library test kitchen newspaper

8/10/2019 Library Test Kitchen Newspaper

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Aims With the nancial support o the Harvard Library Lab,

to design, build and deploy products, services & experi-ences that model the uture o the Harvard Libraries.

Questions What orm should the Harvard Libraries assume in

the 21st century? Should they simply vanish into virtualdesktops and merge into a timeless and placeless univer-

sal database? Should they alter their identity and becomeworkshops, laboratories, innovation incubators whereemerging and uture orms interact and dialogue with therelics o the past? Or should they simply merge with theuniversity itsel as a place o knowledge production andreproduction?

Bibliotheca II: Te Library est KitchenTe Harvard Library is amidst an enormous transition

and these questions are all on the table. As a collaborationbetween the Graduate School o Design and the HarvardLibrary, the est Kitchen is an invitation or students todene new dimensions o the library experience.

Afer a brie crash-course in library history, theory andpractice, we will shif to creative work. We will begin withtwo design exercises be ore beginning work on our mainprojects. As they gel, we will deploy these projects in est Kitchens -- partner libraries, such as the Loeb andWidener Libraries, that allocate portions o their publicspace to these experiments.

Ben Brady

L K or the librarianAnn Whiteside

Te Library est Kitchen took place in the library at theGSD. Why the library? Because its about libraries! Whatbetter place to think about the uture o libraries? And in anew, uture oriented space that is the new visual collections-materials collection space in Loeb Library. Te materialsand visual content are also all about the making o placesand environments, as is the L K.

L K has been this amazing process o discussion, idea-generating, and prototyping o things we can do in librariesto engage in and oster change in how we perceive libraries.I worked most closely with Jessica, Yuhka, and Kaitlyn ontheir projects. We talked several times over the course o thesemester to bring their ideas into being.

A ale o wo Courses Jeffrey Schnapp

During the summer o 2011, the past collided with theuture and two courses were born.

Te Past?Harvards extraordinary archipelago o seventy-plus bricks-

and-mortar libraries was beginning to undergo a wholesalereorganization that would centralize their operations, reposi-tion them or the new millennium, rethink habits built upover the prior century.

Te Future? Under the aegis o the Berkman Center or Internet and

Society, the Digital Public Library o America (DPLA)project had been launched. A competition or innovativeideas and designs ollowed thereafer and, by the end o thesummer, two Harvard-based entities had made the nal cut:metaLAB (at) Harvard, the newly ormed digital humani-ties research center, and the Harvard Library Innovation

Laboratory.

Past + Future = ?It was hard not to eel implicated and enthused by the task

o conjugating the librarys history with its uture, its physi-cality with the digitally architectural. Tere was an immediatetask at hand as well: I had to make my teaching commitmentsor the all o 2011. So I approached my riend and colleagueJohn Pal rey, Henry N. Ess III Pro essor o Law and ViceDean or Library and In ormation Resources at Harvard LawSchool, to see i he might be willing to co-teach a course onthe past, present, and uture o the library at the HarvardGraduate School o Design.

So arose Bibliotheca, a hybrid history/theory/design studiodedicated to probing the ull span o the librarys history as

an institution o memory, to ostering historically and criti-cally in ormed speculative design thinking, including designthinking dedicated to resolving the Harvard library systemsmost intractable challenges.

As documented in the syllabus, the course was designed asa porous seminar with our sessions serving as open com-munity orums. It was divided between a properly historicalprelude in which key moments in the history o libraries wereprobed, case studies o contemporary library construction,and the development o specic design projects. Energizedby local conversations about the library reorganization andby national ones regarding the DPLA, it seemed unthinkablethat it should end. Te question o libraries and their uturewas way too hot.

From the beginning o the semester, Jeff Goldenson romthe Law Library Innovation Lab and Anne Whiteside, direc-tor o the Loeb Design library were our closest collaborators,so when the semester came to a elicitous close and John hadto move on, the three o us decided to proceed.

Son o Bibliotheca alias Bibliotheca II alias the Library estKitchen was born. Now with Jeff Goldenson at the helm, thegoal was more hands-on: to build the 21st century library onecomponent at a time: to dream up appliances, urnishings,policies, rules, navigational systems that would render librar-ies sites o activation, animation, activation, and making,even as physical records migrate into off-site storage anddocuments migrate into digital orms.

A project or multiple li etimes here pregured in a modest

broadsheet lled with news rom the immediate uture.

Te Library est Kitchen will go on indenitely.

Projects Projects may assume a range o orms. Tey may be

built, grown, coded or per ormed. Tey may involveredesigning existing library websites. Tey may be pieceso urniture or new re erence services. Projects mayaddress existing problems or serve as speculative probesor provocations.

Library est Kitchen is an open call.

