Activity
Scenarios
Libraries, community centers, quiet spaces, study halls, research areas, ideas, poetry, novels, music, history, Internet access, overdue fees, recipes, social interaction, time alone, children's entertainment, community information, the good ol' boys reading the paper, education.
Our libraries provide all this and more, and sometimes less. What else do we wish our libraries could do? What does our library mean to us and how is that changing? Do we want it to change? We want it to be enhanced, while still providing all the services it currently does (except perhaps the overdue fees). With technology improving and evolving we are in a position to manipulate it in a way that serves our needs and fantasies, and provide us with nearly any form of information and entertainment we can imagine.
How then, do we create access to this information for our communities? If we decide our libraries are the conduit to this panorama of words and images, how do we best conform it to our user groups? What are our user groups, when broken down into large/small/individual users, doing now, and what can technology provide to enhance the use of the library, and to gain access to the world?
Children's
Interactive Reading Sessions:
Story-telling has always been a popular form of children's entertainment,
social interaction, and indeed, the way a society's culture is maintained
through time.
Today, groups of children in Seattle, Boise, Newark, Omak, and Springfield, are gathering at noon in front of the Multi-Screen Electronic Theatre for Story-Weaving. Rather than the passive activity of story-telling, these groups will be participating, all at once, in contributing to the story being presented to them. As a special event, this story that lends itself to interaction in the form of listener feedback, or question-and-answer time, is being read at the Seattle Public Library. It is being broadcast to remote locations through a coordinated network hookup to the groups of children at the other libraries. The children respond to comments, and pose their own questions, and talk to each other. They are participating in an event which is not only fun and educational, but gives them an opportunity to interact with different communities and meet different children, enabling a multi-leveled learning opportunity.
Interactive
Research Project:
The term "research" conjures up images of painstaking thumbing through
dryly written textbooks for information which may be up to twenty years
old. We want current, applicable information which will not only educate
our communities, but interest and involve them in the outcome of that
research.
A group of four biology students from Meadowdale High School are working on a presentation about the Olympic Rainforest in Washington State. They are armed with the basic facts: square footage, annual rainfall, prominent types of flora and fauna. They can't fill up an hour with the tiny bits of text they have, so going further in their search for information, they go to their library and gather around an E-Study Carrel. A guided tour of the rainforest, led by a prominent scientist from the University of Washington is being conducted over the Internet. This is a real-time, fully interactive tour where the students are allowed to ask questions as the scientist takes them through the rainforest, showing them what he's seeing, pointing out plant species native to the rainforest, and those that aren't native - and threatening the local species. One student asks, "So why is that a big deal?" and gets a detailed question to her answer. The students download and save the information gathered from this tour, and leave with not just a better understanding of the rainforest itself, but an understanding of its necessity to their environment and their world.
Access
to World-Wide Newspapers:
In New
York, you can walk into nearly any library and have access to the New
York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Sun-Times, or any number
of newspapers to keep you aligned with current events. But what if you
live in Tyner, Indiana?
Mr. York, 72, immigrated to the US from Gdansk, Poland 50 years ago. Mr. York likes to keep up with the events of his home town; much of his family is still there, and he maintains written correspondence with life-long friends. Every morning, Mr. York goes to the library to gossip with friends, do crosswords with the librarian, and read the newspaper. Every Wednesday morning however, he nods to the librarian, compliments his outfit, and continues straight to a Data Slate. He types in a series of code words and is immediately rewarded with an index to Gdansk's daily newspaper. He chooses all of the last week's issues, presses a button and receives a split screen - half shows the paper in it's original Polish text, the other half shows an English translation. Although Mr. York has managed to maintain his fluency in Polish, there are new words all the time that need to be translated for him. After reading the papers, Mr. York sends a quick email to a friend in Poland, lamenting the closure of yet another group of independent booksellers as the large conglomerates go international. He then orders a book of crossword puzzles from Amazon.com and heads home for lunch.
