Threads of 2022: a Year of Checkouts
Welcome to the first installment of the Fibery Library! Using data from 2022, our team of knitters and crocheters on the library staff crafted scarves which visualize the number of loaned physical items per day. We chose different color palettes to represent different user groups. With each scarf, you can "read" the color changes from left to right, where each row represents one day of checkouts, from January through December. The darker the color, the more checkouts there were on that row's corresponding day. Try to spot patterns such as the beginnings and ends of academic terms, days of the week, and big campus weekends!
"Threads of 2022: a Year of Checkouts" was on display on Berry Main Street from February through March 2024.
Special thanks goes out to the core team of project organizers: Samara Cary, Simon Stone, Stephen Krueger, Tara Custer, and Daniel Lin. Additional thanks to the Library Innovation Fund for providing support to purchase materials for this project! Physical exhibit designed by Dennis Grady. Digital exhibit designed by Daniel Lin.
Check out the scarves and process below:
Alum: purple scheme
Colors (# of checkouts): pennyroyal (0), hyacinth (1-2), lantana (3-4), aster (5-6), french lavender (7-8),
urchin (9-10), majestic (11-12), mulberry (13-14), eggplant (15-18)
DHMC Staff: yellow scheme
Colors (# of checkouts): custard (0), semolina (1), canary (2), turmeric (3),
sweet potato (4), orange (5), masala (6), autumn heather (7-9)
Faculty: gray scheme
Colors (# of checkouts): white (0), cream (1-8), mist (9-14), finnley heather (15-25), gosling (26-33),
silver (34-39), marble heather (40-45), ash (46-50), asphalt heather (51-63), black (64-541)
Guest: red scheme
Colors (# of checkouts): rose hip (0), tomato (1-3), serrano (4-5), raspberry heather (6-8), lipstick (9-10),
pimento (11-13), hollyberry (14-15), lingonberry heather (16-18), garnet heather (19-20), currant (21-23)
Graduate: blue scheme
Colors (# of checkouts): bluebell (0), sky (1-5), pool (6-9), ciel (10-13), chicory (14-17),
blue (18-21), delta (22-25), celestial (26-29), jay (30-33), navy (34-38)
Interlibrary Loan: pink scheme
Colors (# of checkouts): blush (0), blossom heather (1-29), ice lily (30-55), cotton candy (56-81), conch (82-107),
peony (108-134), rouge (135-160), cosmopolitan (161-186), fuchsia (187-212), mauve (213-239)
Sponsored: teal scheme
Colors (# of checkouts): sagebrush (0), marina (1-2), opal heather (3-4), seafaring (5-6), teal (7-8),
shire heather (9), rainforest heather (10-11), shoal (12-13), aurora heather (14-17)
Staff: brown scheme
Colors (# of checkouts): almond (0), suede (1-8), doe (9-15), mongoose (16-23), toffee (24-31), brown sugar (32-38),
hazelnut (39-46), bison (47-53), bark (54-61), bittersweet heather (62-69)
Undergraduate: green scheme
Colors (# of checkouts): celadon heather (0), alfalfa (1-25), peapod (26-50), edamame (51-75), spearmint (76-100),
macaw (101-124), grass (125-149), forest heather (150-174), ivy (175-199), Douglas fir (200-224)
Data to Patterns
Our team ran into a number of challenges along the way, from deciding what kind of visualization to focus on, to dealing with absolute checkout numbers vs. percentiles. Interestingly, this process turned out to be not that different from prototyping. You want to create something quickly, but you also want to be able to make changes to it easily, improve upon it, iterate, try out an idea without spending too much time on additional development. Incremental changes to perspectives and code allowed us to create post cards that visualized what the scarf would look like. Here’s what Simon Stone from Research Data Services had to say:
“For me personally, it was a great experience to see the creative mindset and the (software) engineer's mindset align like this. It reminded me of the importance of giving yourself room to try out ideas, and avoid painting yourself into a corner in a project, for example by writing too rigid code. It is so easy to self-censor if implementing an idea takes a lot of work: 'Is it really worth it? Probably not, so I am not going to try.' But if you set your project up right, failure becomes much less of a worry, and you can actually have a lot of fun experimenting, even if the results are sometimes not what you expected.”