Funded Research & Sharing our FindingsLibrary est Kitchen is unded research, supported bythe Harvard Library Lab. As such we have a responsibilityto share our work. o best communicate our ndings tothe Harvard Library. We will compile and publish selec-tions o our work. (Tis is what youre holding.)

ADV-09115 | Bibliotheca II: Library Test Kitchen Syllabus ExcerptsThursdays, 11am - 2pm, Visual + Material Resources Room, Loeb Library Jeffrey Schnapp, Jeff Goldenson, Ann Whiteside, Ben Brady

(continuted on back)

Visual + Material Resources Room, Loeb Library

73 separate libraries containing 1,000,000 netassignable square feet (occupiable space, ex-cluding mechanical & structural space)

16.3 million volumes12.8 million digital les100,000+ serial titles,millions of manuscripts,photographs, musical recordings, lms, andartifacts

1,200 full-time employees

Supporting more than 20,000 students 2,100 faculty members

Largest (by far) university library in the world

About the Harvard Library, 2009Beginnings Jeff Goldenson

We are in the midst o the Harvard Library ransition.Its a multi-year effort to create a coordinated managementstructure or the 73+ libraries across the University. It isa massive undertaking, and Deloitte Consulting has beenretained to help design and operationalize the new vision.

Earlier this all, Bibliotheca, the seminar led by pro essorsJohn Pal rey and Jeffrey Schnapp, brought the institutionalreality o the Harvard Library ransition into the classroom.Trough a series o hosted events, the core issues and op-portunities were openly discussed by Library staff, adminis-tration and students alike. It was exciting and illuminatingto have students at the table o this.

(continuted on back)


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T i m e / S l i c e

ime/Slice assumes that community goings-onare valuable in ormation that is an essential parto a communitys past and present, and shouldthus be under the purview o the communitylibrary.

It provides a slick and simple plat orm to displaycollaboratively-submitted, media- ocused digitalcontent. A diverse range o community memberscan submit the events and activities that areimportant to them.

ime/Slice diversies and expands what isconsidered a community event; any activity thatcan be represented can be submitted. ime/Sliceincreases event visibility and the potential orinterdisciplinary or serendipitous involvement tooccur.

Users create event posts by sending photos from phonesor via email. The display can be accessed independentlyby suers, or on a monitor in the community library.

An event advertised prominently at the GSD

Currently, community information tends to bedisorganized, inaccessible, fragmented, and impermanent;Time/Slice organizes and preserves it.

a project by jessica yurko sky

ime/Slice takes the sloppy and dynamic community bulletin board andmakes the content more accessible and engaging. It simultaneously archivescontent, including it as part o the communitys actively created history.Above, an event announcement at Harvard GSD.

Time/Slice is an online interface that displaysupcoming events associated with a specic geographic community.


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WHERE I read this book... Fig. No. ___ Fig. No. ___

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

additional SUBJECT termsWRITING in BOOKS How can library books become more interactive?

Writing in Books is an experiment that conceptualizeslibrary books as a work in progress, an amalgam of theoriginal text in addition to the annotations, criticisms,and additions of readers. By sticking a variety of marginexpansions and paper foldouts to books it provides roomfor readers to react.

Can readers contribute to the cataloguing process?

Could reader annotations be useful / interesting / worth saving?

What would a book that left room for its readers look like?

jessica yurko sky

S CA

N

ME

s e e

&

s n a p

[email protected]

April 12th 7pm

s e n d !


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Curated Collections or theCuriousan exhibition o the research processeswithin the Harvard community

Curated Collections or the Curious isa proposed exhibit to be housed withinparticipating Harvard UniversityLibraries. Te overarching goal othe project is to expose the processo research within the Harvardcommunity and link ormerly isolatedgroups with others who share similarinterests. Tese linkages serve to osterdiscussion and cross-disciplinaryengagement with larger ideas. Teindividual whose work is to bedisplayed will be selected by a researchlibrarian within the participatinglibrary. Te librarian works with theresearcher to identi y the key ormativesources used during their productiono a project. Te librarian will then set

about compiling the items identiedby the researcher and displaying themwith the Curated Collections or theCurious exhibit. Te collections willalso have a web presence which willhighlight the items displayed, provide asynopsis o the research, and introducea space to discuss the projects. Teweb site will also serve as a digitalarchive o all prior exhibits to providea clear record o the trajectory oresearch within the community. Tecollections will display key sources(books, images, videos and arti acts)associated with the research o aprominent member o the libraryslarger community.

As excerpted romUnpacking My Library: Architects and Teir BooksJo Steffens, Edito, Yale University Press, 2009

Kaitlyn Fitzgerald

structure

book display

arti act display

media display

traditional researchmaterials

audio and video researchand presentation materials

audio research andpresentation materials

physical research materials(models, arti acts, etc.)


