walking paper

file under: libraries in which i’d live, luckenwalde

Aaron — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:33:14 +0000

The old train station in Luckenwalde, Germany, about an hour away from Berlin, has been converted into a public library. It is beautiful. Their website is even pretty nice. I can’t make any claims about how it functions as a library but it is sure easy on my eyes.

The furniture for Luckenwalde’s library was designed by Quinze & Milan who also created some of the furniture for Seattle Public Library. Also having their stuff in the Roosendaal, NL public library might make them the goto firm for high end library furniture.

The January 2009 issue of Wallpaper reports that a goal of the Luckenwalde project was to make the library a focal point for the town (much like the former train station was, I assume). The striking design certainly helps meet this goal and I’m interested to know if the services they provide are equally as notable. For more, see the links at de estación a biblioteca - public library in Luckenwalde.

Anyone reading this been there? I’d love to hear a report.

a deliberately difficult, delightful design

Aaron — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:51:09 +0000

The website for Clyde Common in Portland contains the most appropriate use of mystery meat navigation I’ve ever seen.

Generally, not making links (and their destinations) completely apparent is bad form, but this site intentionally obfuscates things to engage the user. Go to the site and mouse over the sections. You’ll be rewarded with cute, simple animations. *

The wine and cocktails chunk tickles me not only because of the repetition of the word tail, but also because the pig looks like he’s had a strong pull.

The last time I remember being so taken with something being intentionally more difficult than normal is when I saw this clock.

* You’ll also encounter two unannounced PDFs which is is typical on restaurant sites and hardly ever welcome.

whiteboard as social hardware

Aaron — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:33:11 +0000

“Phillip is Looking for His Friends” by thehubatwts

my new job is great and i want to tell you about it

Aaron — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:00:30 +0000

In late October I wrote a semi-cryptic Facebook status update telling people that I gave notice at my job. Then a few weeks later a few people emailed me when they saw my job at the NPPL listed on the PNLA Jobs website. Sorry that I haven’t been able to say anything until now, but Ts were getting crossed and all of that.

I’m super excited to let interested parties know that I’m now the Digital Initiatives Librarian for the District of Columbia Public Library. Not quite sure what a Digital Initiatives Librarian does? Well, it is vague on purpose but I can tell you that I’m going to be doing website visioning, usability testing, web presence development and planning all sorts of fun projects. Much of this stuff is going to fall under a subdivision of the DCPL Information Technology Services department that we’re calling DCPL Labs (still in beta so expect to find some lorem ipsum). You can visit the DCPL Labs Projects page for some details of what we’ll be starting with, but I’m most excited about:

Our iPhone application. This is probably the simplest way I’ve seen to search for and place holds on library items. It is built and is in the process of being submitted to Apple for inclusion in the iTunes application store. The current version is about .8 and we have an exciting roadmap for future functionality.
Content Creation Stations. We’re giving DCPL Neighborhood Libraries some great hardware and training to help people produce digital content and put it online. We’re going to aggregate this content somewhere on the DCPL site.
We’ve got a nice looking and usable design for a new library website that is in the process of being built.
DCPL staff education. I’m going to be helping write modules for a learning program, hosting a Library 2.0 interest group for DCPL employees, and writing a tech awareness blog called The Dish. Writing a different style blog, something much more general and link-bloggy than walking paper should be fun and challenging.

Another aspect of the job that is fun and challenging is that I’m not moving to DC. I’ll be telecommuting from Portland and visiting DC as needed. In our estimation this might be for a few days monthly or every other month. I’ll be working from home (which probably means I’ll get back to posting more pics of Mao on the green couch to flickr) and my local haunt, Red Square Cafe. This flexibility also means that I’ll still be doing some traveling for neat presentation and workshop opportunities.

The DCPL is implementing a big transition, including some major construction projects. It is encouraging that the library is considering their digital presence in this transition, and I’m honored to help with the task.

beautiful > ugly

Aaron — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:58:38 +0000

Consider pouring yourself a coffee or tea and taking a few minutes to walk around your library and look at the signs you see. Where do they fall on this graph?

perhaps replace “friendly/mean” with “helpful/unhelpful” too
How many of your signs fall into the desirable quadrant I?