After Simon wrangled the data and created the visualizations, the rest of our team set out to bring the designs to life. Stephen created swatches that helped determine the look and stitch count for the knit pieces. Samara experimented with different crocheted stitches; she determined that 'single crochet' would look best. We ordered yarn from KnitPicks. And when all the materials were delivered and ready, we sorted and organized all the yarn into kits by user group. Each kit included yarn, a heatmap postcard, a key card, and the pattern.
To learn more about the code that powered this project, check out the code release and repository!
Process and Reflections
Overall, the process was filled with ups, downs, and community! Here’s what other project members had to say:
Alum - January
"The first month of the Alum user group. Alum don't seem to be very active in the winter; it's 'pennyroyal' for days!" - Samara
Undergraduate - The Beginning
Rose didn't have any scissors handy while starting on the Undergraduate user group. Things started to get a bit tangled!
Two Types of Students
This picture was taken in front of the Long Island Sound in June, when Bridgett and Rose attended the SUNYLA Annual Conference @ SUNY Maritime in the Bronx. Bridgett's blue scarf represents Graduate students, while Rose's green scarf represents Undergraduates.
Faculty - April
While crocheting the Faculty user group, you can see where Sam decided to start crocheting the loose threads in as she went, because the idea of weaving them all in at the end was daunting.
The Second Meet-up - Stephen 2/2
"This might be the most boring thing I've ever knitted" - Stephen on the lack of color change in eir pattern.
The Fifth Meet-up
Bridgett, Samara, Sam, and Tara hold up their works-in-progress during the fifth group meet-up on June, 7th, 2023.
The July Meet-up
Tara, Bridgett, Laura, Stephen, and Samara met on July 6th to work on their scarves together. Stephen had already finished eir scarf, but came for moral support
The Scarves at the July Meet-up
Tara, Laura, Bridgett, and Samara put their scarves together for a group photo on July 6th.
Throughout the process, we received support from some furry companions!
Staff - June
Some cats make muffins, but Oolie, short for Anwyn Oolong, prefers to help Danada knit her Staff user group scarf. Oolie doesn't mind that the ends haven't been woven in yet.
Sponsored - October
Stephen wrote: "My at-home supervisor checking on the quality of my work." Fun fact: The supervisor, Captain Fabian, was named after the Russian explorer, Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.
Meet the Crafters and Contributors
Samara Cary (she/her)
Samara grew up in nearby Vermont and now lives in Northern Massachusetts. She's been with the Dartmouth Libraries since 2017. As an artist, she loves to bring creativity and new ideas into her everyday tasks. Outside of work, her hobbies include crochet, gaming, puzzles, and spoiling her cat, Max.
“I am a Digital Project Specialist for Digital by Dartmouth Library. I help prepare digital collections for publication to the Dartmouth Libraries’ website. My main responsibility is to oversee collections that we put onto FromThePage, a crowd-sourced transcription website.
“I chose to work on the Alum user group scarf, simply because purple is my favorite color!”
Bridgett Bonar (she/her)
Bridgett has been at Dartmouth since November 2022.
As the Acquisitions Data Specialist, Bridgett cleans, describes, and visualizes data for her department and the Libraries as a whole.
“I chose to work on the Graduate scarf, both because I miss grad school and because I love blue!”
Este Pope (she/her)
Este lives in Massachusetts and has been at Dartmouth since 2021. She loves knitting, painting, writing, hiking, and hanging out with her family. Este has 3 kids and 2 cats. You can find her on Ravelry: @stellesky
“I'm manager of digital scholarly software & systems and co-lead of the Digital Library Technologies group. My work centers around supporting software and infrastructure for digital repositories, scholarly publishing, digital preservation, and core library technology.
“I chose the InterLibrary Loan/BorrowDirect scarf, which is shades of pink. I chose this first because interlibrary loan is the library SUPERPOWER, and because I love all shades of pink!”
August Guszkowski (he/they)
August grew up in northeastern Connecticut and moved to New Hampshire for college. He spent a year working for the Dartmouth Libraries as the 2022-2023 Digital Library Fellow, during which time he helped build the Fibery Library digital exhibit, before moving on to library school at the University of Washington. Outside of work, August enjoys knitting and sewing (shocker), cooking, kayaking, and playing with their pet rats.