5/16

2010 2003

2002

1999

1998

1996

1995

1982

1978

2009

2008

2007

2006

Collage City

Real Estate Finance andInvestments

Heat Islands

Principles of Microeconomics

Function of Form

Urban ecology: an internationalperspective on the interactionbetween humans

Ecological Urbanism

Urban Design

Urban regions: ecology andplanning beyond the city

Living systems: innovativematerials and technologies forlandscape architectureCities X lines: a new lens for theurbanistic project

Drosscape

Landscape urbanism: a manual formachinic landscape

Statistics: a tool for social research

Points and Lines

S,M,L,XL

Herzog & de Meuron = complete works

Land mosaics: the ecology oflandscapes and regions

Te Architecture of the City

Te second indicator was check-outs. op checkouts by GSDstudents rom the Loeb Libraryor 2010 and 2011 were exam-ined (source: Harvard LibraryInnovation Lab). Tee top check-out titles included a high ratio operiodicals to total top checkouts

(19/50 or 2010, 20/47 or 2011).Periodicals checkouts are signi-cantly higher at Loeb Library com-pared to other Harvard libraries.We can assume that GSD studentspre er to check out the hard copieso these periodicals or bettergraphic quality.

O the top book checkouts rom2010, seen below, only 7 titles werepart o the current non-circulatingcollection. All were either pub-lished pre-2000 or written by GSDFaculty.

One o the most difficult aspectso the project is to create an iden-tity or this collection. In order orthese books to be placed outsidethe library, they must retain someaspects o librarynesssomething

that identies them as belongingto a specic collectionin order todeter thef and create a eeling oshared responsibility. Because thebooks will not be checked out, they

should not have barcodes or callnumbers typical to Loeb Librarybooks. However, they need somekind o identi ying marker. Tehope is to deter thef (to somedegree) without the use o chains.

Adding plexi cut with a collectiontitle to the book cover is offered asan experimental solution. Teseadd weight and thickness to thebooks and readily identi y them asnon- personal copies.

itles that are put on reserve canbe a good place to begin identi yingitems that reect the curriculum o

the GSD. Te question at hand iswhether this collection should havea canonical aspect. Te originalideas behind the core collec-tion were built around an idea o acanon o books. While this ideamay be outdated, the collection

is a good opportunity to curatebooks that may be or should be ointerest to the students based on

what they are currently studying.While reserves data may be help ultowards this end, it seems librariansor pro essors are better equipped topredict and curate this portion othe collection.

Te library is an active place. Tecollection is constantly growingand things become hot or awhile.Some things remain relevantdespite age but other items becomeobsolete or less relevant. Shouldntthis NEED I NOW collection,which is a re-examination o the

core collection reect the chang-ing nature o the library? What wascore 20 years ago may not stillbe considered core? How ofenshould this collection be updated?Every week? Every month? Everysemester?

Te problem o the recall warlies in the circulating collection.So perhaps the solution lies in thenon-circulating collection? Tecurrent non-circulating collectionis shelved alongside the circulatingcollection in the general stacks. Inaddition, the library has limitedhours so perhaps the solution is to

create a collection outside o thelibrary or use by students in therays.Te idea is to deploy a collection

outside the library as a sociologicalexperiment

A common problem encounteredat the Graduate School o Design isto nd that the copy o a (popular)book that one wants to look atquickly is not currently available.Te recall war is something thatcan quickly ensue, whereby a bookthat is normally available or a28-day loan period is then recalled

by another patron, cutting shortthe current loan to 5 additionaldays. Or i there is already a longline o patrons who are interested inlooking at the book, there may be a5 day loan limit in place when theperson who originally recalled thetitle nally receives said book.

Te rst step was to identi y pat-terns o use to see how ar the datacan take us towards dening thenew collection. Te two main in-dicators examined were recalls andcheckouts.

Recalls (source: Loeb Library)were generally o recently publishedtitles. All titles that were recalledmore than 5 times in the last 11

months were published post-1997and about hal were published in2010 and 2011. Tere were 13 titlesthat were recalled despite havingmore than 3 copies each in the cir-culating collection. O these, only 2titles were designated as part o thecurrent non-circulating collection

and both were published over 10years ago.

post-1997

2011 20102007

2006

2002

2003

1999

1997

20052009

20082001

100% of these werepublished post-199752% in the last 2 years

of the 46 individual itemsrecalled more than 5xeach for the past 11months (as o March 16, 2012)

STEP 3: branding / identitycreatinglibrary-ness outside the library

identify books that can beconsidered canonical?

