The university celebrated the launch with a two day symposium, featuring renowned librarians, journalists, and authors
Photo via UVic News.
UVic libraries launched a new initiative, the “Kula: Library Futures Academy,” with a symposium on Sept. 15 and 16.
Subtitled “truth, knowledge and society,” the event featured authors, storytellers, writers, and librarians who spoke on the role and importance of libraries and archives in today’s society.
The grey walls and grey carpets of the Sngequ House conference centre lit up on Monday morning, as the room welcomed over 300 eager librarians, professors, archivists, and scholars of all kinds. Old computers from the Historic Computing Lab were set up on display, not far from an old printing press, where laser-cut and hand-pressed Kula Academy cards were passed out to attendees.
“What a library is, is changing,” said UVic University Librarian Jonathan Bengtson during the launch. “The digital shift of the past few decades decries the need for radical collaboration with libraries, across institutions and across geopolitical boundaries.”
The academy is headed largely by UVic’s librarians Jonathan Bengtson and Dr. Matt Huculak, and is generously funded by donors Dr. Brian R. Gaines and Dr. Mildred L. G. Shaw.
The aim of the Kula Academy is to stimulate a collaboration between librarians, library users, students, and community members while acknowledging both the difficulty and the potential that comes with digitizing resources and navigating an increasingly digital world.
Some initiatives that the academy is taking on include the Kula Dialogue Series, Conflict Aftermath Digital Archive Project (CADAP), Liberating Knowledge Partnerships (LKP), the Farallon Book Arts Lab, and more. Nearly all of these endeavours highlight archival ethics and the role of modern technology in the process of documentation and preservation.
The symposium featured a variety of guest speaker panels, ranging from authors, storytellers, journalists and filmmakers to librarians and archivists. The moderated discussions were all centered around the themes of truth, knowledge, and society, and invited open discussion with audience members.
Michael Witmore, Director Emeritus of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., highlighted the importance of fostering a community that cares about holding onto history.
“We need to continue to build a community of writers, artists, community members,” Witmore said, “who are creating memory and who are, essentially, living in service to making those memories come alive.”
One of the key features of the academy is the hope that it will inspire greater transdisciplinary conversation and research, as well as serve as a place for gathering.
Reflecting on his time in graduate school, Huculak said that “magic happened when the medical student and the musician got together and created a new piece of art.” He hopes that offering this physical hub to students and scholars will make way for more sharing of both ideas and experiences.
In the afternoon, the official launch took place with a speech by Jonathon Bengtson, who said, “Our impact, if we are to thrive and be successful and serve our role, lies only in our collective power.”
“The mission of the Kula: Library Futures Academy,” he continued, “is to build such [a] community.”
Distinguished guests such as Dr. Elizabeth Croft, UVic’s Vice President Academic and Provost, and Guy Berthiaume, Librarian and Archivist of Canada Emeritus, were invited to sign a document to formalize the launch. The 18th-century paper was then left out during the evening reception for all guests to sign.
The name, kula, was chosen in 2017 when the UVic libraries created their open-access academic journal. Translated from Sanskrit, kula means “community,” but if translated from ‘ōlelo Hawaii, it can mean “school” or “academy” — a translation unknown to the founders until recently.
The Kula Academy will not interfere with the regular operations of UVic libraries, but it will offer opportunities for student involvement through workshops and fellowships, as well as offering spaces for students to gather and work together in a transdisciplinary fashion.
Shortly, they will offer a paper-making class in collaboration with UVic’s Campus Community Gardens (CCG) and the English department. Flax that was grown in the gardens will soon be harvested and made into paper by students. Experiential projects like this are important to Huculak, because it’s “not just knowing things that’s important … it’s the how that matters.”
“When students have the opportunity to see the how,” Huculak continued, “it gives [them] a deeper connection and understanding of where knowledge comes from, and the fragility of it as well.”
The creators of the Kula Academy have high hopes for what they might accomplish and aspire to leave a legacy for current and future UVic students. “My dream, when it’s time for me to leave this place,” Huculak said, “is that there’s a vibrant community-making space that people know is there for them, and [is] a place of people feeling welcome and [of] idea sharing.”
