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Giant Origami Fractal

LibraryLab — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:25:21 +0000

A three-dimensional, modular origami fractal has taken form for the first time in the history of the world—and perhaps the universe—at the USC Libraries in Los Angeles.

Led by the libraries’ Discovery Fellow Margaret Wertheim, USC students, faculty, staff, students from nearby middle schools, and other volunteers built the level-three Mosely Snowflake Fractal out of 49,000 folded business cards. The fractal takes its name from engineer and mathematical origami artist Jeannine Mosely, who designed the construction process. The snowflake is a relative of the famous Menger Sponge, which Mosely also built from business cards in 2006.

To break the construction process into repeatable modules that origami novices could build, Mosely created a software model to visualize the object, assess its structural integrity, and calculate the required thickness and number of business cards. USC community volunteers then assembled thousands of basic cubes, each made out of six cards. Others linked the cubes together to form more complex modules, which in turn connect and create even more complex structures.

The final object measures roughly six cubic feet, weighs more than 120 pounds, and resembles—at some angles—a giant snowflake. It took seven months to complete, from February through August 2012.

The snowflake is the culminating project of the inaugural USC Libraries Discovery Fellowship. USC Libraries’ dean Catherine Quinlan established the fellowship to highlight libraries as places where art, science, math, and library collections converge to encourage discovery and creative works.

Discovery Fellow Wertheim describes the fractal as an object that “resides at the boundary of mathematics, engineering, and physical making. Like a fantastic book, it opens your eyes to linkages to disciplines that are often kept far apart.” Wertheim also co-directs Los Angeles’ Institute for Figuring.

The USC Libraries unveiled the fractal at a public reception and exhibition opening in September on the USC University Park campus. You can also make your own level-one Mosely Snowflake.

Nathan Masters and Hugh McHarg of the USC Libraries.

Library in a Disaster Zone

LibraryLab — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:23:59 +0000

Hurricane Sandy devastated some sections of New York City and did massive damage to numerous libraries in Queens. Undaunted, the amazing Queens Library sent a mobile book bus with a rapid response team of librarians, led by Matthew Allison, into the area as soon as roads were opened again.

Maybe it's hard to imagine what a librarian can do when people have no power, no heat, and no food. People in the Rockaways, in Queens, live in crowded conditions, crashing with friends and families, seeing homes where everything was destroyed by flooding. What can a library do when people are cold, tired, hungry, and scared?

The library brings them all the things it always does. It provides information, such as FEMA applications, where aid centers are set up, locations for Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. It provides comfort: charge your cell phone, send an email, or just get out of the cold for a few minutes. It provides entertainment: books were lent whether people had a library card or not.

These are all the direct benefits, but there are many intangibles as well. Everyone knew that, even at their lowest point, the library was still there for them. Some volunteer librarians from Queens were able to do a storytime at a relief distribution point. It's strange to tell stories in the open air, with children sitting on matteresses in the dirt, while their parents scramble for food and blankets around you—and incredibly inspiring. It was a moment of normalcy, of comfort, of safety.

Libraries are not just a part of our communities. They are essential to them. Our patrons knew that they were not forgotten, and we were ready to serve.

To support our efforts, visit the Queen Library Foundation or email queens.library.helps@queenslibrary.org, and Urban Librarians Unite.

Christian Zabriskie, Urban Librarians Unite

Play RPGs, board games and mini golf tomorrow—at your library

LibraryLab — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:07:49 +0000

International Games Day @ your library is an annual initiative of the American Library Association to reconnect communities through their libraries around the educational, recreational and social value of all types of games. Now in its fifth year, this community event has brought more than 100,000 people together to play games over the last four years.

On Saturday, November 3—that's tomorrow!—more than 1,000 libraries from all 50 U.S. states and countries such as Australia, India, Japan, the Philippines and the United Kingdom, will once again hold a variety of gaming activities that include board games (both classics and the more social modern titles), video games, mobile games, card games, and more. In addition, libraries can compete against each other in two international video game tournaments playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart time trials.

If you haven’t attended a Games Day event at your library yet, you may be in for a surprise:many libraries are offering a game experience you won’t find elsewhere in your community. For example, some libraries are running life-size versions of games like chess, CandyLand, Clue, Tic-Tac-Toe, Yahtzee, and more.

