Transformation Lab - Prototyping the Future

The Transformation Lab has produced new visions for the physical library of the future. In June the project will be presented at the 17th Halmstad conference in Aarhus. Program & registration: http://www.elevations.dk

More about the project: www.aakb.dk/forvandlingsrum (in danish)

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• transformation
• lab
• library
• future
• physical
• bibliotek
• Århus
• Aarhus
• Forvandlingsrum
• Knud
• Schulz
• Sidsel
• Bech-Petersen

[rmcromero]

Hi! I'd like to know more about the role the librarians play in this future library

[transformationlab]

The role of the librarian is changing to a focus on re-thinking the library

and establishing a learning dialogue with the user. During the project guidance was defined as four separate "roles": the

role of disseminator, the role of hostess, the role of facilitator and the role of

adviser. The project has created consciousness of the necessity of developing the guidance competence, but it has also created consciousness of the difficulty of

this process since guidance is a personal expression.

[waltless]

Looks great. How much did it cost to implement?

[transformationlab]

The Transformation Lab was funded by The Danish National Library Authority and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Main Library in Aarhus. The Main Library itself funded half of the project. The budget was: 1st year 1.5 mil., 2nd year 1.7 mil., 3rd year 1.7 mil. DKK

[sidselbp]

There will be books in the physical library of the future - but I think they will be connected to digital material. In this way they can be enriched with relevant digital information that will be exposed, when the book gets near a mobile phone, interactive table or an info coloumn as in the video.

In another project at the Main Library in Aarhus - The Children's Interactive Library - they made som prototypes showing how books can be tagged with digital information using RFID-chips.

[transformationlab]

One of the prototypes was a Bib Phone - A "phone" that allows you to talk to books and hear what other people have told them! This is a new, funny and different way of reviewing, commenting or even hiding secret messages in books. The messages are inherited in the particular book allowing the next person access to hear it.

They have made a video demo - find it at our website: aakb dot dk

[cybervigilante]

Also, the role of protector of freedoms. When the FBI wanted to get lists of what people read, it was the librarians who fought them to a standstill.

[SpacedTime]

A library as a quiet place of study is more important to me. Although this 'other' library seems to have its appeal too. But, these two places should not have to share the same space.

[Mariaina]

Great, and ansome job! Well done. I looove it!!

Aina. Barcelona, Catalonia. Spain

[fleurdiabolique]

I'm very invested in the idea of a library as a social space in which information can be transmitted, so I liked a lot of what you discussed in the video. But some ideas (the "clapping screen" and other ways for users to "leave a trace of themselves," for instance) seemed much more like they belonged in an art museum. At what level were such elements of the installation promoting the library's fundamental duty of disseminating information?

[davedonelson]

I saw this video last night at a meeting of a library trustee board on which I serve. It's an interesting approach to making libraries more appealing to a wider audience, which I heartily endorse. I'm not sure how much staying power some of the features have, but it's great to open up library land to as many people as possible.

[flutingaround]

It used to be that I would find a video like this inspiring, but now that I work in a library with no where near the budget of this one and one that is facing more budget cuts. One that is in a urban low income area, we face so many challenges and seem so far away from this. We worry if we have to cut staff and cut collections. We can't even afford a shelver... So far away from this sort of thing....

[xlxfjh]

So this is what the Gates Foundation is up to - frightening. Let's hope it stays confined to freewheeling Denmark. Call me conservative or Luddite, but I like the traditional library for its original mission: to encourage reading and good citizenship. Much of the technology shown in this video is not compatible with that original mission. If Bill Gates wants to impose this vision on publicly-funded libraries in the US, Yahweh help us all.