Speculative Design Thinking in iSchool Education: Comparing Borges’ Library of Babel and Bush’s Memex to Surface Values in the Design of Organizing Systems

Bratt, Sarah; Kingsley, Sophia; Thomas, Emily; Flores, Julianna

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117368 Copy

Description

Title

Speculative Design Thinking in iSchool Education: Comparing Borges’ Library of Babel and Bush’s Memex to Surface Values in the Design of Organizing Systems

Author(s)

• Bratt, Sarah
• Kingsley, Sophia
• Thomas, Emily
• Flores, Julianna

Issue Date

2023-03-13

Keyword(s)

• Design thinking
• iSchool Education
• Values and Information Organization, Speculative design

Abstract

Design thinking is critical in information science practice and education. However, we lack applied approaches to implement de- sign thinking in iSchool graduate courses to elicit the values implicit in technologies. To address this gap, this poster presents a preliminary speculative design study with students that compares Vannevar Bush’s memex and Jorge Luis Borges’ Library of Babel as “visions of organiz- ing systems” as an applied approach to implementing design thinking in iSchool education. Drawing on experiences across two iSchool courses, we describe a speculative design approach for identifying values in orga- nizing systems. Second, we describe an analytic schema developed from design sessions that used the scenario of a “modern memex” to surface the values encoded in modern information landscapes (e.g., misinforma- tion). We argue that analyzing the “visions of organizing systems” artic- ulated in speculative texts enables students to identify values implicit in information technologies. We conclude with recommendations for using speculative texts in iSchool education and practice.

Publisher

iSchools

Series/Report Name or Number

iConference 2023 Proceedings

Type of Resource

• Other
• text

Genre of Resource

Conference Poster

Language

eng

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117368

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 is held by Sarah Bratt, Sophia Kingsley, Emily Thomas, and Julianna Flores. Copyright permissions, when appropriate, must be obtained directly from the authors.

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