[27657] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYIFrance: the library, atomized?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Sun Jul 18 17:50:46 2010
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Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:46:38 -0700
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FYIFrance: the library, atomized?
"The Atomized Library" is an idea, of two US architecture=20
students, to inject some fundamental flexibilities into the idea=20
of "library service".
Several French friends have written to me about this -- some=20
alarmed, some perplexed, some simply curious, some in love -- the=20
concept appears to have caught the French library imagination, in=20
several quarters.
For a design studio, in their final year of architecture at San=20
Francisco's venerable California College of Art, students Duncan=20
Young and Bret Walters suggested that library service be, a)=20
exploded out into the community, and, b) designed dynamically and=20
continuously, "GoogleSearch-like", by the community it serves...
Their college is "venerable" by California standards, at least:=20
at 100+ years, the California College of Arts and Crafts / CCAC,=20
recently name-shortened to "CCA", is the citadel of the post-1906=20
earthquake Arts and Crafts Movement here, famous for having=20
turned out some of California's finest designers, architects, and=20
artists.
The two CCA students' Atomized Library idea contains two really=20
interesting parts:
* Small and very flexible spaces would be scattered around a=20
city, connected via Internet among one another and with the main=20
library and the online world, occupying unused or little-used=20
real estate located in areas where the services are needed most;
* Also, and most interestingly, these "atoms" would be equipped=20
with "GoogleSearch-like" feedback systems, allowing user-data and=20
input into branch library location and design and holdings and=20
other decisions...
-- their concept is fleshed out, and interestingly illustrated,=20
on their storyboards which appear as images on the websites=20
listed below.
The idea of small & scattered branch libraries is nothing new:=20
since the Baths of Caracalla, librarians have "gone where the=20
action is", seeking out locales and activities where users may be=20
found -- also worrying about damage to their precious scrolls or=20
manuscripts or books, from threats ranging from tepidarium steam=20
and bathwater to modern coffee concoctions and peanut butter.
What is new, in the Atomized Library, is the idea of insertion=20
into unexpected corners of the city...
These two students have come up with ingenious ways of varying=20
library spaces, so that some Atomized Library locations might=20
include a small theater, & others a cafe, & still others a=20
specialised music collection, & others none of these but instead=20
a children's room -- and, in all, maybe a printed books=20
collection or maybe not -- and all spaces modular, as architects=20
love to do, plug-in where needed, plug-out where not.
And these little & flexible "libraries" can fit into the=20
strangest places -- the way "pocket parks" do in New York City=20
and San Francisco, or canal-side and railway-elevated walks do in=20
London & Paris & Manhattan -- these small but well-connected=20
Atomized Libraries can enhance tiny corners of surplus real=20
estate, such as alleys & plazas & empty lots & empty buildings,=20
going out to find the customers instead of forcing the customers=20
to trek over to "central campus", or all the way in to=20
now-rarely-visited "downtowns", to find them.
That perhaps is why the French have such interest... Cities in=20
France famously are wonderful mixes of old and new and variety in=20
buildings, and neighborhoods -- and increasingly the megalomaniac=20
among them, Paris, has become choked with travel congestion, so=20
much so that suburbanites there rarely visit the center nowadays=20
except "en passant"... the way families en route to the beach do,=20
"via" Lyon...
One can imagine many interesting nooks in Paris which might use=20
an Atomized Library: the gare, the aerogare, the suburban=20
shopping centre, the downtown-office quartier, the annexe of a=20
tiny church, an eastern-end building or building lot or unused=20
train-yard awaiting development -- not an expensive branch=20
library, but something far simpler, digitally better-connected,=20
flexible, and the modules of which more easily fit into a variety=20
of urban spaces.
The second major prop of the Atomized Library idea concerns=20
flexibility as well: this time, though, less of structure than of=20
programme -- of a feedback mechanism, for involving user behavior=20
and input in the library's design and its services.
These architecture students, like most students everywhere now,=20
not only are in love with Google's "algorithm" but they actually=20
understand it -- at least they understand it in principle, its=20
general role -- while most in the older user-generation, when=20
they hear the word "algorithm", simply flare or run and hide.
