Mosman Library of The Future

"THEY ARE, in their very different ways, monuments of American civilization. The first is a building:..."

mosmanlibrary — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:50:20 +1000

“THEY ARE, in their very different ways, monuments of American civilization. The first is a building: a grand, beautiful Beaux-Arts structure of marble and stone occupying two blocks’ worth of Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. The second is a delicate concoction of metal, plastic, and glass, just four and a half inches long, barely a third of an inch thick, and weighing five ounces. The first is the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the main branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL). The second is an iPhone. Yet despite their obvious differences, for many people today they serve the same purpose: to read books. And in a development that even just thirty years ago would have seemed like the most absurd science fiction, there are now far more books available, far more quickly, on the iPhone than in the New York Public Library.”

- David A Bell, The New Republic, 12 July 2012

m4lb00: architizer: Late to class? Take the slide! Students at...

mosmanlibrary — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:44:08 +1000

m4lb00:

architizer:

Late to class? Take the slide! Students at Technical University of Munich enjoy a four-story slides on a daily basis. If only New York had a similar system for commuters.

So, maybe some slides for UTS?

Missing the blogs for the ebooks

mosmanlibrary — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:54:53 +1100

Missing the blogs for the ebooks:

The future for public libraries is not collection but curation of information sources – not in the simplistic manner of a Scoop.it account, but in a robust and personalised way. When our members ask for recommendations or assistance we should be able and willing to direct them to a range of publications from physical books and traditional journals to whole blogs, individual posts and even perhaps Twitter accounts and the like. Just because ‘its all online’ doesn’t mean people won’t need help to find it or know about it. The need to organise information in a meaningful way doesn’t diminish in a post-paper environment, and neither does the desire to discover new ideas. Curation and assisted discovery will take new forms as we bring together speakers, hands-on learning, online information and interactive storytelling. Librarians who ignore these opportunities are unlikely to have a future. Those who embrace them now should expect an exciting one.

Digital is becoming the horseless of our age

mosmanlibrary — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:53:21 +1000

Digital is becoming the horseless of our age:

The first thing Lascarides says to me is, “Digital is becoming the horseless of our age.” He’s referring to the late nineteenth century time that produced publications like, “Horseless Age,” the Wired of the early automobile era. His point is that the word “digital” is becoming unnecessary because “digital is woven into everything.” You add the adjective when you need to differentiate it from the world’s general expectations. After automobiles dominated the landscape, horselessness was assumed. Indeed, we all live in the horseless age, but very few of us feel the need to draw attention to that fact.

I dwell on this point not only because I like saying horseless age, but also because it’s a key element of how the NYPL encourages its staff to think. As May puts it, “Our strategy starts and ends with users.” They simply provide what the people want, and increasingly, that means combining brick-and-mortar offerings with digital collections and front-ends.

What Big Media Can Learn From the New York Public Library

Resistance is futile: how libraries must serve society by...

mosmanlibrary — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:50:31 +1000

Resistance is futile: how libraries must serve society by embracing cloud culture, the end of the information age, and inevitable technological and social trends

Kent Fitch (National Library of Australia, Trove) at the NLA Innovative Ideas Forum 2010. An mp3 recording of this talk can also be heard.

"The next “next generation library catalog” is not about find, instead it is about use."

mosmanlibrary — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:49:00 +1000

“The next “next generation library catalog” is not about find, instead it is about use.”

- Eric Lease Morgan

From Container to Context by Kent Fitch - How cataloguers can...

mosmanlibrary — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:46:00 +1000

From Container to Context by Kent Fitch - How cataloguers can drive a fundamental and necessary change in resource description, with inspiration from Eric Lease Morgan, Cory Doctorow and David Weinberger.

"The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the..."

mosmanlibrary — Thu, 19 May 2011 15:00:00 +1000

“The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”

- Rupert Murdoch

The Future of the Library

mosmanlibrary — Thu, 19 May 2011 08:59:20 +1000

The Future of the Library

"We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead..."

mosmanlibrary — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:09:48 +1000

“We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime.”

- Seth Godin - The future of the library

Dibrary of the present

mosmanlibrary — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 13:16:00 +1000

When in Seoul, one of our library staff members took the opportunity to visit the National Digital Library of Korea. The facilities are impressive!

Dibrary is the world’s first hybrid library combining digital and analogue ideas. Dibrary consists of “Dibrary Portal,” a virtual space, and a physical service space called “Dibrary Information Commons”. - About Dibrary

You can also view these photos on Flickr.

Radio National: The future of libraries

mosmanlibrary — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:51:07 +1000

Radio National: The future of libraries:

Libraries aren’t what they used to be. They were quiet, hushed places, sometimes a refuge from the rain or the heat of summer. They had that distinct smell associated with old books, as well as that crisp new book smell.

Now the local state or municipal public library has a very different feel. It’s a centre of activities, even events: there can be classes on things like how to sell on eBay. So what is happening to our libraries? Is it a good thing?

Library usage is increasing across Australia. In a national study over five years, 177 million items were lent to the almost 10 million members of Australia’s public libraries. And internet use at libraries is also on the rise. So what does this say about the future library, what will it look like? Will we need those long aisles of books and queues at the counter?

With Kathryn Greenhill, Special librarian, Cottesloe-Peppermint Grove-Mosman Park Library, and Dr Ian McShane, Researcher, Swinburne Institute of Technology.

