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The Joy of Creativity
August 7, 2008

I've been having a blast this summer expanding my treehouse. I'm going up (of course) and over a bit to create another floor about seven feet above the highest existing floor. Since I live in California, where it doesn't rain in the summer, I don't need to bother with such things as a roof and walls (just a railing and wire to keep the little ones in).

But the reason I bring this up is that the joyous part of this project is the creativity. You can't simply build a platform of whatever dimension and orientation you want, you must work with the tree. You need to figure out how to engineer the platform placement, attachments to the tree, and ability to withstand limb movement, while at the same time trying to get a useable space. It is, in other words, an intensely creative activity that mixes in carpentry and engineering for good measure.

Plus, add in the necessity to be safe while working high above the ground with no scaffolding, and the requirement to haul heavy loads 25 feet straight into the air, and you have all the ingredients for a really good time. For safety, I lash into a climbing harness, clip into a GriGri belay device attached to a rope from the top of the tree, and carabiner into an ascender on the same rope as a backup. For hauling lumber I have another rope set up in a simple Z-pulley system that allows me to haul up heavy loads fairly easily.

You can't start, though, until you've studied the tree enough to know what might work. I usually even throw together a template platform using 1"x1" boards to test it in the tree. Once I have the basic design down, I put together the main floor joists and haul it up into the tree, attaching it various ways depending on where and how it sits in the tree. This will sometimes necessitate a trip back to the hardware store to find pieces of steel crafted in various useful configurations.

All along the way there are decisions to be made. You need to be flexible, constantly review your plans, and consider new options. This is the really exciting part of it, when you need to be creative on your feet. When faced with a challenge (hmm...that branch is in my way) or an opportunity (hey, if I extend out to there I can claim another foot of floor space) you can't be too attached to your original plan.

And here is the connection to digital libraries you've probably been patiently awaiting (that is, if any of you have even gotten this far). Creating digital library collections or services can also be very creative. There are many decisions that must be made along the way, and different ways of doing things that should be explored and tested. I think that's why so often librarians like to craft exhibit-style sites of digitized content, since it lets them be more creative than they could be if they were simply adding more content to an existing collection.

But the lure of creativity should also sometimes be ignored. Crafting that digital collection may not be the best use of your time if most of your users find your content via web search engines (as is often the case). So there are times to be creative and times to just punch it out there. As for my treehouse building, that was all about being creative. It was about working with the tree and figuring it out as I went along. If there wasn't joy in it, I wouldn't be hanging from a rope 30 feet above the ground while driving a hammer into my thumb.

Posted by Roy Tennant on August 7, 2008 | Comments (2)