Other libraries are running LARPs, role playing games, pen and paper games, and even mini golf in the library. And it’s not just for the kids. Families are invited to play together, and some events are targeted at adults (trivia contests, Halo tournaments) and even seniors (Wii bowling). Participating libraries are even running a day-long game of Global Gossip (Americans know the game as Telephone) where a phrase will be transmitted from location to location around the world to see how the information mutates as it moves internationally.

Find out if your library is participating in this year’s event by checking the map. If they aren’t participating this year, help them plan an event for next November. Libraries welcome your help and expertise in teaching people new titles and types of games.

A Little Storm-Shelter Library

LibraryLab — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:08:42 +0000

On Monday, Oct. 29, Sandy headed for the East Coast, looking to make landfall in my home state of New Jersey. Days before, my local CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) group staffed a Red Cross shelter at Chairville Elementary School in suburban Medford, NJ. Having volunteered to staff a shelter there last year during Hurricane Irene, I knew there would be residents with worried minds and lots of time on their hands, in need of distractions.

Preparing for what could be days at the storm shelter, I grabbed a box of books already set aside for donation; evacuees needed them more than the next book sale would. The stash included everything from science textbooks to romances and poetry. I threw in some recent magazines, a few children's books, and a stack of holiday catalogs that had come in the mail. On the morning we opened, I set up the box with some colorful, cheerful fabric and a sign that assured guests that they were welcome to keep whatever they liked—otherwise, people might have ignored the longer books for fear they wouldn't finish them before they went home.

When the storm came in, the 20-plus shelter residents spent lots of time eating, talking, reading, and playing games. The little library saw plenty of use, and received many positive comments from volunteers.

The next morning, when most residents were able to leave and we started closing up, I overheard a newspaper reporter interviewing residents at the next table. Asked to name something specific that made the shelter stay fun, one young man said "books and magazines"—along with all the food and coffee. I was thrilled!

While this little makeshift library was not an official part of the operation, and my volunteer CERT work was not the most vital role, the reading material helped displaced, worried residents pass the time: libraries FTW, again!

— By Kathy Dempsey, Libraries Are Essential

Time-Traveling Librarians from Outer Spa... from Texas

LibraryLab — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:07:11 +0000

When I first heard of the Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library, a new Houston-based bookmobile venture, I felt myself get a bit unstuck in time. For one thing, I usually see “traveling library” used to describe the library boxes that were shipped as part of early extension efforts that were especially popular in the 1890s. And the photos used to promote it so far, like this one of the first bookmobile in Texas, are decidedly and delightfully old school.

At the same time, the BPTL is something decidedly (and delightfully) new. Its founders, Kelly Allen and Chris Grawl, plan to crowdfund the purchase of a decommissioned bookmobile and turn it into something pretty amazing: a traveling library that operates on a rent-barter-donate basis and also hires itself out to local libraries and other institutions for events and programs.

It turns out that this temporal confusion isn’t an accident. Most obviously, the project takes its name from the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, a character who himself becomes “unstuck in time.” And like awesome librarian Doctors Who—with time all great big, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, and stuff—BPTL founders aim to have their library “leap through time and space to connect the very best elements of bookmobiles with current needs.” They also firmly believe, as time-traveling librarians must and as they told me in a recent interview, that “books, movies, and music…unstick us in time.” (For a comic book that imagines librarians as time- and space-traveling superheroes, not unlike Chris and Kelly, see Supreme Librarians in Metaspace!)

Indeed, rather like SparkTruck the Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library combines the greatest hits of the 1890s, the 1950s, and today. The BPTL will take what its founders call the “magic” of the bookmobile—“a rolling, roaming library that facilitates serendipitous discoveries in many different locations”—and put it to work in our own moment.

That means collaborating with the food trucks that increasingly roam Houston’s streets. (Here’s a great post by Chris from a while back about libraries and food trucks.) And it means helping librarians deal with shrinking budgets and a fragmented, twenty-first-century audience. One of the BPTL’s goals, for example, is to collaborate with libraries (many of which lack the resources for their own outreach services) to broaden their existing patron base, through library card drives and other projects. “By bringing the library to the community instead of waiting for the community to come to the library,” Chris and Kelly explain, the BPTL plans to enhance and expand the ethos of sharing on which libraries are based.

To make those plans a reality, the Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library is looking for funding. It is, as the tagline puts it, “Your Bookmobile,” after all.

This, too, is part of their time-traveling amazingness. Chris and Kelly note that where traditional library bookmobiles are branded with location or library names, the BPTL plans to travel time and space, popping up where needed or wanted. “As an organization that relies on donations and crowdfunding,” they told me, “we are also literally owned by anyone who contributes, spreads the word, and visits us.”

