Join us to celebrate the launch of Rule N° 5: The Library is a Growing Organism, a new interactive audio installation at NYU Libraries!

“A library is a growing organism,” reads the fifth “rule” of library science as penned in 1931 by S.R. Ranganathan, who is widely considered to be the father of library science. In a world where “library” and “book” have taken on vast new meanings, it’s the last of Ranganathan’s five guiding principles that prompt us to continuously respond to our environment and deeply interrogate the ways we curate, collect, organize, and preserve information for generations to come.

Created by Amanda Belantara & A.M. Alpin, Rule N° 5 is a collaboratively-created work that centers the voices of library workers as they reveal to listeners the magical, mysterious, complicated, and controversial world of libraries. Through six interactive sculptures, Rule N° 5 examines practices and objects that shape how we can search, who we will find, and what we remember.

As an interactive audio experience, you’ll be invited to open doors and drawers, plugins, and push buttons to explore and contemplate what it means to collect the world’s knowledge, preserve the past, and shape the future.

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After a short artists’ talk starting at 6 pm, guests will be free to explore the installation, enjoy light refreshments (vegetarian and gluten-free options available), and participate in surprise activities and door prize raffles.

Registration and proof of full COVID vaccination status are required to gain entry to the event.

About the Artists:

A.M. Alpin is an award-winning filmmaker, librarian, and scholar who uses digital and analog technology to tell compelling stories. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, the Gotham/Independent Filmmaker Project, the Austin Film Society, the Southern Humanities Media Fund, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She serves as director of the Library Lab and Special Projects at NYU Libraries.

Amanda Belantara is an audiovisual artist-anthropologist and librarian. Prior to joining NYU, Belantara worked as a creative producer and teaching artist, collaborating with cultural heritage institutions in New York and the UK to create interactive audio installations, audio tours, and oral history projects. Her work incorporates sound recordings to uncover aural perspectives that are often missing from written works. She brings this to her research in library and information science, using sound to both documents and communicate the social construction of library practices. She is the Instruction and Outreach Librarian for the School of Professional Studies at NYU Libraries

Image description: a close-up of one of the six interactive sculptures that make up Rule No. 5 with a design similar to tree rings at the base.

1st Floor

Time: 5:30 PM — 7:30 PM EST

Free!

Registration