Access to Rare and Out-of-Print Books: As comprehensive as our current library systems are, there is still a limited amount of physical archival space. How then, is our quest for information fully realized, if the material is simply unavailable?
Edmund is a writer compiling information for a biography about Sylvia Plath. For years he's been reading her work, and interviewing people who knew her. His interviewees always mentioned a small book of her poems which had been published and distributed only regionally in the Boston area. Although these people had read, or owned a copy at one time, they had all been lost. Years of searching in used book stores were fruitless, and so on this day, Edmund grabbed a Data Slate to conduct a nation wide library search for the lost Sylvia Plath poems. In a few moments, the library search found his prize: a single copy was held in the Smith College archives. Edmund emailed a written request, and the necessary clearance forms and within a week, the elusive booklet was in his hands.
Interactive
Classrooms:
The best way to learn about something is to experience it first hand.
When distance or finance inhibits our ability to get to the experience,
the next best option is to bring the experience to us.
It's 9:05am at the library on Kaibab Indian Reservation in Arizona, near the Utah border; a group of five Native-American 8th-graders gather around a large screen. It's 5:05pm at a library in the Aswan Region of Egypt; a group of four 8th-graders gather around a Multi-Screen Electronic Theatre. In five minutes, the ten students are working on a Humanities report together: The Arizona students are learning about the Egyptian culture, while the Aswan students discover the current status of the Native American culture. They see, hear, and talk to each other, and with a student leader on each team to keep them on track, they discuss their topics - their questions and comments being instantly translated for the other group. While the students recognize that their cultures are unique, they also begin to realize many similarities in the way they live - such as maintaining the ways and beliefs of each culture. They come away realizing that while their lives are very different, their feelings and aspirations as teenagers are very similar. For the first time, the students are enthusiastic about their assignment - and interested in learning more about the regions they are studying.
Interactive Film Festivals: Video-Diplomacy - when the world achieves peace and understanding through a discussion of the common love of film. Instead of war, world leaders are forced to watch Woody Allen movies until they come to a compromise. Foreign Film Appreciation becomes a mandatory high school requirement.
In a suburb of Sydney, Australia, the sun sets behind the Great Dividing Range. It's dusk, when the streets typically empty as people head indoors, but on this evening the townspeople gather in a library parking lot, bringing folding chairs, lawn chairs, bean bags, and blankets to ward off the evening chill. They set up their makeshift auditorium beside the B.A.T. Mobile and watch as the Drive-by Interactive Marguee flips open to reveal a large movie screen. This ritual is taking place in similar suburbs in the same general time zone - Brisbane, Tokyo, Seoul, Belogorsk. The groups are gathered for a Frederico Fellini film-festival being broadcast over the Internet. During the shows, an American film critic will be commenting upon the artistry and significance of the Fellini genre. Her comments are instantly translated for viewers in different countries, in their appropriate dialects. At the end of the film festival, each region is allotted a certain amount of time to lodge their own questions and comments by the film critic, and other viewers. For some in the groups, it's the first time they've been introduced to Fellini. Email addresses are exchanged, and through their accounts at their local library, these new movie-buffs begin a form of Video-Diplomacy - communications and ideas shared around the world through a common love of film.
Remote Author Book Readings and Signings: Writers become icons as much as any movie star or politician. Their works are anticipated, personal glimpses of them are desired, and their autographs are coveted. Autographed books are treasured and revered as a priceless pieces in a collection.
Libraries around the United States are staying open late tonight for a special Author Reading. Readers are anxious to start this session, as the author is Studs Terkel, famous writer and very old person who could go at any minute. In fact, that's the title of his new book: "I Could Go At Any Minute, by Studs Terkel: Comments On What's Wrong With Society And What To Do About It Before It's Too Late For Both Of Us" will be read from this evening. After the reading, all those in the audience who have purchased his latest e-bookfor their Data Slate can insert it into the dataport, and have an authorized digital signature from Mr. Terkel printed onto their book. An instant heirloom for future generations to cherish.