So here I am, spreading the word! Surely that earns me deputy time-traveling librarian status, right? What can you do to join me as we travel time and space, or at least Texas, promoting libraries and sharing books?

—Derek Attig, bookmobility.org

Idea Box draws community to public library

LibraryLab — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 05:01:30 +0000

The Idea Box at Oak Park Public Library is a new experiment in community participation and library programming that invites visitors to “explore, learn, and play.” The 9 x 13 glass-enclosed space opened in March and has already played host to several popular exhibitions.

Before the Idea Box opened, the space was home to a cafe and coffee shop. When the cafe closed, library staff and leadership thought hard about what they could put in that space that would engage the community and create something new. Assistant Director Jim Madigan had the idea to turn the room into an arts-focused community space; the Idea Box was born and the scope of the project has expanded to include science and technology-based exhibits as well as art.

The Idea Box is highly visible; every visitor to the library walks past it, so everything that takes place there has to be interesting, interactive, community-focused and participatory. Another goal is that the exhibitions appeal to all age groups. For National Poetry Month, the library painted the Idea Box walls with magnetic paint and filled them with magnetic poetry that visitors could use to create their own poems. Customer Service Manager Monica Harris noted how successful this exhibition was in terms of engaging all age groups: ‘You’ve got small kids in here, you’ve got senior citizens in here, you’ve got teenagers in here, and everybody is kind of doing their own thing and looking at each other’s work…Everyone can really approach this on their own level and make it work for them.”

The Real Art Work (RAW) exhibition featured 17 artists actively working on their art in the Idea Box. Artists were scheduled for every hour that the library was open during the three week exhibition period; they created all different kinds of art at all different levels of expertise. Pieces were hung on the Idea Box walls as the artists completed them.

“It has been really exciting to be in a place where the creative experience inside is always changing,” says Harris. “The visual representation of the art has grown as the three weeks have gone on.” According to Harris, working in public was a new experience for the artists too. Many of them were used to working in their own homes or studios, and have found it inspiring to work in a new space and with an audience When the RAW exhibition concluded, art created during the exhibition went on sale, with 20% of the proceeds benefiting Oak Park Public Library art fund.

Christina Endres for the Library as Incubator Project. [Original]

Words on the Water

LibraryLab — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:47:24 +0000

Avast, mateys! If you’re a literature lover and a seafaring type, you might be surprised to find that you can satisfy both your passions at a public library. With libraries and librarians across the country finding ways to be more embedded in their communities (hello, Radical Reference, Street Books, and Little Free Libraries!), Kitsap Regional Library is taking to the water.

Our county relies on Washington State Ferries for easy access to most of the area’s population centers, especially Seattle. (Yes, you may now be jealous that our daily commute often involves a leisurely sail across Puget Sound.) Because a large number of our residents are gathered on these boats each morning and evening – often passing the time with a good book - we realized this would be the perfect place to build some community around reading.

Our flagship program is a book group called Ferry Tales. Once a month, I ride the ferry between Seattle and Bainbridge Island. In the direction of the commute, a group of regulars discusses one title each month; in the other, I host a drop-in, ask-a-librarian session. I love helping our community of commuters get to know each other, expand our reading horizons, and just share an incredibly enjoyable ride!

Once news got out about Ferry Tales, ideas started pouring in for ferry-based programs and we worked with the ferry system to try some out. This month, author Nancy Rawles hosted an onboard read-along with chapters of her forthcoming book, Miz Sparks is on Fire and this ain’t No Drill. We partnered with the fabulous folks at Unglue.it (you remember them) to promote the DRM-free ebook release of her first novel, Love like Gumbo. Although Unglue.it campaigns have been temporarily suspended, you can still sign up to help unglue her book!

You probably don’t live in a community with a major ferry system. (Or have your own boat and a soul full of pirate-y awesomeness like the folks over at The Story Sailboat.) But you could start up a similar group on a bus or train, or in many other settings. So set sail (literally or otherwise) with a good book!

— Audrey Barbakoff, Kitsap Regional Library, Bainbridge Island Branch

U.S. Public Libraries Weather the Storm

LibraryLab — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:16:14 +0000

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and the woman seated next to you on the plane could smoke her Virginia Slims all the way from Chicago to L.A., libraries were fully-funded and considered an essential for every community. Then came the financial crash, and the slash-and-burn began for library budgets. The American Library Association's handy infographic shows the impact that library budget cuts have on the communities they serve—and shows how libraries are weathering the storm.

