters

The texts showed how relating different characters to others informed motivation and created internal points of empathy and association.

Innovative or novel connections

The gaming aspect of the session helped to stretch the imaginations of players, with multiple occurrences of new or unexpected creative ideas being explored in the players outcomes. This list describes the variety of these: “these ghosts are homeless spirits lost all over the world”, “she is sexy fun and likes to play whether it is board games or saxophone or sometimes even Les folies!”, “minstrel carnival garb”, “(a cat) an escaped gift from a South Indian Wedding”, “beholding his magnificent leather stopwatch”, “meets the main character through small ads”.

Conclusion

Using the playful method of the journaling game allowed the players to engage with material that looked outward into the world, and empathetically stitched this view together using inspiring books on unfamiliar topics.  On many occasions this led to stories that naturally uncovered critical or social justice narratives. They also encouraged novel and unexpected creative insights and expressions.  There were limits as to what could be ascertained form the coded analysis of the character sheets; supplementing transcripts from the player feedback discussion would have proved helpful here.

References

Cohen, L., Morrison, K. and Manion, L. (2007) Research methods in education. Sixth edition. edn. London: Routledge.

Khalifatunnisa, P.R. and Iftanty, E. (2023) Character Values in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: A Content Analysis.

Savin-Baden, M. and Wimpenny, K. (2014) A Practical Guide to Arts-Related Research. Rotterdam: BRILL.

Seppälä, T., Sarantou, M. and Miettinen, S. (2021) Arts-based methods for decolonising participatory research. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group.

Using the method of reflection suggested by an action research project (Marshall, 2016) I reviewed my personal observations of the running of the Character Defining session, making critical observations within the context of continuing practice.

Critical observations

• The time it had taken to create the curated bibliography was too high.  It also came with the risk of personal bias being imposed by me, which could undermine the ideals of the session.  Also, the number of the books in the space, and the way that players accessed them caused practical problems.  Revisions to this game or the development of new games would need to address these concerns.
• I had created the research project around personal experience of playing solo journaling games where the outcome is the journal you create.  Following the logic through I had assumed that this would be the same for the players of my group session.  When running the session, I realised that the space to share, expand and explain the scenarios the players had created with each other was potentially mush richer, participatory, embodying of the storytelling component of art research, and would better help disclose the empathetic relations.  Running a session again that looked at this data would be useful.
• It was taken for granted that the players of the game would already have well-developed creative skills in the field of creative writing.  One player found this hard, and it would have been helpful to have had some structure in the session that helped guide/support these participants.

Positive outcomes

• That the session was fun in a way that supported learning (Marshall, 2016; Walsh, 2018).  Players were absorbed in their task, playful and excited to create their worlds.  Pleasure was also taken in the stories the other players had made. The enthusiasm spilling over into discussions of content and creative process.
• The session put unusual books into the hands of users who would never have found them before and asked them to use them in a creative and critical way. At the end of the session plyers took notes of books and authors they had found and vocalised the potential for using unexpected items in their practice as a result of playing the game.
• Players learning and understanding of topics outside the realm of normal discovery methods.

Future projects (more games?)

• To create journaling games with disciplines that used narrative structure – screenwriting, film, television, illustration and advertising.
• To create journaling games that can be carried out alone, as ways of exploring the libray catalogue and specialist databases.
• To create journaling games that support welcome and wellbeing activities.
• To develop ways of using keyword development to support the delivery of games outside of the use of curated collection.
• To take findings and development of library journaling games to ARLIS.

Presentation slides

References

Marshall, J. (2016) First person action research: Living life as inquiry. London, England: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Walsh, A. (2018) The librarians’ book on teaching through games and play. Tallinn, Harju Maakond: Innovative Libraries.

Why do the embedded developments in educational policy deigned to reduce attainment differences and inequality in the UK appear to fail?  It is a difficult question, but one that Alice Bradbury tackles in her thorough review of the topic and critical response via a critical race framework (2019). She identifies how statements designed to highlight areas for change may also result in negatively identifying the problematic and reductive ways in which a policy frames minorities: individuals are framed as ‘troubled’, ‘under-achieving’ and ‘disadvantaged’ before going on to see them as ‘challenges for schools’ (2019, p.243). This segregates students from peers in the eyes of educators based around essential characteristics that are naturally difficult to apply objectively: how someone defines themselves as disadvantaged or uniquely related to one rather than another cultural or geographical location is never simple nor absolute. The result  of a solely policy driven approaches to race inequality in education is a transformation of learners into data and an abstention of discussion of what crucially happens in the classroom.

