#80: welcome to The Library
designing new ways to see old work
Good morning,
Lately, I’ve been feeling my perspective shrink—due, perhaps, to both the myopic rhythm of motherhood and the burdens that the news cycle seems to keep depositing on my heart.
It’s much easier to go through an internal transition when the world around you feels steady. Transitioning in a world in transition can be disorienting.
So I sat myself down for a little inner dialogue and discovered three questions:
As a mother, I want to know, what is “work” right now?
As an artist, I’m craving a new understanding of my thesis.
As an archivist, I want to be able to "see" my body of work in a new way, to be able to guide the artist down new paths obstructed by the myopia of motherhood.
So, I did some digging. Since this newsletter has been the place where now, for 5 (!) years, I've been exploring whims and observations in your company, I decided to deconstruct the archive in an effort to understand myself.
Where I landed was on the idea of a Library--a new way to explore the same ideas I've been writing about, but in an easier way. It's a little bit how a publication has editorial themes, but instead of deciding the themes based on your audience or scope, you do it by analyzing your journal.
I also realized that my process as an artist/writer looks like this:
But most of the time, the prompt and notes are buried alongside an essay that’s started to feel a bit old. As a writer who thinks visually, what I really want are:
searchable prompts—because I've found myself sharing some of these letters years after writing them and realizing that a newsletter just isn't the right format for that without feeling the work has “expired”
theme-depth maps—because the myopia of my daily life has dampened my ability to think widely, as happens to a brain on motherhood and I want to ensure that I’m developing ideas more broadly, not just reacting to the current moment
So I decided to build a space where I can uploading both new and remixed tools in a fresh way, linked to the essays that inspired them.
Welcome to The Library!
How it works:
🔗 Explore The Library (always free) → https://thelibrary.guide
Everything in The Library will remain free (as will these essays for now), so not much will change for you except that you can bookmark or search resources in the library if you want to come back to an exercise I have designed. However, I’m adding a “patron” tier for folks who want to support the project and new “library services” if you’d like me to tackle a topic for you.
🎟 Become a Library Patron → $7/mo for updates & early drafts
It’s important to me to keep the Library free and open for everyone to explore. Behind the scenes, it takes about $200 a week in childcare costs to carve out one full day to work on these letters and resources. If you’d like to help sustain this work — and receive behind-the-scenes updates and early drafts of new prompts — you can upgrade here to become a patron for $7/month.
✍️ Request a Library Service → custom prompts & office hours
I'm also opening up paths for you to assign me work or topics as Library Services. Do you have a question about life or work that you want to unpack a bit more in Time Spent style? If so, fill out the library service form to share your topic or sign up for office hours.
This is all very much an experiment for me, so open to feedback, questions, and requests as I build!
Happy Saturday,
Jihii
This is amazing!!!
I'm a librarian, and I support your wonderful new offering! What a cool idea.