Read the 2012 Public Library Funding & Technology Access study, produced by the ALA and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

— Judy Hoffman, Office for Research & Statistics, American Library Association

SparkTruck: Taking Making on the Road

LibraryLab — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:07:43 +0000

Meet SparkTruck, an “educational build-mobile” for the twenty-first century.

Dreamed up by a group of Stanford d.school students and funded through Kickstarter, SparkTruck is a mobile maker space currently traveling across the United States. At schools and summer camps and libraries around the country, the SparkTruck team offers workshops to help kids “find their inner maker” as they design and build projects like stamps, stop-motion animation clips, and “vibrobots.”

This might seem all shiny and new. And it is—but only in part. What’s so striking (and exciting) about SparkTruck is the way it combines old and new. It does so in the tools it gets kids using, which range from pipe cleaners to laser cutters. It does so in its educational approach, which combines cutting-edge (get it?) STEM and design pedagogy with the fundamentals of an old-school shop class. And it does so in its method, which combines the iconic, century-old technology of the bookmobile with the hot new form of the maker space.

In doing so, SparkTruck joins a growing number of libraries which are combining time-tested principles (like equal access to information) with new technologies (like 3-D printers), putting in maker spaces and media production labs alongside bookshelves and meeting rooms. As I’ve argued over on bookmobility.org, these combinations make sense because reading and making actually have a lot in common. They’re both creative processes that take existing materials and combine them in new ways. Getting people engaged in those kinds of processes—through imaginative thinking, contemplation, hands-on problem-solving, and collaborative learning—is what both maker spaces and libraries are all about.

Taking that commitment on the road with scissors and hammers and 3-D printers and a great big bookmobile-like truck, SparkTruck serves as a laboratory for new approaches, as well as a reminder that trying new things doesn’t have to (and probably shouldn’t!) necessarily mean tossing old ones out. After all, what would those vibrobots be without classically crafty pipe cleaners and tongue depressors? And what would a library be without the creative, participatory, straight-up awesome experience of reading?

SparkTruck schedule [sparktruck.org]
How to arrange a visit from SparkTruck [sparktruck.org]
SparkTruck YouTube channel [youtube.com]

—Derek Attig, bookmobility.org

Iowa City Public Library’s Local Music Project

LibraryLab — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:43:01 +0000

“If you have a library card and password, and live in Iowa City …you can download this music. You own it forever. Put it on your phone. Play it at parties. Turn it up”

That’s the message on the Iowa City Public Library’s (ICPL) page for the newly-launched Local Music Project, a digital collection that could prove to be a game-changer for libraries.

According to Senior Librarian John Hiett, this exciting new service model started with a common problem: the library needed a new way to deliver music to patrons. “CDs have high loss rates,” he says, “and many borrowers simply take them home and rip the music.” In order to keep things legal and reduce the amount of theft that plagues AV collections, the library began looking into digital options. The Local Music Project began to take shape when library director Susan Craig gave the project a budget and the Systems Department set up authentication software to ensure that Local Music Project albums can only be downloaded by cardholders.

Once the library’s lawyer drafted a license agreement, John ventured out into Iowa City’s music scene to sign bands and negotiate license fees. He usually paid $100 per album for a license that gives ICPL patrons the right to download and own local music. There are currently fifty-eight albums available on the Local Music Project page, and more on the way.

The project has piqued the interest of the library community as librarians turn their attention to local artists and makers as a source of community knowledge they can collect and share. The best proof, however, is in the response in Iowa City; Hiett reports that it has been very positive among both the artists, who are excited to have a new and different venue for their music, and library patrons. “A week after our opening, we had 334 albums downloaded, 3,942 songs. It looks like there will be a budget to expand the program next Fiscal Year.”

— by Erinn Batykefer for the Library as Incubator Project (Original post).

ICPL’s Local Music Project FAQ [icpl.org]
PDF version of Public Library Music Licensing Agreement [icpl.org]

Maker Station in Library Parking Lot = All Kinds of Awesome

LibraryLab — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 02:27:22 +0000

A collaboration between the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a local nonprofit called TekVenture has created a hub of awesome for local makers called the TekVenture Maker Station.