STEP 2:

STEP 1: identify borrowing patterns towardsbuilding a new collection

...but INEED IT NOW!!!

i should really take a lookat this book on _____.

let me find it on hollis ....

dammit, all the copies arechecked out

TOP LOEB BOOK CHECKOUTS 2010

= ten individual checkouts

= non-circulating available

Top checkout titles indicate that the GSDcommunity is particularly interested inperiodicals

2011TOP RECALLED TITLES

2009 2008 2005 2001 1999

2010

= n o n - c

i r c u

l a t i n g a v a

i l a

b l e

a collection for the GSD TraysNEED ITNOW:

Yuhka Miura


6/16

Tis project explores the linkbetween the presence o theEPAs Field Repository at theAshland Public Library in Ash-land Massachusetts and howthis knowledge is viewed by andmade public to the citizens. In1983 the EPA listed the NyanzaColorant Plant in Ashland asone o their rst 10 Super undSites. However it took over threeyears to begin remediation andby then the citizens o Ashlanddemanded that the environmen-tal engineers make their nd-ings public. An agreement wasreached between Ashland andthe EPA to locate the knowledgeo remediation at the AshlandPublic Library. Tis orm oactivism inspired the EPA to

initiate their Field Repositoryprogram or all o their utureSuper und Sites, today number-ing over 1,200 throughout theU.S.

Tis project, Te Cloud oUnknowing: Our Future is OurHistory aims to contextualizethe Field Repositories by addingthe stories o the contaminatedwithin the space o their historyo the contaminants. Te rststep was to explore the relation-ship between the in ormation inthe Field Repository to how itis displayed within the physicalspace o the public library, andwhether this matches the digitalstructure o this in ormation onthe EPAs website.

The Cloud of Unknowing: Our Future is Our HistoryDan Borelli (Bibliotheca I)Creating a living archive o stories rom people within the EPAs FieldRepository o documents on contamination

Prototype of the timeline lightbox and ield notes.

Spatial Programming of Ashland Public LibraryBasement op Floor op Floor Foyer EnlargedOpen Space Historically Locating the Field Repository Locating the Living Archive within theHistory o the Library


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The Ashland Public Libraryas the Site of Living History

Te Ashland Public Libraryopened in 1904 in part by $10,000donated rom philanthropistAndrew Carnegie. Recently reno- vated in 2005, the Ashland PublicLibrary also houses the EPAshistory o site remediation at theNyanza Colorant Plant. In 1983,the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgencys National Priority List oSuper und sites listed the NyanzaChemical Waste Dump, a 35-acresite used or industry between1917 and 1978. Te listing wasnamed or the Nyanza ChemicalCompany, which operated a dyemanu acturing plant there rom1965 to 1978. Groundwater, soil,and sediments were contaminatedwith heavy metals and chlorinatedorganic compounds. Te sitecleanup is being addressed with

the initial cleanup and our long-term stages ocusing on sourcecontrol and cleanup o the soil,off-site groundwater, wetlands anddrainage ways, and the SudburyRiver.Located in a small, unmarkedQuiet Study room is a set o book-shelves containing over thirtythree-ring binders that comprisethe physical corpus o the FieldRepository. Tis is the only loca-tion throughout the town wherethe subject matter o the Nyanzacontaminated site is made physi-cally mani est. An interesting sidenote to this narrative is that oncethe EPA began the remediationin 1988, the Ashland communitydemanded that the EPA make theirremediation efforts, ndings, anddata public, and that these materi-

als would be located at the localpublic library. Tis agreementexplicitly made the data public be-cause o the implicit understand-ing that the public library is anarchitectural mechanism or publicknowledge.

In Spring 2012 I will host a se-ries o workshops and interviewswith people throughout the com-munity to capture their stories oliving with, near, or in ear o thecontamination. Te stories o thecontaminated will now reside nextto the contaminants and trans ormthe library space into a site o liv-ing history, this is the intent and inthe ollowing sections I will beginto identi y the mechanisms orbringing this to ruition.

The Cloud of Unknowing: Our Future is Our History

Making Public KnowledgePublic

Troughout the town the NyanzaSuper und site is only physicallyembodied within the library, itsabsence is noticeable and yet itspresence within the library un-derscores the role that the libraryplays as an architectural actor thatshapes our cultural identity, bothcontemporary and historical. Assuch, the presence o the backlittimeline table and the subsequentobject-based arrangement in thebookshel takes the public data andgives it physical presence in libraryspace.

On the sur ace o this table, I cre-ated a graphic that maps the townto scale within the continental USon the lef and then on the rightplacing the site within the townsoverall history o industrialization.

Opposite the table I intend to acti- vate the empty bookshelves into anarti act-based timeline incorporat-ing various media across epochs.I created a prototype o this rede-signed space in my studio at theSaxonville studios in FraminghamMassachusetts. We hosted an OpenHosue on November 12 and13and this event gave me 10 hours owatching the general public view-ing this setup. Additionally I hadletter-sized scaled copies o themapping area where visitors couldcreate their own map to leave theirmemory o place.

Lightbox GraphicScaled mapping which places the contaminated site within the overall industrialization o the Ashland landscape.

