Lib-Static is a provocation to rethink how we do digital infrastructure in libraries to recenter our technology choices around sustainable, pragmatic, and minimal approaches. This site highlights the Models, Concepts, and Communities that can enable Lib-Static projects to transform how you do digital in libraries, sharing viable static web solutions for infrastructure problems of all sizes.
Informed by the philosophy of minimal computing, the Lib-Static methodology centers digital infrastructure approaches around the unique needs, values, and opportunities of libraries and other GLAM organizations. Simply stated, Lib-Static approaches seek to apply the techniques of the modern static web to solve problems in the digital library/digital scholarship ecosystem.
The Lib-Static approach focuses on practical, sustainable workflows using data-driven static web templates hosted on simplified infrastructure while leveraging (and building) the in-house specialized skills of librarians in metadata, data, and organization. This provides librarians unique agency and ownership over their systems, as well as meaningful opportunities for professional development leading to fundamental digital skills.
We recognize that there will be learning curves and frustrations in the development and use of any system, regardless of its underlying methodology. Lib-Static acknowledges that all digital projects require investment in learning and seeks to maximize the local impact and value of learning during the process, while establishing technical solutions and social workflows that more closely match the structure of library work cycles and needs.
Things will still break. You may still have the urge to pound your head on the monitor while learning and debugging.
But for us, the Lib-Static community, there’s something powerful to this approach, and we wanted to share with any of you that might be interested.