The TED talk presented by Asif Sadiq (2023) offers a number of insights on this topic, in a persuasive and accessible form, that both recognises the need for policy around race inclusion but also practical and real ways to take the ethos forward into learning scenarios.  He offers three resonant points:

• First that that racism and discrimination is real and is born out in empirical evidence (this cannot nor should be ignored even if a policy uses this in an imperfect way).
• Second that tackling race inequality requires a flexible and adaptive approach which means talking, sharing and often using personal narrative structures – essentially being with other people.
• Third and finally, and of import to those wanting to realise his appeal for flexibility and narrative approaches, that talking about race in a learning environment might be difficult, and that this is ok and necessary for the understanding of both oneself and others.

The challenges around responding to policy driven initiatives to race inequality in education can be seen in a further case.  In the short film Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke (Orr, 2022) set in Cambridge, a knee-jerk argument is made against policy initiatives in the HE Sector, which seek to address imbalances in student attainment based on race.  The false argument is put forward that policy that requires engagement with aspects of equality is naturally opposed to academic freedom of speech.  The logical premise for this simply isn’t consistent; it wrongly suggests that the one model oppresses the other rather than in fact being an extension of it.  Having the right to discuss difficult topics such as race inequality is a necessary academic freedom, and not an imposition on ‘real academic work’ (written with the most heavily flexed inverted commas).  The comments left on the films page sadly echo this reactionary sentiment and prove even further why we need to find more socially, person-centric and classroom-based responses to race inequality in our educational forums, if the promise of policy initiatives are going to find a way of graining real traction and change and avoid becoming a new regime of instrumental management discourse.

References

Bradbury, A., 2020. A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), pp.241-260

Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]. Youtube. 5 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU

Sadiq, A. (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right. TEDx [Online}. Youtube. 2 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw

I want to explore an intervention that seeks to improve mental health literacy through participatory library sessions that utilise specialist collections capable of revealing authentic voices.  This project is derived from my long-term investment in the area of mental health literacy, combined with research I have undertaken with the charity Bipolar UK.   In terms of my own positionality, I come from a place of having studied for multiple degrees with an undiagnosed major mental health condition, and on reflection recognised the unmet need of mental health literacy and reflective forums on mental health; all of which would have significantly helped me. It is also reflected in my experience as an HE Manager of 20 years prior to becoming a librarian, where statistically the runaway reason for students failing degrees or deferring work was recorded as due to mental health issues. Here there is the need to step beyond the HESA return data provided in university dashboards which is woefully inadequate when seeking to disclose the bigger picture around mental health in universities.

As I noted in my first blog post, intersections between mental health conditions and factors such as race or faith can contribute to strategies of avoidance, as well as the breakdown of help and information seeking behaviour.  I want to develop an intervention that directly challenges this particular form of masking, using the library’s communal status, its wellbeing spaces and the mental health focused publications from its Zine collection.

The aim being to develop a session that coincides with key event such as mental health day or induction/welcome periods.  Rather than situate the session in terms of a drop in for those requiring help, other UAL services provides this, the sessions would be a chance to engage with the authentic voices of the zine makers exploring these topics.  Students being encouraged to learn more, reflect on their own wellbeing and think about how they may support their friends and colleagues, in line with the basics of mental health first aider training.  This would be structured around a group led reflection and discussion of the material followed by an optional zine making exercise.

Mental Health Literacy References

• Chambers, D.[., Murphy, F. and Inspire Ireland Foundation., (2011) Learning to reach out : young people, mental health literacy and the internet. Dublin: Inspire Ireland Foundation.
• Crawford, P.1. (2022) Mental health literacy and young people. First edition. edn. United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing.
• Eisenbach, B. and Frydman, J.S.1. (2021) Fostering mental health literacy through adolescent literature. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
• Goodfellow, C.L. and University of Strathclyde, (2020) Mental health literacy and intended help-seeking in adolescence. Great Britain]: University of Strathclyde.
• Joshi, R. and University of Leicester, (2022) Mental health literacy : conceptualisation, measurement, and the relationship within wider student mental health. Great Britain: University of Leicester.
• Wood, S.M.K., Pearson, L., Kucharska, J., University of Warwick. Department of Psychology, and Coventry University. Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, (2017) Mental health literacy and mental health in at-risk populations, Coventry; Coventry: University of Warwick; Coventry University.