So Young and Walters figure library user data, like Google search=20
data, can provide valuable "user survey"-like clues -- to not=20
only user reading habits, but also opening hours preferences,=20
events schedules, tastes in activities -- what library truly=20
interested in library "service" would not want to know when their=20
readers prefer to visit, what resources they would like to use,=20
what library activities and events they might attend?
An informatised system can provide libraries with this data. An=20
Atomized Library information system can pinpoint it. Readers at a=20
tiny railroad station kiosk can tell librarians, precisely, what=20
they would like to see and do there, changing that input as=20
preferences change -- users at a larger, mini-theater-equipped,=20
multi-purpose space, near an elementary school, can state their=20
very different preferences too -- an Atomized Library in a=20
financial district gone-to-seed can get early warnings from its=20
users about hitech startups moving in -- a renovating industrial=20
district can tell its library, directly via usage or indirectly=20
from surveys on its terminals and via remote logins, whether its=20
new "loft district" residents will want a caf=E9, or more books, or=20
less books and more terminals.
We have excellent examples of such flexibility now, in many=20
"branch" library systems. Many cities, in France and elsewhere,=20
boast brave projects which have placed small versions of larger=20
central libraries into impoverished neighborhoods, downtown=20
"business" centers, new "loft" developments. But these are large=20
investments, for the library system -- permanent places, with=20
permanent staff & leases & collections. And they change slowly=20
and lack flexibility, just as their central libraries do. The=20
atomized library idea is different: something smaller and far=20
less expensive and, most importantly, more responsive to users'=20
needs, and far more flexible.
Most interesting of all, though, in the Atomized Library idea, is=20
the data... The "GoogleSearch-like" feedback of the system could=20
provide user-survey data to improve the library service itself.=20
Also, though, massive behavioral and opinion and attitudinal data=20
has been found to be invaluable for other purposes -- and it is=20
becoming more and more key to scientific research --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_distributed_collaboration
-- and for commercial purposes, "le marketing", and for politics,=20
from People Power to Obama.com, and even now as predictors for=20
broad social trends... just as Hari Seldon said, all his caveats=20
against mis-use notwithstanding...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Seldon
-- for a remarkable demonstration of this use of data, look at=20
Google Domestic Trends --
http://www.google.com/finance/domestic_trends
-- where Google search patterns are suggested as reflectors, or=20
even predictors, of general economic activity. Atomized Library=20
user feedback could use these and other indicators, derived from=20
user data and input, and even provide them to others. Many folks,=20
in addition to libraries themselves, might want to know what=20
categories of people use libraries, and when, and how and for=20
what purposes: not just who they are personally and what they=20
read -- both of those categories "suspect" for civil liberties --=20
but also other more general data.
France could use all this -- libraries in France could -- but the=20
French tend to be wonderfully-suspicious... The wonderful thing=20
about French suspicions being that they can be useful to new=20
American ideas --
The data-collecting of the Atomized Library, for example, needs=20
vetting by more than one culture. The students here understand=20
this point: they considered Sao Paulo and Montreal and the=20
Randstad -- different cultures do view civil liberties, and=20
privacy, and urban space, very differently -- just as different=20
places have different crime rates, and reading and digital=20
proficiencies, and weather conditions. Young and Walter build=20
flexibility into their study to allow for such differences, but=20
busy implementers have to allow for them too: the streetscape=20
Atomized Library kiosk in Sao Paulo will face different weather,=20
and local customs, and user needs, than it might in Amsterdam.
The best thing to do, to appreciate fully and to evaluate the=20
Atomized Library proposals, is to look at them online: think=20
"flexibility" -- small library service-points, scattered across=20
cities -- designed, maybe even by their users, to change as=20
user-needs change --
* http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/atomized-library.html
* http://www.flickr.com/photos/bldgblog/sets/72157623284161853/detail/
* http://shareable.net/blog/the-atomized-library
* http://gouvactu.adminet.fr/the-atomized-library-la-bibliotheque-atomisee-=
synd00155251.html
*=20
http://www.bibliofrance.org/index.php?option=3Dcom_content&view=3Darticle&i=
d=3D1020:the-atomized-library-&catid=3D71:-articles-de-bibliofrance--articl=
es-de-bibliofran&Itemid=3D57
* tiny URL -- http://tiny.cc/p5wo3
Two Notes:
> "L'atomisme est une th=E9orie physique proposant une conception=20
> d'un univers discontinu, compos=E9 de mati=E8re et de vide..."