The diagram below tracks

the various entities who havesome jurisdiciton, ownership,or knowledge over the Nyan-za Superfund Site in AshlandMassachusetts. The AshlandPublic Library becomes thephysical locus of exchange forthis subject.


8/16

BIBLIO

ROOM

WIFI

Ben Brady

Ben Brady

Ben Brady

LIBRARY FRIEND

IN A ROOM

COLD SPOT

Meet Biblio, your library riend. Te design-ction clip above was made

by Ben Brady, student (and teaching assistant) the L ibrary est Kitchen, a course

about building the library o the near uture taught by metaLABs Jeffrey Schnapp

and Jeff Goldenson o the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. Inspired by simple,

charismatic digital pets like amagotchi, Ben imagines Biblio as a digital creature

who serves as a digital guide and assistant, mediating the world o printedbooks and the realm o networked, open, personal in ormation. Biblio lives in

the libraryit travels with you rom book to book, keeping track o the titles

you browse, noting the relationships those books have with others, and urging

you to eed its blinking curiosity with

urther research. Te creature seems to

have evolved to live in the crook o the

palm, a kind o spandrel made by the

gestures and manual habits that we use

with both books and digital devices.

Its a wonder ul example o the projects

Library est Kitchen students are

cooking upincluding a nap carrel, a digital welcome

mat, and roving collections o curated books (to name

just three; well eature them all here in weeks to

come). Teyre ideas that not only in orm, but surprise

and delightqualities the library o the uture will

sorely need.

(text by Matthew Battles)

Te wi cold spot is an

extension o Crag but is a ull-

scale room. From a ar, it appears

solid. As you approach yousee plastic emerging rom the

interior begging you to enter.

And as you enter, a drastically

different interior is revealed.

You can only attempt to make

sense o the space you are in

and nothing more. You orget

about the invisible pressures o

the digita l world. Te i nterior is

painted with a grounded, EMF-blocking black paint that blocks all radiation and

signals in the space, rendering your wi and your cell phone useless. Tis anti-

phone booth exists in highly digitally charged public areas as a moment o pause

and reection. Te dramatic lighting effect is achieved by milling through the

plywood into the backing veneer and re-plugging these holes with acrylic tubes

which act sort o like ber-optics, diffusing the warm light.

In the library today we see books ghting or their physical position. A trend

o extraneous programs leaching onto the book has prevalent recently but is more a

reection o our alse-desire or hybrid programs. Tis will change in the uture as

the pressures o personal technology increase, our desire or dedicated typology and

space will as well. Te book has also recently had to justi y itsel against space or

digital research and storage as well its relevance in the ace o the emerging e-book. Te

book remains our most stable orm o archiving and preservation o in ormation and

will continue this in the uture. While the powers o the digital are unparalleled, they

cannot be reduced to a mere carbon-copy o the physical (e-book) and as storage devices

are too new and untested to invest so much aith into.

signage or the wi-cold spot

Much o this semester was exploring the digital divide in the library. I have

determined that on a device scale, we can accept the aults o hybridity or the benets

o convenience and mobility. But what has happened to the library where we expect the

same thing on a spatial scale? I am arguing that there isnt a productive relationship

between the digital and the physical on the spatial scale in the contemporary library and

we really need to think about creating a split, or a divide between them where the library

can be what it wants to be and the digital space can bee ree to grow as it wants.

FIGHTINGBen Brady

BOOKS

Books ghting against extraneousprograms

integrated side table and light

conceptual rendering o wi-cold spot interior

watch video!!!!!

Books ghting against space ordigital media, the e-book, and spaceor digital research


9/16

SKEUOMORPHICBen Brady

SIDE TABLE

Te wi-cold spot must exist in highly charged areas. It thrives on the

contrast between connectivity and isolation. For now, it is quite simple and

digestible or us to want to connect everything, to make everything accessible and

easy. However, soon we will have to imagine the opposite condition, moments o

pause and reection in otherwise ast and connected space. Te wi-cold spot

cannot be conceived as simply the absence o the digital connectivity, but rather

the addition o no connectivity, no radiation, nothing. Nothing is not the absence

o something, but rather the creation o isolation. Te same craf and care andnuance that we put towards the design and progression o the digital world must

Crag is a skeuomorphic side table. At some point he seems to be carved

out o a solid block o wood, but as you approach him, he reveals himsel again

and again as a series o sharp kni e-edges and unpredictable grain patterns. On

closer look Crag appears to be a bad texture-mapping. Crag reveals himsel as

ake. Nothing about Crag suggests wood construction yet Crag must remain

wooden in appearance in order to eel a part o the library. Crag is intended to

ormally speak to the speed o digital in ormation but at the same time is trying

to negotiate the amiliarity o wood and warmth and touch in the library o the

uture. Crag is intentionally uncom ortable.

photograph o interior o wi-cold spot

be given to the opposite, the design o isolation. Te eelings o isolation and

ocus are achieved through light and re-orientation. Te space is designed to

re-orient you, to cleanse your pallet and prepare you or a period o ocus and

isolation. Te lighting effect is two- old. It at once creates a sof diffused light on

the interior, and acts as a signier. Afer you have re-oriented yoursel , you are

welcome to sit, turn on the articial light and read or write or just sit. When you

do this, the skin o the wi-cold spot appears to be polka-dotted and lets passers

by know o its occupancy.