More about being the Digital Library Fellow: it is a one-year position supporting the projects of Digital by Dartmouth Library (DxDL) and affiliated departments. The fellow's primary duties include building and maintaining digital exhibits for both the Libraries and undergraduate courses that incorporate Omeka. The fellow also supports a wide array of other projects - like this one!
Laura Barrett (she/her)
“I grew up on the Jersey shore and moved across the country and back before settling in the Upper Valley in 2008 when I started working at Dartmouth. My favorite hobbies all involve dance: tap dance and other percussive dance forms, modern dance, folk dance, and English Morris and sword dance. I am a parent to two kids and a step-parent to two more! My wife and I also have two dogs, two fish, and daily requests from the kids to get more pets.
“I'm the Head of Teaching & Learning at the Dartmouth Libraries. I spend a lot of my time teaching new undergraduate students all the ways the Library can support their research and learning. I also manage the Baker-Berry exhibit spaces, highlighting the incredible work of Dartmouth students, faculty, and staff.
“I chose the DHMC Staff user group scarf, which is represented by a beautiful array of yellows with delectable names like "turmeric", "sweet potato," and "masala."
Rose Reynolds (she/her)
Rose joined the Dartmouth community as the Head of Collection Development & Analysis in the fall of 2020. In 2024, she moved on to Harvard to be the Electronic Resources Licensing Librarian. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Rose has a deep love of the seasons and variable weather of New England. On nice days, Rose can be found swimming, hiking, and exploring the museums and curio shops of the world. When things turn colder or rainier she retreats inside with her large orange cat, Fergus, to tinker with her robust suite of hobbies including sewing, knitting, building, and reading.
Rose’s work at Dartmouth encompassed a variety of duties. From buying books and journals to brokering new open access publishing models, from setting budgets to analyzing the use and composition of the collection, the Head of Collection Development & Analysis and their team facilitate the building of collections to spark new ideas and enrich the scholarship of the Dartmouth community.
“I chose the Undergraduate student user group, initially because I liked the large variety of use and the green colorway that went with it, but as I got into the project it was great to get to know the rhythm of collections use of the undergraduate students and see how it correlates with the energy on campus.”
Tara Custer (She/Her/Hers)
Tara grew up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and relocated to the Upper Valley in 2019, starting at Dartmouth that same year. “In my job dealing with collections, I loved to look at data and build reports to find out interesting things like what is the most popular title that is checked out each year, and how many books we have in certain spaces. Data can be fun and also help us make informed decisions”. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her family, being outside hiking and exploring! “I also love to knit and sew. They are my creative outlets and allow me to express myself. Since we moved into our house a few years ago, I have also become a big gardener of flowers and slowly learning how to grow vegetables”. Tara has one son and a black lab.
At Dartmouth, Tara was the Library Collections Supervisor. She oversaw the physical collections both at Baker Berry Library and the Library Collection Services Facility. She collaborated with almost every department in the Libraries, which was her favorite part of the job! Learning how to make collections accessible to library patrons is a very important value of hers. She also enjoyed being involved in collection review projects, and of course, finding all the great titles that Dartmouth owns! Tara now works for the Department of Taxes for the State of Vermont, surrounded by all the data she could ask for!
“I knit the red Guests scarf. I could not decide which user group to choose! I was involved in choosing the yarn colors so I knew any user group color would be fun to work with. I was brought in at the beginning stages of the Fibery Library Group to decide what kind of library data we wanted to focus on for this project. I felt very honored to be asked to join this project as it's been my favorite project I have worked on at Dartmouth!”
Simon Stone (he/him)
“I grew up near Hanover, Germany, and joined Dartmouth in 2022 from Dresden, Germany, where I did my postdoc in electrical and computer engineering. I moved to Montpelier, VT, with my wife and kids (6 and 5) to live closer to my wife's family. We are still building our life here, but we are very happy to have friends and family so close and love the area. I even enjoy my rather long, but usually stunningly beautiful commute (from nearby Berlin (VT) to Hanover (NH), ironically).
“I am a Research Data Science Specialist in the Research Data Services department. That means I support all sorts of computational research on campus with one-on-one consultations, troubleshooting code, supporting courses as a reference resource, collaborating on research projects, you name it. It is very fun and rewarding work, with a constant stream of new challenges and fun new ways to think about data and how to use it. We work with all levels of researchers on campus, from undergrad to faculty, so I get to really connect with our community, which is awesome.