The internet: Everything you ever need to know

mosmanlibrary — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:20:00 +1000

The internet: Everything you ever need to know:

It would be ridiculous to pretend that these nine ideas encapsulate everything that there is to be known about the net. But they do provide a framework for seeing the phenomenon “in the round”, as it were, and might even serve as an antidote to the fevered extrapolation that often passes for commentary on developments in cyberspace. The sad fact is that if there is a “truth” about the internet, it’s rather prosaic: to almost every big question about the network’s long-term implications the only rational answer is the one famously given by Mao Zedong’s foreign minister, Zhou Enlai, when asked about the significance of the French Revolution: “It’s too early to say.” It is.

- John Naughton, The Observer, Sunday 20 June 2010

Library of the Future in Plain English by Mal Booth, Sophie...

mosmanlibrary — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:23:44 +1000

Library of the Future in Plain English by Mal Booth, Sophie McDonald and Belinda Tiffen, UTS Library

Visiting the libraries in Finland really makes you question your...

mosmanlibrary — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:07:09 +1000

Visiting the libraries in Finland really makes you question your perception of what a library is - Ari Katz

10 years tops

mosmanlibrary — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:56:00 +1000

The library as an open-to-all community hub is the present and it’s the future.

Books will be around but they’ll no longer be the only format. Prior to 1978, there was a clear distinction at Mosman Library between books of ‘literary or educational value’ and books for entertainment. The former were free to borrow and everything else cost threepence. These days YouTube and blogs carry the stigma of populist, lesser value content. The library of the near future will offer these and other digital works (curated, and presented alongside ‘authoritative’ works) via fast, unfiltered web access across a variety of devices and viewing zones.

Libraries may not be able to freely loan electronic editions the way they do books; maybe they’ll be affiliates of Google or Apple’s global bookstore, taking a cut along the way. There’ll still be a need for collection development and readers advisory because recommendation engines work best over large communities and yours will have quirks and eccentricities that the librarians will better understand and indulge.

People will be consuming all sorts of media but the library will also be a place for them to create. The kids have had craft sessions for years. Now all ages will get hands-on in the library’s recording studios, editing suites and photo booths. Facilities for broadband video conferencing and digital workshops will be provided, along with a coworking area for those who choose not to commute because their employer is on another continent or public transport and roads are still not fixed.

Librarians will help build custom web-based tools to question global data sets (who uses slang like “bruh” and where?) or deliver answers not once but repeatedly over time (monitoring systems). Librarians will work with digital volunteers (some residents, some not) to collect and create unique local content. The library will index online conversation and sentiment for elected bodies, and support citizens using government data. The library will be the natural place to store and share community expertise.

The infrastructure or platform for the library of the future exists already. It’s the internet, and libraries will prioritise participation (and spending) in systems that support open standards and open data. The world wide web is the embodiment of the Enlightenment ideal of the library (source of all knowledge, open and free to all).

This vision is not visionary; 10 years tops.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

mosmanlibrary — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:34:23 +1000

The Machine is Us/ing Us

Not a robot to be seen!

mosmanlibrary — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:13:59 +1000

What’s this talk of libraries being run by robots in the future? Can a robot smile and offer a cheery good morning? Can a robot have a friendly chat about the ipad, the lastest bestseller or the best restaurant in Mosman? Can a robot offer a caring hand for a lost child? Can a robot have an idea? I think not!

So whilst technology may be changing and information is being disseminated in ever increasing formats libraries will still need that human touch that only humans can give. Creativity, decision making, understanding and humour. These are human traits that technology can never replace. Librarians have more to do than ever before, more decisions to make and more issues to consider. We are more than happy to hand over some of the more mundane jobs such as issuing and stamping books to technology but nothing can replace the qualities and skills that librarians bring to the organisation and running of the library. So sorry robots you may be able to help us do our jobs but if you think you’re going to take over, forget it!

The chocolate Library

Mon, 24 May 2010 15:12:10 +1000

When its cold everyone who borrows a book should get a chocolate! Because chocolate and books in front of a cozy fire is lovely in winter…Actually lets make it all year round!

The Future happened and here we still are

Mon, 24 May 2010 13:02:38 +1000

On this gloomy Monday morning, right at this moment, there are 18 people, parents and children, using the children’s library. Most of them will stay for at least half an hour, and may visit again later in the week, and sometimes even again the same day. So far this morning we’ve had a Storytime for kids from visiting child care centre, who were joined by several other children who happened to be here at the time. In the course of this week, we will be hosting organised activities for approximately 170 children, from ages 0-12. The fact that it’s Library Week has bumped the figure up a bit, but a number over one hundred every week is quite normal. Then there’s the rest of the kids who come in every day to read, borrow books, work on their assignments, meet friends, and take advantage of the welcoming, friendly, engaging space that we’ve created. I don’t think it’s going to change much, at least not in my lifetime. The Internet has been around for long enough now to make it’s presence felt, longer than the entire lifetime of any of our young borrowers. Even their parents are of the generation who have grown up fully fluent in the web, and able to navigate it with ease and confidence. Still, you can’t sit the internet on your lap and make it do the funny voices, you can’t tuck it in to bed with you and enjoy the full sensory experience that shared stories will provide. No family could afford to own for themselves the variety that the library can provide, not even in Mosman.

And so here they are, every day, happily coming in to use the space and share the delights of the wonderful world of books that only a Library can provide.

Nope, we’re not going anywhere.