10/16

STUDY CARREL[RE] INTERPRETEDTHE FLEXIBLE [RE] PROGRAMMABLELIBRARY

Jennifer EspositoHarvard Graduate School of Design MArch II Candidate 2012

Andr VillejoinHarvard Graduate School of Design MArch II Candidate 2012

Te library, as an institution, a building, and a space, is in transition. Libraries have alwaysbeen a place or knowledge consumption and production in academic and public librar-ies alike. However, the library is no longer simply a repository or books or an institutionor knowledge storage, nor is it merely a building that contains a quiet place or individualresearch. As the library evolves and changes, so too does the nature o academic research.University courses seem to be including more collaborative approaches to learning in addi-tion to ocused individual research. Design schools in particular are experiencing an in-creased need or space in which groups o individuals can work together oncollaborative and multidisciplinary projects that utilize the resources o the library.In this period o transition, it seems unclear what the uture o the library will be. Te ques-tion that arises is: How do we design physical space or something unknown? Te Carrel[Re] Interpreted proposes a strategy to address the changing needs o existing libraries. Teproject suggests that by designing exible systems that can adapt to changing needs and userpre erences, the physical environment o the library can also adapt over time. Te ultimate

goal is that these exible systems success ully negotiate the interaction between the user, thecontent, and the space o the library.

Te Carrel [Re] Interpreted project conceives o a new type o library carrel whose unctioncan oscillate between individual and group use. Te library selected as the testing groundor the proposal is the Francis Loeb Design Library located in Gund Hall at the HarvardGraduate School o Design. Te project addresses two particular and current needs that arerelevant not only to Loeb Design Library, but to many existing academic and public librar-ies today. Te rst need is increased space or collaborative work and the second need isthe integration o user technology into the in rastructure o the existing library. Te projectproposes three carrel types, each composed o the same material palette and constructionsystem that allows or easy assembly and transport. Each type consists o a raised oorwith integrated wheels or mobility, a solid ceiling with integrated lighting and mechanicalspace, and two opposing solid walls - one analog and one digital. Each analog wall includesa curated bookshel on the exterior, while each digital wall includes digital displays on theexterior and interior o the carrel.

Te rst type is the Booth Carrel designed with compartments or up to six individuals. Tetypology o the booth accommodates individual users in an intimate space that allows orprivate study. Te second type is the Exhibition Carrel. Tis type builds on the idea that thelibrary is a place where in ormation is displayed through visible arti acts. Te ExhibitionCarrel is thought o as an instrument to display ideas and work rom both within and out-side the library, promoting the exchange o knowledge through physical and digital ormso representation. Te Group Study Carrel is the third and main carrel type rom which theother two types have been derived. Te Group Study Carrel type is composed o two oppos-ing glass walls that are aluminum ramed with glass inll panels that rotate to enclose theentire space, or old to open the carrel up to the existing library space. Trough this verysimple operation, the carrel can remain open and accommodate individual users, or theglass walls can be closed and the carrel can be reserved or group work. Te solid walls othe Group Study Carrel are designed to accommodate both digital and traditional content.Te digital wall is tted with exterior and interior digital displays that could be used orlibrary searches, event publications, presentation projection, video searches, and video con-erencing. Te Carrel [Re] Interpreted is a proposed solution to the evolving unction o thelibrary and changes in academic learning. Te Group Study Carrels could bring additionaluser technology into the existing library, while also providing the necessary collaborative

and individual workspace. Although designed and proposed or the existing arrangemento the Loeb Design Library, the project could readily adapt to the context o any existinglibrary in transition.

CONTAINER MOBILITY

BOOTH CARREL

EXHIBITION CARREL

GROUP STUDY CARREL

GUND HALL & LOEB DESIGN LIBRARY FIRST FLOOR

LOEB DESIGN LIBRARY BASEMENT LEVEL STACKS

COLLABORATION


11/16

GROUP STUDY CARREL INTERIOR

GROUP STUDY CARREL ELEVATION


12/16

+ Te library needs to beQUIE O FACILI A E COM-FOR ABLE AND EFFEC IVES UDYING. Te smaller thereading room (or study space), thebetter.