Although it looks plainer than even the most generic bookmobile (or school mobile classroom), this 50-foot trailer is packed with the kinds of tools that makers can’t wait to get their hands on: a CNC Milling Machine, Metal Lathe, a Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer, an Egg-Bot, a CNC Router, tools for welding, an injection molder, and laptops to program everything a maker could imagine.

In addition to having the TekVenture Maker Station in the Library’s parking lot, library patrons, makers, and hackers can attend over 50 hands-on workshops this summer to learn how to use many of the tools to turn their ideas into material creations. Events include Arduino controllers, circuit and electronics basics, using SketchUp, 3D Printing for Beginners, Frame-working Glass, and more. Many of the workshops are free to ACPL patrons.

Closely related to the TekVenture Maker Station’s purpose and mission is the new Studio D., a digital media lab that just opened in the Young Adults’ Services department inside the Main Library building, where teens can create music, video and other media with guidance from other media makers.

Not only have teens and local makers been using the TekVenture Maker Station, but small business owners have used it to get ideas off the ground and into production. Natril Gear, a Fort Wayne company that sells bicycle panniers called “Luggers”, met a maker there who explained to them the basics of rapid prototyping, enabling them to prepare their next product. The owners, Nathan and April Reinhard, are ardent supporters of the TekVenture Maker Station, the library, and their common vision.

TekVenture and the Maker Station are experiencing a rapid buildup of popularity at the moment. Makers will be showcasing a wet swing set at RiverFest, Fort Wayne’s annual celebration of its three rivers; they recently appeared at the Indiana Democratic Convention which was held in Fort Wayne for the first time ever; and they announced the 2012 Fort Wayne Regional Maker Faire, which will be held October 6-7, 2012.

— Melissa Renner, Training Specialist, Allen County Public Library

Take a trip through the Grateful Dead Archive Online

LibraryLab — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 19:06:38 +0000

UC Santa Cruz launched the Grateful Dead Archive Online last Friday with tens of thousands of items. But it wouldn't be a Grateful Dead archive if all you could do was look at stuff, so you can also:

• Add your own photos and stories - you can even tell us a story over voicemail.
• Use the map to search for things related to a particular Dead show and venue - like photos, backstage passes, and envelopes that fans sent in to request tickets, and tapes from performances hosted at archive.org.
• Read Dick Latvala's original notebook from 1978 describing and commenting on fan tapes
• See Jerry and Bob with a tiger - and send us a comment if you can identify the two other folks in the photo! Our team has done a lot of work to get as many names on these things as possible, but did I mention the "tens of thousands of items" thing? It's a big job, and we appreciate your patience as we work to get comments posted and metadata updated.

We've logged visits from 97 countries so far (Hello there in Moldova, Montenegro, and Malaysia!), and as of yesterday the average visit lasted four minutes and twenty seconds, which we can't help but interpret as a good omen. The messages we're getting from the community have been full of warmth and love - of course! - and we're pleased as punch to be able to open up this collection to such a great (grateful?) bunch of fans, scholars, and researchers. We look forward to growing it with them and creating a fun and useful tool for understanding the Grateful Dead phenomenon and all the broader waves of American culture in the past 50 years it has impacted.

Posted by Katie Fortney of University of California Santa Cruz Library.

Release a deadly monster: a DRM-free ebook crowdfunding startup

LibraryLab — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:24:35 +0000

Back in May, Cory posted about the then-brand-new website unglue.it's campaign to unlock the classic scholarly book Oral Literature in Africa through crowdfunding. That campaign was successfully wrapped up last week, and soon anyone with an internet connection will be able to download a Creative-Commons licensed (CC-BY) version for free.

But that's not the end of the story. Unglue.it is a broad e-book crowdfunding platflorm with a variety of ongoing and future campaigns (you can wish for which campaigns you want them pursue next here). It’s like like Kickstarter or GoFundMe for DRM-free e-books. A current campaign that may be particularly interesting to BB readers is Joseph Nassise's internationally bestselling debut novel, Riverwatch. Riverwatch, a gothic thriller about a deadly creature inadvertantly released from a sealed underground chamber by an unwitting construction team, was nominated for both the Bram Stoker Award and the International Horror Guild Award when it came out ten years ago.

Nassise, who was featured on John Scalzi's blog last month, is a big believer in better global access to ebooks. He's such a big believer, in fact, that he dropped the initial target for Riverwatch's unglue.it campaign by 40%, and just this week added some pretty sweet new premiums for supporters, including MOAR FREE EBOOKS.