Access to Privately Held Databases: Expansive amounts of technical data are now collected in large subscription databases around the world. If access is granted, powerful search queries allow users to retrieve the most detailed information.
Angie is pulling together the last sections for her proposal tomorrow. If she gets this job with the marketing department at the newspaper, her rise to the top of the corporate ladder will start in earnest. Realizing she wants something extra to make her proposal stand out from the competition, she heads down to the library. She's used the worldCombined database for in-depth research so often, she thinks of it as her secret weapon. While sitting at an E-Study Carrel, all it takes is aquick log-in and her user ID is authorized through the library system's account, and she is accessing information inside a mainframe in Washington D.C. Sitting before one of the most powerful database resources ever created, she begins her research. Within minutes she prints her report comparing circulation, advertisement rates, and percentage of ad coverage for 200 major newspapers in the United States and Europe. Slipping the report into her bag, she strides out, confident this job is hers.
Calendar of Special Events: The strongest part of a community is its member's involvement. The greatest obstacle to involvement is the lack of information.
A family of five goes to the library the evening of the first day of the month. It's a monthly ritual for them - to gain access to the database which contains the Calendar of Special Events for their city and region. Each family member grabs a Data Slate and, as a group, goes over to a semi-circle of comfortable chairs, in an area of the building set aside specifically for discussion. The library hosts a main database for activities, but also provides links to other databases - all are searchable by key words.
Mrs. K types in "Italian" - she is rewarded with information about various language classes, tutors, and - just what she was looking for, an interactive Fellini Film Festival to take place at the library next Sunday. She downloads the information into her Palm Pilot, and programs it to give her a reminder. Back at the general calendar she notices "Harley Maintenance For Women" at the local experimental college. She bookmarks that one for later... Mr. K types in "Tuesday". The database shows him a comprehensive list of all activities available on Tuesdays, from their neighborhood Community Center's "Family Billiards Night" to reviews of the specials being offered in restaurants that week. After brief discussion, the family decides to sign up for "Family Billiards Night" and Mr. K emails their registration, along with the appropriate fees charged to his credit card. The youngest son was recently diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), Mr. K types in "Hospitals" to get a look at a comprehensive list of classes and lectures being offered by local medical facilities. Again, Mr. K emails a registration form. The two older children sign up for an interactive on-line SAT study group to take place in the library that month. They then read movie reviews accompanied by video clips and listen to audio clips from new CD releases. The family orders the "Comprehensive Mozart Collection - Oldies but Goodies" and leaves the library, social calendar completed, until the next month.
The B.A.T. Cave:
The
B.A.T.mobile's exterior looks deceivingly simple. Inside, a third
of the space is filled with the guts of the system — computers, displays,
and communication hubs are stacked in racks that maximize the usage of
the space. The other portion of the vehicle is a white room that appears
to be made of one continuous surface. While the B.A.T.mobile is in transit
between libraries, this space is filled with the pieces of technology
that are distributed inside the libraries. While the B.A.T.mobile is at
its next site, this space becomes the B.A.T.cave.
Students from Ms. Shelley's eighth-grade science class from Meany Middle School are excited for the field trip upon which they're about to embark. They've been studying the Pathfinder mission to Mars for the past few weeks in preparation for today. When they arrive at the library, they see the B.A.T.mobile parked in front of the building. The door to the B.A.T.cave stands ajar. The class enters and is greeted by driver and technician Don Starling. He describes what they are about to experience inside the luminous room. The lights dim and the students smile as they see the Pathfinder spacecraft in front of them, the red-rocked Martian surface at their feet, and the pink sky above. The students were first taken on an overall tour of the area. Then, students learned about the path taken by the Sojourner Rover and found more information about Calvin, Squid, and Bam Bam, some of the rocks that Sojourner encountered. The session was wrapped up with the journey from Mars to their home in Seattle that included a fly-by of the moon. At the end of the field trip, one of the students asked Ms. Shelley where they were going next time. "Where ever we want to," she replied.
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