Ready for the real test? Print out the graph and hand some copies to library users. Pour them a coffee or tea and have them rate your signs. Is there a difference?

Much of the discussion surrounding signs in libraries has been around the attitude of the signs and the policies from which they stem. While this is very important, let’s not forget that they don’t often conform to the rules of graphic design either (i.e. they’re not pretty). Chances are that your library doesn’t have a graphic design department, so this isn’t a surprise.

If you’d like to improve the looks of your signs but don’t know where to start, you could do worse than to thumb through the go-to The Non-Designer’s Design Book. It isn’t going to turn you into an expert sign designer over night, but it will introduce you to some basic principles that can improve the appeal of your signs.

A great example of what can be achieved after reading The Non-Designer’s Design Book is this sign that Anna Warns redesigned for the class I’m teaching for the UW’s iSchool.

She writes:

Old sign:
This one is ugly and friendly. The message of conserving paper is a good one and anyone who’s been near the public access computers printer knows that there is a lot of waste. The sign is just…old and sad. While it’s clear that someone put a little effort into this, it’s horribly out-dated and is too wordy. Another problem with sign is the location - it is on the printer table and not able to be seen until you pick up your print job.

New sign:
The new sign has much less wording. It is concise and much of the message is implied through the graphic. The font will hopefully relate a computer/techy feel next to the earthy image and create context for the sign. I intend to put this one up in the library and change its location so it is relevant.

Is this concern for aesthetics superficial? I don’t think so. Having thoughtfully designed signs and pamphlets around the library makes things easier for patrons, and illustrates that the library takes pride in what it does.

walking paper scraps: pretty in your browser edition

Aaron — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:00:12 +0000

→ Host your own muxtape style MP3 player with OpenTape. This is a .12 release, bit it works for the most part. I made walking paper music in about as much time as it took to upload three mp3s.

→ Make Google Reader easier on your eye with Helvetireader, a userscript for any browser that can handle it. You lose a bit of functionality but you probably aren’t using it anyways.

urban decay desktop images

Aaron — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:00:21 +0000

Like you, I spend plenty of time in front of my computer screen. Most of the time I can’t stand to have anything besides a black or dark grey desktop but recently I’ve wanted a tiny bit more to look at. Nothing out on the web really struck my fancy so I just made my own. And since I went to the trouble, I figure I’d put them out here in case they work for anyone else.

1920×1200 (24″ iMac / Cinema Display)
1440×900 (15″ Macbook Pro)
1280×800 (13″ Macbook)
240×320 (iPhone / iPod Touch)

If you’d like all of the images in a certain size, here they are zipped:
1920×1200 (24″ iMac / Cinema Display)
1440×900 (15″ Macbook Pro)
1280×800 (13″ Macbook)
240×320 (iPhone / iPod Touch)

the alphabet in books

Aaron — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:02:06 +0000

Could make for an interesting library display.

[via]

walking paper scraps

Aaron — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:00:41 +0000

→ Don’t talk to strangers — scan them instead.
2D codes + fabric + mobiles phones = people wearing hyperlinks to their social networking profiles. Next up is RFID chips broadcasting your profile wherever you go. It could make for serendipitous connections!

→ Why Apple is great at interfaces when others are not
Short answer: Because they take fun and pleasure into account.

→ Rule of Thumb - Giving a Speech

When giving a public science lecture to a general audience, there will always be one weirdo who asks questions that have nothing to do with your lecture. There will also be one smart-aleck who asks questions to show how smart he is. The faster you silence both of them, the happier your audience will be.

→ Obama’s Victory Speech Does Well on BitTorrent

Within 24 hours of president-elect Barack Obama delivering his victory speech to the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Chicago, another hundred thousand gathered in a BitTorrent swarm, to download a copy of the historic event.