— Katie Fortney

The Librarian and the Hot Rod Shop

LibraryLab — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:39:57 +0000

What do you get when you cross a librarian with a hot-rod shop? Sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it isn’t. A provincial Libraries and Literacy grant and a directive to ‘create a mobile initiative to promote adult literacy’ was the beginning of Fraser Valley Regional Library’s (BC, Canada) Library Live and On Tour, the first project of its kind in the library world and a literacy advocacy tool like no other.

Instead of the partnerships that libraries more commonly make—with other non-profit organizations—Library Live and On Tour ventured into the world of enterprise and found the most unlikely literacy supporters: guys with tattoos.

When it became apparent that the traditional go-to library mobile initiative—a bookmobile—was not a practical or affordable option, FVRL was challenged to be creative with resources and ideas.

The result is a mobile initiative that delivers the library to people who do not know about our libraries or have some obstacle to visiting them. Unlike bookmobiles, Library Live and On Tour stresses service through community development, access to information, adult literacy advocacy, and awareness, rather than being exclusively about books.

The project is an exercise—in large part—in shattering stereotypes of libraries, librarians, and literacy. The centrepiece of the initiative is a highly noticeable and surprising little vehicle (LiLi) with very un-library-like enhancements, like a kick-ass audio system with external marine speakers, custom sub box, on-board amps/inverters/power sources, built in XBox 360 Kinect, wireless microphone system, multi-color underglow lighting, mag wheels, AOOGA horn, 2-3G Internet-connected laptops and 'gadget bar' (3 different eReaders, 2 tablets, Playaway books, Daisy player).

LiLi has been on the road for a little over one month. In this time, the numbers look like this:
· Fines waived: approx. $1000
· Community Events: 17
· Books given away: approx. 200
· Library cards issued: 16
· Community stops (food banks, shelters, transition houses, social programs): 14

Library Live is currently booked for more than 63 events between now and the end of the year and innumerable community stops.

— Smitty Miller, Fraser Valley Regional Library Community Development Librarian (aka known as Tour Manager)

Libraries set out to own their ebooks

LibraryLab — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:02:08 +0000

Douglas County Libraries, in Colorado, is trying something new: buying eBooks directly from publishers and hosting them on its own platform. That platform is based on the purchase of content at discount; owning—not leasing—a copy of the file; the application of industry-standard DRM on the library’s files; multiple purchases based on demand; and a “click to buy” feature.

Its new DCL Digital Branch is one outcome of this strategy. As of this writing, more than 800 publishers have signed up, and their works are seamlessly integrated into and delivered from the library catalog, rather than from third-party sites.

After integrating the ebooks it owns into its catalog, Douglas County Libraries began installing digital branch hardware and software in six of its Colorado locations in February.

In a physical library, the digital branch features interactive touch-screen technology that allows library patrons to browse digital content from multiple platforms, including eBooks hosted by DCL, Overdrive, 3M and Freegal music. It integrates seamlessly with DCL’s library catalog, patron database, and its mobile app, DCL to Go. This same experience is also available online.

The digital branch allows patrons to view and explore digital content using their hands and eyes the same way they might explore a traditional collection, with added functionality like immediate access to staff recommendations, most popular titles, and new content. Digital branch technology and features will change and improve as Douglas County Libraries’ eContent collection grows and patron use of digital content evolves.

Douglas County Libraries’ model for purchasing eBooks directly from publishers is gaining interest from more and larger publishers, with five more joining just in the last week. DCL’s revolutionary distribution model is attracting not just publishers, but libraries across the nation. Marmot Library Consortium on Colorado’s western slope and Anythink Libraries in Adams County will soon provide eContent hosted by DCL. Other library systems have shown interest as well, from regions including California, New England, New York and New Jersey, and the Colorado State Library has created eVoke, an internet portal for libraries wishing to replicate DCL’s eBook model.

— Monique Sendze, Douglas County Libraries

Seed Libraries Crop Up

LibraryLab — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:38:12 +0000

Just as one seed can produce many seeds, one idea can change many lives. Free public libraries were revolutionary in their time because they provided access to books and knowledge that had not previously been available to a large segment of the population. A free seed lending library can also provide people with a chance to transform their lives and communities by providing access to fresh, healthy food that may not otherwise be available.

The East Palo Alto seed library is a lot like a traditional library in a number of ways. Patrons of the seed library need to sign up, learn how to “check-out” seeds, and of course the library is free! The big difference is that instead of checking out books or DVDs like a traditional library, patrons can check out seeds to grow in their gardens at home. Patrons can also sell a lot of what they grow at the local farmer’s market and add a level of sustainability to the project.