+ NA URAL LIGH is key.It is great to have a studying spacewhen one is surrounded by books.Libraries should have lots o win-dows to be able to see greenery out-side.

+ Seats need to haveBE -ER BACK AND SEA SUPPOR.Although, too much cushioning isnot un avorable.

+ Need toACCOUN FORGROW H in the library. Is thedepository the way to go? Studentswont need to come to the librar-ies to look or books i there are nobooks toBROWSE through. Telibrary then could become just areading space or studying spaceand a place to distribute somethingthat you have reserved. But it isimportant to keep some books inthe library to be able to browse andnd something you might neverstumble upon otherwise.

+ I the search system islimited to an online catalogue,the need to come to the library isreduced.LIBRARIANS JOB needsto be emphasized. He/she needs to IN ERAC WI H RESEARCH-ERS to guide them through effi-cient way to do their research.

+ Te most com ortable areaso the reading room are the nookswhere students are surrounded bybookcases and are seated in com-ortable chairs. Although the chairsare cozy, they are not ideal. Tescale o a smaller study area is morecom ortable than being in a largeopen space.

+ Te reading room is too bigor com ortable studying.

+ A reading room is in needo ROUND ABLES.

+ Te CHAIR is the most im-portant item in the library. Studentsspend time sitting in those chairsor hours.

+ 40% o the good library isSUFFICIEN LIGH ING, espe-cially natural light.

+ Currently carrels act asstorage space but at the same timethe area or seating takes awayprecious storage space. Most othe students just take a book anduse the reading room. Although itis nice to have your own personalspace, the carrels o Widener arenot doing the job. A suggestion isto keep theCARRELS FOR PER-SONAL S ORAGE SPACE.

+ What is something thatWidener absolutely needs:LOCK-ERS. Tey should be able to be re-served by students or a set amounto time. Lockers should be availableto not only store books that onedoesnt want to take home, but also

to store their personal items in-cluding laptops.

+ Te great aspect o the li-brary is that the space is broken upinto SMALLER S UDY SPACES.Lower ceilings provide or a morecom ortable atmosphere.

+ A good library is compact.

+ Widener is good to seewhen you are a tourist. But it is nota good place to stay in or a pro-longed period o time. Chairs arenot com ortable. Unlike in Lamont,one has to cover large distances toget rom point A to point B.

+ A carrel is good or writ-ing a paper but not to read a 300page book. Te main problem witha carrel is that it is inaccessibleafer certain hours. When one hasa working space, you want it to beavailable to you at all times.

+ Some o the elevators onlywork one way. It would be great ione could use the elevator to accessthe stacks directly rom downstairs.Multiple layers o security are rus-trating.

+ Libraries need aWELL-FUNC IONING CAF.

+ Manual security check isrustrating.

+ For someone who is ascholar, they wouldnt come to a li-brary without a purpose. It is thereto study and do research.

+ SOFAS AND ARMCHAIRSARE HE BES I EMS IN HELIBRARY.

Library As A Mini CityDifferentiating Activity For Multiple Users

Vera Baranova

+ A scholars use o librariestends to change every semester.NEW HABI S are established overtime. In Widener, i one has ac-cess to a quiet study room that isdesignated or a particular depart-ment, it is a great place to study dueto the lack o distractions. It is thewooden ur niture, globes, objectsin glass cases, etc. that makes areading room a com ortable studyspace.

+ I one has a small computerscreen, it is use ul to study in thecomputer lab. Ten one DOESNNEED O CARRY A LAP OP tothe library with them.

+ Tere should be DEPAR -MEN AL LIBRARIES.

+ CHAIRS SHOULD BECONDUCIVE O GOOD POS-URE.

+ One should never sleepin the library. Chairs should notbe com ortable they encouragesleep.

+ Libraries make one ocuson their work because the environ-ment encourages it: at leastS U-DEN S LOOK LIKE HEY ARES UDYING.

+ Bag check is rustrating.Suggestion: It would be best i therewereZONES IN HE LIBRARY that contained precious books thatrequire strict security.

+ Carrels. Although it wasavailable, it was never used becauseit was too depressing, cold anddark. Te only good use o cur-rent CARRELS IS FOR S ORAGEPURPOSES, when the books getchecked out to those carrels.

+ USE HE CARREL LIKEA REFERENCE DESK OR ARESERVES SHELF. Tose bookswould never be taken home.

+ S ORAGE so that bookscan be stored under students name.

In the case o this research I havebeen working with propertiesinherent to an academic libraryat Harvard. I started my researchwith a goal o improving theundergoing changes occurringin academic libraries at Harvard,especially rom the user andper ormative side o the libraryspace. I interviewed a ew differ-ent students who use Harvardlibraries extensively and many othe students, as avid users o thelibrary, had very particular ideas

about what the library should andbe and how to improve it. Manyo the qualities that were sharedamongst those interviewed arewell known library eatures great lighting and com ortableseating. But each student had veryparticular habits that inuencedthe way they wished the library tooperate. Below are a ew notes Imade rom the interviews. Pleasego to http://simmeringideas.tum-blr.com/ to nd more comments.

