Archive for the ‘libraries’ Category

Bookmarks

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

I have lots of websites bookmarked, way too many in fact.  To say I am an avid bookmarker is a probably an understatement.  At any given moment I typically have 20-30 tabs open and only with a great deal of internal struggle can I finally close a tab by bookmarking the site in a folder.  That’s becuase I love being surrounded by information.  I use the bookmarks of interesting articles and pictures both for posts and my own personal library of thoughts.  Too often though, this library stays closed up and I forget about all the amazing bits of inspiration I have found all over the web.

And then I remember I have several blogs.  So in an effort to share this library, and my ideas, I will be posting items from my archives. Sort of like a digital cleanse and an opportunity for reflection.  I am going to try really hard not to self-edit or choose only certain bookmarks to share, but instead just steadily tick down the list as I have saved them.  Some sites represent something very simple, like a certain color, while others touch on much larger and more complicated topics.  For each post, I will share what it was that struck me and made me love it so.  I hope you will love it too.

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Blu Dot Swap Meet

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

I’m not usually into re-posting something from my other site, Designklub, over here, but this campaign is genius.  Blu Dot, the cool furniture company from Minnesota, is hosting a Swap Meet on their website.  People select an item from the Blu Dot collection that they would like to own and post a reasonable trade.  If Blu Dot likes the offer, they will swap them for it.  Easy and awesome.

I would love to see a museum or cultural venue try this: why not swap some memberships for volunteer time, or art skills, or merchandising help in the shop, or landscaping assistance, or anything?  Why not up the ante and swap off the deaccessions for some serious skills or goods (event planning services, chairs for your lobby)?  Swap a day at the museum for you and 30 friends for carpentry work. Libraries always have book sales.  Maybe they should try some swapping instead to encourage some civic engagement.

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Feed the Library

Monday, January 17th, 2011

As part of the recent NY Art Book Fair, Dutch masters program Werkplaats Typografie invited visitors to participate in a special swap shop.  The project, called Feed the Library, asked visitors to bring in a book related to art & design that would enhance the school’s reading collection.  In exchange, people were allowed to select an item from an array of products, specially designed by WT students and staff.  Options included everything from font packages to wax rubbings from hidden parts of the WT studio.  In total, around 200 books were collected.

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Tales of Things

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

This seems like a good post to start the new year because it is filled with possibility. Last year, an Oxfam charity shop in Manchester, England did an interesting experiment with RFID tags and QR codes. They allowed people donating goods to record the stories (or histories) of their items. These recordings were then made available in the store through a hacked iphone that read the item-associated RFID tags, but they were also accessible to any device that could read QR codes (those barcode looking squares available in many smartphone apps).

The project was part of a larger effort by several UK universities to create a site, called Tales of Things, for sharing personal and social histories.  While there are several obvious ways these kinds of tags can be used in museum-type settings, it is interesting to ponder other uses as well.  Imagine buying a product that has been tagged in every step of the production and transportation process.  Relatives passing down stories of family heirlooms.  Or, as this article in the NY Times pointed out, your tagged tennis racquet updating your location on Foursquare.  The future is scary and awesome.

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Save Our Sounds

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

The BBC has a website called Save Our Sounds, where users can upload a sound clip from anywhere around the world.  I just uploaded a sound (you can listen below) from my recent visit to Venice, Italy.  While staying in the monastery at the Madonna dell’Orto (a 14th century church), I recorded a short clip of the choir practicing.  The BBC’s aim is to save the world’s endangered sounds for future generations.  I just love this project, the website was really easy to use and anyone can listen to sounds from around the world.  The British Library has launched a similar version just for the UK.

Madonna dell’Orto Choir Practice

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Evaluating Progress

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

In the weeks leading up to the election, the Democrats have cleverly unveiled a simple, yet powerful tool to demonstrate the work they have done for the past two years.  Users to the PROGRESS website can type in their zip code and immediately see the impacts the Obama administration has made on their community.  Sources are listed, links provide more information – not only showing what has been accomplished, but also explaining  the challenges our government has faced.

Seeing this website made me wonder how it could be applied to cultural institutions.  What have you offered your community over the past several years?  Increased programming? More lesson plans reaching more students?  Digitizing X number of artifacts?  I think this would be an interesting area for a museum or other cultural venue to explore.  I could imagine a simple tool like this could accompany annual reports, being updated quarterly.  But it could also be a very effective way for museums to share their efforts with the public; not only to prove their worth, but also share in a straightforward way all the programs they offer.  The public may be surprised at the resources that are actually available right in their own community, which could lead to increased attendance and revenue.

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Phone Booth Library

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

The town of Westbury-sub-Mendip in southern England recently created their own town library after the local bookmobile was cut from budgets.  Community members took matters into their own hands and converted an unused phone booth (bought from the local telephone company for one pound) into a book and video swap shop.  Volunteers check titles on a regular basis to make sure books are moving – all unloved items go to the thrift store.

The phone company, BT, which has had to decommission many booths in recent years, has set-up an application process for villages to re-use the booths in their communities.  I love this project, it helped the town and the business…and created a library that’s open 24 hours!

(via inhabitat)

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