>
> wikipedia.fr
* The Library Algorithmic
I tend to be suspicious. It's one reason I like the French,=20
perhaps: suspicion, in France, like beauty and garden snails and=20
so many other things, gets raised to the level of an art-form...=20
When new ideas arrive to the French they are welcomed, but then=20
they get torn apart -- assiduously disassembled, discussed,=20
deconstructed -- ideas which survive the Parisian knives will be=20
good ones, or at least they will have been well-considered.
Just so, the idea of a "biblioth=E8que bis", for the old BN... then=20
the notion of a "caesura", cutting that collection at the=20
not-entirely-arbitrary date of 1945... more recently, the notion=20
that a single US corporation's "secret" method for sorting data=20
should become the sole gateway to all information... French=20
audiences, particularly those interested in libraries, have=20
learned from experience to be very careful of information=20
innovation.
But it makes them a great testing ground. If an idea like the=20
Atomized Library can survive a Paris audience, how much better it=20
will do in Berlin or Bologna or Mumbai or Beijing, where=20
audiences are no less careful but may be somewhat more reluctant=20
to raise objections, early enough, for designs to get effectively=20
and inexpensively corrected.
"The Library Algorithmic"... It sounds wonderful, and it may=20
indeed be wonderful, but only if certain audiences, recently=20
grown shy about the invisible and secret algorithms now governing=20
their daily lives in so many ways -- in information search and=20
retrieval and use, in weapons guidance systems, in oil drill rig=20
operation, in automobile braking -- can be satisfied. Success=20
will be an important measure, but open and detailed and=20
transparent explanation will be too, as will be lots and lots of=20
testing.
* The City is The Library
Best of the ideas Young and Walter put forward with their=20
Atomized Library, though, is a democratic one.
In their feedback mechanism, through which library users might=20
even provide input for library design and operation and change,=20
the city becomes the library...
That can be a very good thing, considering how other information=20
systems have been absorbed into their surroundings and in turn=20
absorbed them, to the benefit of both: the book, developing both=20
sophisticated technique and great influence from its crude=20
incunabula beginnings -- the telephone, once feared as a strange=20
electrocution device -- the Internet, government engineer's=20
plaything become globalized necessity-of-life now for so many --=20
if the library can meld with its own users, and vice versa, the=20
users going forward might come to read more than just the 20% of=20
the expensively-stored collection they ever get to now, plus they=20
might even get to the point where they the customers efficiently=20
design and operate the library services themselves...
The history of city planning offers many dreams of the City as an=20
organic thing -- a live "hive", buzzing with activity, one=20
particularly creative thinker even suggested -- so much=20
individualized energy, gathered in one place and too often at=20
odds with one another, how much more productive and satisfying if=20
better-connected?
Ebenezer Howard thought it could be done with gardens, Lewis=20
Mumford thought only if tried at a smaller scale, Jean Gottmann=20
though loved the larger, Bucky Fuller thought putting it all=20
beneath a big air-conditioned dome would help... Young and=20
Walter, now in their turn, see the City with Information-Era=20
eyes: perhaps the key, or at least a key, to running our 25+=20
million population linked-Global-City-system correctly, or at=20
least better, will be more democratic sharing and shaping of its=20
information systems...
What better place to begin than with its libraries, then: that's=20
the treasured "past", where lie the mistakes we must remember or=20
repeat -- also, librarians are the people among us most adept and=20
best-trained at helping nous autres to locate and use=20
information, "face to face" instead of or at least in addition to=20
the "face to faceless" of online information systems -- so let's=20
get all of that on-board, for the brick library and the digital=20
library, both -- The City as Library, yes, good idea.
Bonnes vacances,
Jack Kessler, kessler@well.com
=09=09=09--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071-5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
/ \ Any material written by me which appears in
----- FYI France may be copied and used by anyone for
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// \\ isn't going to make them money: if it is going
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or http://www.fyifrance.com . Suggestions, reactions, criticisms,=20
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=09Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
=09all rights reserved except as indicated above.
=09=09=09--hjlm--
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