→ Type Tester
A handy CSS tool. 1. Choose values for different elements and see them displayed. 2. Three columns let you compare. 3. Snag the CSS.

genre X is doing things right

Aaron — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:47:05 +0000

Genre-X is a library book group for 20 and 30somethings at the Oak Park Public Library. They don’t always meet in the library, however. They meet at local watering holes. This is great, but it isn’t the only thing they’re doing right. They recently had a hi-lo gaming event with a Nintendo Wii and board games, and DJs. What’s more, they had a group member draw and hand screen posters for the event too. This seems like a small thing but it was quite a nice touch. It let a group member contribute to the project, emphasized something local and DIY, and provided added value that a lame 8.5×11 photocopy simply would not have added.

A follow up post states that event was a big success, attracting over 60 people to the library after hours.

Two bonuses. 1. The genre-x blog is particularly attractive. 2. When you visit the “about” page on the site, it doesn’t first go into details about the group or the library. It highlights the people behind the group.

Congrats to the folks at OPPL for connecting with a group that libraries have traditionally ignored.

drupal on the brain, drupal4lib camp

Aaron — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:46:47 +0000

I started my first real foray into Drupal last week while assembling a home base for DCPL’s upcoming “X Things” program. I’m way into it. I’ve always heard how very customizable and extensible it is but working with it has really opening my eyes. Catching on to the Drupal way of doing things didn’t take too long thanks to the great documentation at the Drupal handbooks. If you feel like you’ve got a handle on WordPress stuff and feel like trying something new, I suggest you install Drupal somewhere and have a go. What’s the worst that could happen? For some nice library related starter info, see Amanda Etches-Johnson’s recent series of posts about how she’s used Drupal at McMaster University: on drupal, part one, on drupal, part two. Here’s hoping for a third installment!

With Drupal on my mind and considering that it is going to be a not small part of my life for the foreseeable future, I’m way excited for drupal4lib camp in February. I’ll be attending, learning a bunch and I hope to be able to share some stuff too. It will be hosted at the not-even-open-yet-brand-new-Darien Library which I’m looking forward to touring. Thanks in advance to the Darien crew for hosting.

[image by john blyberg]

make libraries easy

Aaron — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:49:39 +0000

Speaking of World Usability Day, here’s one of my latest Moo Minicards.

infinite stacks

Aaron — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:16:59 +0000

The irony of posting a picture of these beautiful shelves on World Usability Day isn’t lost on me. I do quite enjoy them though.

[via] who writes: I’ve never wanted to be a librarian, but I’d totally love this as my workspace. Ooh! And then I could wear my cute librarian shoes! Eek!

cute signs from the port orchard public library

Aaron — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:49:27 +0000

The shellphone really cracks me up! Yes, they’re using the dreaded red circle and line but they’re doing a nice job creating zones and not unnecessarily attempting to ban other silent use of portable devices. The nautical theme does a good job of reflecting their community and surroundings too.

These were taken by Karen Messo at the Port Orchard Public Library and used with permission.

librarian call buttons

Aaron — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:05:11 +0000

One of the things we’re doing in the class I’m teaching right now for the iSchool at the University of Washington is reconsidering how libraries do Reference work. I asked students to brainstorm about the topic and thought this idea from Lianne Ho was pretty neat. I’d link to her class blog but it is behind UW authentication.

What about the service expectations at places like restaurants? Restaurant patrons don’t just prefer to be approached by the wait staff–they expect it! Especially in more formal establishments, it’s expected that wait staff will monitor patrons to provide immediate or even preemptive service (ex. refilling water glasses before they’re empty).

Some establishments (generally more casual ones) have the equivalent of an attendant call button at tables. Patrons will signal that they need something and (ideally) someone will come by within a minute or two.

I’m intrigued with the idea of using a similar model at the library. What if there was a way for patrons to page the librarian and get near-immediate assistance where they are? Perhaps there could be an icon on the computer desktop, for patrons who need assistance at one of the workstations. There could also be “call” buttons at the end of the stacks.