The Information Professional
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Librarians and Archivists in a fast-changing digital lanscape
Curated by Karen du Toit
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Teenagers, libraries, digital media, and learning | Reading, Writing, Research, by @dmguion

Teenagers, libraries, digital media, and learning | Reading, Writing, Research, by @dmguion | The Information Professional | Scoop.it
Libraries are beginning to design special spaces where teens paired with mentors use various digital media for learning and creativity.
Karen du Toit's insight:

"In November 2011, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, along with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, made grants of $100,000 to twelve museums and libraries across the country to develop digital learning laboratories for teenagers. They will announce another round of grants in November 2012.

Chicago Public Library’s YOUmedia

Chicago Public Library’s YOUmedia inspired the grant program. It is a special space where teenagers can use equipment provided by the library to create the same sorts of media that they consume. Creativity requires the development of certain skills.

Digital creativity, of course, requires digital skills. But creativity has always required a variety of intellectual, social, and emotional disciplines. The electronic age has not changed that fact at all.

It doesn’t work to plan a new program for a particular constituency and then dictate how it has to work. Development of YOUmedia has required some cultural adjustments. The YOUmedia space cannot enforce traditional library rules about food and noise levels and at the same time maintain a vibrant community of teenagers.

The entire concept of YOUmedia also requires access to and participation of the entire library to make it work. It is not a place for segregating either teenagers or their interests and learning style.

Sooner or later, the library will shape the teenagers’ behavior, but the teenagers will shape the library’s culture at least as much. That will result in short term discomfort and long term continued relevancy for the library as a whole.

Over the years, YOUmedia has started numerous separate projects. Some of them have continued for quite a while. The center has issued a literary magazine for a year and a half and a gaming podcast for three years. The longest-lasting programs have all come from the teenagers’ initiative, not from the library staff."

 

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3D Printing Is Just the Beginning: The Future of Makerspaces within Academic Libraries | Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)

"Live Webcast
November 7, 2012
11 a.m. Pacific | 12:00 p.m. Mountain | 1:00 p.m. Central | 2:00 p.m. Eastern

90 minutes

Description: The maker movement is growing across the country and world. With interactive, participatory events and growing local communities, we've seen a shift. Individuals, professionals, and hobbyists from areas such as engineering, design, science, art, and more are coming together with one common thread: the desire to make.

Public libraries were the first on the scene to take notice and respond, but now we're beginning to see academic libraries recognize this untapped potential for their own communities. This emerging learning trend holds the promise of enormous change, bringing many researchers and students together from across disciplines in a truly collaborative way. This movement is about more than just the purchase of expensive equipment; it involves engagement, outreach, and knowledge about what drives the academic community. The academic environment is shifting toward content creation in a variety of forms, in turn reshaping learning, curriculums, and research across the board. In order for libraries to continue to support the research and learning needs of their institutions, it is critical to go beyond traditional library materials, to understand what new resources and technologies the library can support for all on campus to use."

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Something Old, Something New: Dicing Data At NYPL Labs | Meredith Schwartz

Something Old, Something New: Dicing Data At NYPL Labs | Meredith Schwartz | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

By Meredith Schwartz:

"The home base for the New York Public Library (NYPL) Labs is a strange mix of old and new. A bunch of modern cubicles hover incongruously amid the stately marble walls of what used to be a courtyard in the venerable Schwarzman Building, before the need for more space convinced the library to press it into service. It’s not a bad metaphor for what the labs do: turn the library’s substantial historical holdings into something new, useful, and a little bit quirky.
Thus far, the labs has spearheaded four projects, all of them aimed at not only digitizing physical collections but at turning their digital versions into data that can be sliced and diced with all of today’s tools. Ben Vershbow, manager of NYPL Labs, sees the first stage of his mission as “extending the machine-readable data so it can be recontextualized—the library as data clearinghouse.” As a vision, it adheres more strictly to the library’s traditional role of information collector and provider than many of today’s library reinventions—library as community center, for example. At the same time, it removes the “book warehouse” or even “digital book virtual warehouse” connotations by giving the library a front and center role in parsing the data into meaningful categories that make it usable."

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Creating Communities Through Makerspaces by Buffy Hamilton / Atlanta Mini Maker Faire 2012

Creating Communities Through Libraries and Makerspaces Presented by Buffy J. Hamilton, The Unquiet Librarian 


Via Buffy J. Hamilton
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“Come Write In” library programs for NaNoWriMo | Library as Incubator Project

“Come Write In” library programs for NaNoWriMo | Library as Incubator Project | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

"The “Come Write In” initiative is a sub-program of NaNoWriMo that encourages writers, or Wrimos, to use libraries as writing studios during NaNoWriMo. The initiative is part active programming, part marketing campaign – meaning that libraries can get involved to whatever degree they are comfortable with and however works best for their programming schedule"

 

> Great initiative for libraries of the future!


Via Buffy J. Hamilton, Doug Mirams
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