“I was part of the original team behind the Fibery Library: I once stumbled over a picture of a temperature blanket and thought it was an amazing way to work with data. Since I knew that Stephen is a knitter, I approached em with the idea of doing something like this with Library data and ey was immediately excited about it. We then teamed up with Samara and Tara, and the rest is history.”
Stephen Krueger (ey/em/eir)
Stephen grew up in Vermont and has lived in a variety of places since. Ey knits a lot of things, including hats in pride flag colors; eir three cats have introduced themselves to coworkers in many Zoom meetings.
“While working on this project, I was the Scholarly Publishing Librarian at Dartmouth; I am now the Affordable Course Content Librarian at the University of Kentucky.
“I teamed up with Simon, Samara, and Tara to plan the Fibery Library project. I enormously enjoyed connecting with so many different people from throughout the libraries.”
Stephen knit the teal Sponsored user group scarf. Sponsored users are essentially: visiting faculty, short-term or temporary employees, non-Dartmouth administrative assistants to faculty, and Residents and Fellows of the Geisel School of Medicine.
Danada (she/her/hers)
Danada lived on a small island in Maine until she was in second grade when her parents decided to buy a small campground on a lake in New Hampshire. She has lived in various parts of the Upper Valley since then. Her hobbies include reading (lots of reading!) along with a variety of fibery hobbies including knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, and embroidery. Danada has three fur kids: Darian Alexander, Jasmine Marie, and Anwyn Oolong (aka Oolie). Oolie closely supervised Danada’s work on the Fibery Library project.
Danada is the Metadata Operations Analyst in the Metadata Services Department. She spends most of her time managing bibliographic data from various vendors for physical and electronic materials. She has long held an interest in data and served on several data-related groups over the years. Although Danada interacts most closely with members of her department and Acquisitions Services, she enjoys working with colleagues across the Libraries as part of a team that supports the entire Dartmouth Community.
Danada chose to work on the Staff user group scarf not only because of her affiliation with that group, but for her love of the brown colorways. Danada also cross-stitched a successful proof of concept QR Code (leading to the Arthur Ransome Society website devoted to one of her favorite children’s authors). She will also stitch a QR code for the physical exhibition that will point to the online exhibition space for the project.
Sam (she/her)
“I grew up in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and that's where I currently reside with my husband and our two cats, Ezra and Moby. I've been at Dartmouth since 2020, part of that time spent at the Biomedical Libraries and the rest at my current position at Rauner Library. I also work part-time at the Howe Library in Hanover, NH, as a reference assistant and occasionally at the Lebanon Public Libraries, so you could say I like libraries. I love all types of crafting and spend much of my free time painting, collaging or crocheting. I also enjoy hiking, swimming, gardening and reading (of course!).
“My official title is Collection Management Assistant. I oversee the day-to-day collection management at Rauner, including reshelving and organizing collection shifting. I design posters for Rauner exhibits and fulfill any hi-resolution scan orders of collection material. I'm also the primary liaison with Facilities Operations & Management for any building needs.
“I chose the Faculty user group, which is primarily gray tones and was initially drawn to it as someone who wears a lot of black. I was also intrigued by this particular user group because the percentiles used to generate the grid of colors is different from the other user groups, due to high vs. low faculty checkout data”.
Daniel Lin (he/him)
Daniel grew up in San Jose, California before moving to New Hampshire for college where he double majored in Sociology and Music. Outside of work, he loves listening to and playing music. Daniel is especially interested in the intersection between art and activism and how social movements have inspired artistic creation throughout history.
“I am the 2023-24 Digital Library Fellow (the new August [see above]). In my role, I support the projects of Digital by Dartmouth Library (DxDL) and affiliated departments. Basically, I contribute to and learn from any and all work under the Libraries’ digital umbrella, including Research Data Services (RDS), Digital Library Technology Group (DLTG), and Scholarly Communications. My duties include building and maintaining digital exhibits for both the Library and undergraduate courses that incorporate Omeka-S along with other independent and departmental projects.
“Like August, I did not create any scarves, but I helped create this website and was the camera-person for the model photoshoots.”