While this library is at the East Palo Alto Library in San Mateo County, California, it’s modeled after the seed library in Richmond, California, but with a couple of significant differences. The first is that the residents are not encouraged to save seeds or return any seeds. The library and their partnered organization, Collective Roots, are simply trying to provide access to fresh fruits and vegetables in an otherwise fairly barren food desert. The second is that the library box itself is made from recycled and found materials with the exception of the white boxes.

Many other libraries are starting to partner with local gardening organizations to create seed libraries. Contact your local library if you're interested in starting one yourself or to see if they already have one.

— posted by PC Sweeney of East Palo Alto Library, Ca.

From barn to bibliothek, a library emerges from history

LibraryLab — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:49:34 +0000

Most libraries aren’t found in barns, but Jackson (N.H.) Public Library happily makes its new home in one. It’s not just any barn, either. Built in 1858 as part of the town’s first inn, the barn was dismantled and stored away in 2008. At about the same time, the library was looking to open a new facility. As the recession made following through on an architect’s design fiscally impossible, the library partnered with the Jackson Historical Society, itself looking for a way to re-erect the barn.

Jackson Public Library is one of several recent libraries to adapt existing non-library buildings (including a factory, a roller rink, and a department store) as new homes. In addition to generally costing less than a new building, and the potential historic value, the practice helps rejuvenate neighborhoods. See the library in a roller rink (and more) at Reused Libraries Rejuvenate Communities [atyourlibrary.org]

— posted by Greg Landgraf, American Libraries

Library staircase delightfully transformed into live interactive game board

LibraryLab — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:34:08 +0000

Four flights of seventy-two stairs were transformed into a giant game board using 1,200 feet of wire and 48 Internet-connected tin cans decorated with green and gold helium balloons at DIY: Physical Computing at Play. These were our targets.

The customized game was conceived after we invited designers and web developers Michael J. Newman and Scott Hutchinson to Kennedy Library at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, to present at Science Café, an ongoing community series. They made a couple of drives up from L.A. to find inspiration and check out our Brutalist building. The two saw our dramatic stretch of concrete stairs and knew they’d found their game board.

At the event, participants built and tested simple circuits then rigged our staircase using the wire, cans and balloons. Then we aimed and threw tennis balls down the stairs, hoping to knock over the cans, which acted as live switches on foil tape. Cans were attached to a breakout box by 25’ wires, and a live site updated the score whenever a can from either the green or gold team was knocked over. Working with the library’s IT group, the site was shared on digital displays throughout the building as well as on participants’ mobile devices. Cal Poly linked to the scoring site from the university’s home page.

Green: 19
Gold: 17

Partnering with on and off campus collaborators since 2009, Cal Poly Science Café has offered experts who tell stories, give demos and invite people to play hands-on. Inspired by the international Science Café movement, which is often held at a café or pub, our events are offered in the heart of an open, accessible and collaborative area at Kennedy Library. It’s where a current English major and a retired community member can work together on a customized computer science experiment that becomes an interactive art installation. Everyone is invited and it’s always free.

Watch an interview with Newman and Hutchinson about their thinking and the details of the back-end. Go to Cal Poly Science Café for source files and more info.

— Karen Lauritsen, Robert E. Kennedy Library

Listening to the past: NPS releases historic audio recordings

LibraryLab — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:56:37 +0000

The National Park Service has released a dozen historic sound recordings originally made on wax cylinders in 1889-1890. The recording engineer, Theo Wangemann, was an assistant of Thomas Edison who experimented on ways to improve musical recordings. The recordings include the first Chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck reciting poetry and songs in four languages.

Museum Curators first cataloged the damaged wooden box containing the wax cylinders in 1957, found in the library of the Edison Laboratory. In 2005, the National Park Service completed a multi-year project to individually catalog every historic sound recording in the museum collection. Curators noted that the box contained 17 brown wax cylinders in fair and poor condition, several broken with large pieces missing. No title list or other identification survived in the box with the recordings, so the recordings could not be identified until they were heard. In 2011, the park's Curator of Sound Recordings digitized 12 of Wangemann's 17 cylinders using a French-made Archeophonecylinder playback machine, saving the audio as Broadcast Wave Format files. (Five of the cylinders could not be digitized due to their condition.) Once the audio could be heard, historians Stephan Puille and Patrick Feaster identified the sounds and wrote two scholarly essays, which are included with the recordings on the Thomas Edison National Historical Park website.