An extension of public urban space into a built form is rather inherent toa library. Utilizing the resources of the Library Test Kitchen, I have beenworking with an idea that reimagines the library as a mini city. A mul-titude of functions necessary in a changing twenty- rst century librarytransforms the typical typology into one with zones of varying program-matic activity. A library, containing all of those spaces, transforms intoan enclosed public space. Within, one is able to nd the space that suitsthem for research, study or browsing a particular book.

Tere were students who wereavoring departmental and zonedlibraries. Tese could potentiallybe zones o different securities,departments, uses, types o itemsstored. Te act just rein orced theidea o the act that the library is acity in itsel that becomes an areaull o diverse activity and being

able to adapt to changing environ-ment even with items that wereconsidered permanent overtime.Te libraries are already undergo-ing constant re-planning. Everysemester they are adapting to newcongurations.


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While someone else says that chairsshould not be com ortable at allbut make you want to study ratherthan relax and sleep in them. Butinevitably no matter which seatthey are seating in, endless hours ostudying will result in heads com-ing down to the book sur ace andthe students are ound taking naps.In academia it happens inevitablyand every student accounts or itin their studying regime and thelibrarians constantly encounter it.

I urther developed a Neo-Carrel asone o librarys urban nodes. I havebeen looking into the idea o reus-ing carrel sur aces or enhancedactivities.

Te neo-carrel is a chair pod thatattaches to an existing carrel tabletop sur ace. It is a chair that hasbeen designed with an elevatedsur ace or a ew reasons. One isto use the elevated sur ace to propup a laptop to an eye-level height.Openings in the sur ace allow or ventilation. Te second purposecomes rom observing a multitudeo students napping in a library.Spending hours o studying in thelibrary, it is inevitable or me toput my head down at some point.Having a chair accommodate ora short term nap would enhancemy studying experience. It is openenough or the circulation crew toobserve the behavior and to main-tain air share o its use.

I the library has to adapt, why notthink o it as an open area that canbe replanned over time. It couldbe an adaptable urban grid thatcontains unctions, activities andspaces, old and new.

Tat way I began to think o thelibrary oor area as a land usediagram. Tere are three main us-ers o the library patrons, booksand librarians. We have been seeingthe library slowly changing rom aormal space to an in ormal one, soI have proposed different zones inthe library that can be designed orconservative, liberal and neo-liber-al library unctions. Tese are theseries o spaces that are adapting toin ormal uses.

Seating alone is the most importantand at the same time controversialsubject that I have encounteredspeaking with patrons. No matterhow one uses the library, they arealways sitting. How they are sitting,on what they are sitting, where theyare sitting Every patron has anideal seat where they would pre-er to sit. And the idea o the cityrein orces the act that every patroncan nd the nook they are com ort-able with.

I have spent some time researchingoptimal seating patterns. One stu-dent says that the most com ortableseat is the armchair or the couch.Another one pre ers a hard, slightlycushioned sur ace with arm rests.

Neo-Carrel An Additive Piece to the Transforming Library Carrel Vera Baranova

I further developed a Neo-Carrel as one oflibrarys urban nodes. I have been lookinginto the idea of reusing carrel surfaces forenhanced activities.


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spatial GooglingBreaking the Boundaries

Stacy Morton (Bibliotheca I)

Browsing was once only achieved by thephysical search of books following the adviceof a friend or reference librarian. Looking for abook was a social experience and required usto participate in the culture of the library bygoing to the physical institution and tappinginto its network.

However, in the digital age of our currentsociety, browsing has been dominated bythe proliferation of cyber spatial tools. Cy-berspace provides an individual to browsefrom the comfort of their home by searchingkeywords, authors, or book titles with resultsin less than half a second.


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This mitigation of the search query alongwith the attempt to digitize all books and de-nounce their physical counterpart has led thisline of inquiry; what if the physical book weare looking for was able to nd us?Spatial Googling is a concept that allows li-braries, composed of individual books, tobreak from its boundaries and become em-

bedded within the urban fabric to enhanceones browsing. It combines the idea of ur-ban aneur, digital search query, and seren-dipity into one.

This concept couples RFID technology andthe growing abundance of smartphones tocreate an ambient urban computing ecology.

As cell phones become smartphones, a vir-tual layer to our cities has begun to emerge.Spatial Googling seeks to engage this newinformation ecology and leverage the bottomup logic that our smartphones provide. Bycoupling RFID with smartphones, we begin tocreate an atmospheric technological platformwithin our urban fabric and library infrastruc-ture.


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library test kitchen newspaper

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