Intersectionality and Mental Health References

• Hallett, K. (2015) Intersectionality and serious mental illness—A case study and recommendations for practice. Women & Therapy, 38(1-2), pp.156-174.
• Havers, L., Shuai, R., Fonagy, P., Fazel, M., Morgan, C., Fancourt, D., McCrone, P., Smuk, M., Bhui, K., Shakoor, S. and Hosang, G.M. (2024) Youth adversity and trajectories of depression/anxiety symptoms in adolescence in the context of intersectionality in the United Kingdom. Psychological medicine, pp.1-11.
• Oexle, N. and Corrigan, P.W. (2018) Understanding mental illness stigma toward persons with multiple stigmatized conditions: Implications of intersectionality theory. Psychiatric Services, 69(5), pp.587-589.
• Seng, J.S., Lopez, W.D., Sperlich, M., Hamama, L. and Meldrum, C.D.R.(2012) Marginalized identities, discrimination burden, and mental health: Empirical exploration of an interpersonal-level approach to modeling intersectionality. Social science & medicine, 75(12), pp.2437-2445.
• van Mens-Verhulst, J. and Radtke, L. (2008) Intersectionality and mental health: A case study. Health Care, 1, pp.1-19.

UK Universities and Mental Health References

• Arday, J. (2022) No one can see me cry: Understanding mental health issues for Black and minority ethnic staff in higher education. Higher Education, 83(1), pp.79-102.
• Cage, E., Stock, M., Sharpington, A., Pitman, E. and Batchelor, R. (2020) Barriers to accessing support for mental health issues at university. Studies in Higher Education, 45(8), pp.1637-1649.
• Campbell, F., Blank, L., Cantrell, A., Baxter, S., Blackmore, C., Dixon, J. and Goyder, E. (2022) Factors that influence mental health of university and college students in the UK: a systematic review. BMC Public Health, 22(1), p.1778.
• Duffy, A., Saunders, K.E., Malhi, G.S., Patten, S., Cipriani, A., McNevin, S.H., MacDonald, E. and Geddes, J.,(2019) Mental health care for university students: a way forward?. The Lancet Psychiatry, 6(11), pp.885-887.
• Kotera, Y., Conway, E. and Van Gordon, W .(2019) Mental health of UK university business students: Relationship with shame, motivation and self-compassion. Journal of Education for Business, 94(1), pp.11-20.
• Macaskill, A. (2013) The mental health of university students in the United Kingdom. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 41(4), pp.426-441.
• Macaskill, A. (2018) Undergraduate mental health issues: The challenge of the second year of study. Journal of Mental Health, 27(3), pp.214-221.
• Punton, G., Dodd, A.L. and McNeill, A. (2022) ‘You’re on the waiting list’: An interpretive phenomenological analysis of young adults’ experiences of waiting lists within mental health services in the UK. Plos one, 17(3), p.e0265542.
• Sahakian, B.J., Malloch, G. and Kennard, C. (2010) A UK strategy for mental health and wellbeing. The Lancet, 375(9729), pp.1854-1855.
• Thorley, C. (2017) Not By Degrees: Not by degrees: Improving student mental health in the UK’s universities. IPPR: London, UK.

Mental Health Zines Examples

• Lockdown diaries:  mental health. (2020) Place of publication not identified]: A disordered mind.
• The mental health survival guide (2019) , United Kingdom]: Publisher not identified].
• Mental health & creative healing. (2017) London, England]: Shades of Noir.
• The SUARTS mental wellbeing zine. (2015) London, England: Students’ Union, University of the Arts London.
• Li’l darlin’. (2014) Belfast, Northern Ireland: Li’l darlin’.
• Get a grip: travels through my mental health. (2010) Wellington, NZ]: the Author.
• Pathologize this!: a mental health zine. (2008) Montreal: the Authors].
• A crooked stare: never knowingly understood. (1995) Bromley, England: Crooked stare.
• Trich witch. (0000///201?]) United Kingdom]: Publisher not identified].
• AIWS (2017) Why am I so easy to replace?: zine about disability and mental health. Alameda, California]: AIWS.
• Applebee, J. (0000///publication date unknown]) All in my head?: mental health. England]: Jacq Applebee.
• Crabb, C. (2006) Doris. Asheville, North Carolina: Doris.
• Laura-Marie (2009) Functionally ill: : adventures with mental health. Place of publication not identified: Laura-Marie.
• Merfemme Distro, (2017) Radical vulnerability and mental health. Berlin, Germany: Merfemme Distro.
• Moyer, N. (2015) Black women & self care: thoughts on mental health, oppression & healing /, Toronto, Ontario]: élastiquedesigns.
• Olive, R.R. (2017) A is for awkward : : an ABC of madness. London]: Rachel Rowan Olive.
• Peregrine (2011) Entropy. Olympia, Washington: Peregrine].
• Richards, P. (2017) Planted: a zine about dissociation. United Kingdom]: Polly Richards].
• Sarti, G. (2020) Shit’s fucked, still: another positivity guide, Oakland, California: Gina Sarti.