As Atlantic Monthly points out, this release also include the only known recordings of an individual born in the 18th century, German military strategist Helmuth von Moltke. You can listen to the recordings online.[InfoDocket, via Free Government Information]

— Shari Laster, University Libraries, The University of Akron. Photo: Phonatic / Wikimedia

LibraryLab posts come courtesy of the American Library Association member interest group Library Boing Boing.

Expert medical help and a listening ear‐at the library

LibraryLab — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:28:19 +0000

In her first week working at the Pima County Public Library, Registered Nurse Emily Pogue helped a newly-homeless woman find safe shelter and access to the medications she needed. She listened to the stories of military veterans, helped them organize a buddy system, and she helped library staff deal sensitively with a child's case of head lice. In just a month, library staff noticed a drop in calls to 911 and experienced far fewer behavioral incidents.

Where people gather in large numbers, public health is always a consideration. But a trained health responder has been missing from the library—until recently.

In January, Pima County Public Library, in partnership with the Pima County Health Department, became the first library in the nation to employ a public health nurse on site. Pogue spends most of her work week circulating through the Joel D. Valdez Main Library and five library branches, a stethoscope around her neck. She listens to the worries of the elderly, the unemployed and the homeless who turn to libraries for help and safety, and directs them to social services when appropriate.

How did this come about? Managing Librarian Karyn Prechtel began thinking about the possibility of a library public health nurse more than two years ago and was encouraged when the San Francisco Public Library hired an on-site social worker.

Pogue says she is blessed to have this chance to provide health care in a non-threatening location like the library. “It takes a nurse to put a gentle hand on theirs and say, "I'm here for you."

Pima County Public Library hires public health nurse [Pima Public Library]

"‐ Posted by Lisa Bunker, Pima County Public Library

LibraryLab posts come courtesy of the American Library Association member interest group Library Boing Boing.

Bookless at Madison Public Library

LibraryLab — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:51:55 +0000

Ever since fire consumed the Library of Alexandria, bibliophiles have been captivated by stories of epic endings to libraries. Madison, Wisconsin recently contributed a memorable ending, answering the question: “What would happen if we cleared all the books out of the Central Library, handed the debris-strewn three-story building over to a bunch of artists, live bands, and DJs, and invited the community to a giant one-day-only party?”

The answer was Bookless, which drew more than 5,000 people to the send-off event for Madison’s now-former downtown library. The Onion’s A.V. Club posted a Bookless video by jazz/rock band Lovely Socialite that does a nice job of capturing the feel of the event and some of the art (yes, the butterflies at 4:45 are made of microfiche), including the somewhat terrifying dragon skeleton leering over the "Bibliotheque Discotheque" in the basement and the pneumatic-tube powered “Ask the Oracle” booth.

For more on Bookless, see Madison Public Library's Bookless a Hit and the MPL Foundation’s Bookless in the News.

—Marc Gartler, Madison Public Library

LibraryLab posts come courtesy of the American Library Association member interest group Library Boing Boing.

Be a Book Giver on World Book Night

LibraryLab — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:27:33 +0000

This is the first post from the fine folks of the American Library Association, which recently launched a member interest group called Library Boing Boing. They will be posting now and again as LibraryLab.

On April 23, 2012, tens of thousands of people in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, and Germany will go out into their communities to spread the joy and love of reading by giving away free books. All you have to do to participate is register by midnight EST tonight.

The goal is to have 50,000 people give a book to a stranger or to people you might know but believe aren’t frequent readers. Go to a coffee shop, a hospital, a park, a church, a community center, an after-work party, a local school, or even just give them away on your daily train ride. WBN will give you 20 specially-produced, not-for-resale World Book Night editions to randomly give away. There are 30 titles to choose from for all types of readers. Basically, if you love any of the books included in the program, you can get free copies to share with others. The list includes:

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Kindred by Octavia Butler
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
• Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
• The Stand by Stephen King
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Just Kids by Patti Smith

View the full list of books available. Libraries and bookstores can also still sign up to be a pick-up point for the books (just submit your application by midnight EST on Monday, February 6th).

Started by Carl Lennertz in 2011, World Book Night is an annual celebration designed to spread a love of reading and books by putting a book into another person’s hand and saying ‘this one’s amazing, you have to read it’.

— Posted by Janie Hermann of Princeton, NJ, Public Library.