Designing Better Libraries: When Libraries Don’t Provide Value

By Steven Bell
August 29, 2016

Librarians tend to agree that their libraries deliver value to community members. But what exactly does that mean? What type of value? Time saving value? Life changing value? Those are quite different. What value do libraries offer? New research identifies 30 types of value of four levels in a Maslow’s like hierarchy. We need to be intentional about designing for value delivery.

Librarians of all types, but especially academic librarians, know how important it is to communicate how the library adds value to the community. Librarians increasingly aim to gather data and stories to demonstrate, both quantitatively and qualitatively, that the library contributes to the success of community members – and does so in different ways to deliver what community members need.

While there is general agreement within the profession that establishing the library’s value is something we all need to do, there is likely less agreement on exactly what value is and the best ways to gather and share the appropriate evidence to support claims of value.

One way to better communicate the value libraries provide is to understand how our community members would define value and then build the capacity to explain our value on their terms.

Research by two customer strategy consultants has identified 30 things that could be described as components of value. While the authors of “The 30 Things Customers Really Value” acknowledge that what constitutes value can vary from person to person, they believe their 30 building blocks of value cover most fundamental human needs.

Looked at this way, how many of those components of value do our libraries deliver? Assuming there is capacity to deliver on only a limited number of different types of value, what do we then prioritize? With only limited resources how might we transform our efforts to deliver value of great meaning to most of our community members – the ones that give them the greatest reward.

The authors identified four categories of values. At the base of the value pyramid is functional value. These are fairly basic services such as save people time, simplify things for them or facilitate their organization (think the Container Store).

The next highest order value is emotion. When a company like CVS offers wellness services or Disney offer fun experiences it appeals to our sense of emotional well being. When community members express affection for their library (e.g. “I love my library”) that signals an emotional connection. Engaging community members in ways that connect them to our libraries emotionally provides a unique value element.

Beyond emotion lies life changing value. Educational organizations offer the value of acquiring new skills or abilities that can lead to life changing opportunity. Offering a community to which members can belong is valued by those who with to be a part of something bigger then themselves – and it can be life changing. A library literacy program volunteer achieves life changing value by contributing to an organization that does change lives and improves the quality of the community.

At the top of the value pyramid is social impact. There is only one value associated with this category, self-transcendance. This is comparable to Maslow’s self-actualization on the hierarchy of needs. Few of us achieve it, and far fewer organizations can deliver this type of value.

TOMS is a shoe company that donates shoes to charity for each pair purchased. It provides value to its customer by making a social impact. Consumers see value in contributing to world betterment, as much as that is possible with a shoe purchase. It is within the realm of possibility to believe that libraries can move community members along the path of social impact by contributing to the betterment of lives through education, offering a safe place and community improvement.

My big takeaway from this HBR blog post and the longer article on which it is based is that when it comes to value delivery, libraries that seek to design for a better experience must go beyond just talking about value, as in “our library brings value to community members”. Noble ideas and statements don’t deliver value.

Programs and services with linkages to the value pyramid do. We need to be more explicit about what that library value means, how exactly we deliver value and to intentionally design for value delivery.

If librarians are unable to articulate what elements of value they provide to the community – and exactly how it is accomplished – then perhaps we don’t provide value. And when we do say we provide value we need research to confirm what we do and how it brings value to the community.

Since no organization can promise all 30 types of value, the authors recommend targeting those values that would be most important to community members based on their expectations. Then intentionally design operations to meet or exceed delivering on those values. We can also be clear on values that we are unable to offer, such as supporting profit making or offering sensory appeal.

What might that look like for a library?

Functional Value

1. Saves time
2. Informs
3. Connects
4. Reduces effort 
5. Organizes

Emotional Value:

1. Provides access
2. Wellness
3. Fun/Entertainment

Life Changing:

1. Provide hope;
2. Affiliating/Belonging

Social Impact:

1. Self-transcendence

You might argue with some of these choices, but it appears that we mostly deliver functional value. That’s worthwhile, but like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need, how do we deliver higher levels of value that get community members emotionally engaged with the library?

Let’s continue to deliver cultural programming that invites community members to engage with authors, local artists or faculty research. Let’s be the unique community resource that offers stress-busting programs, such as therapy dogs or on-site massages. Let’s offer educational opportunities, such as literacy and reading appreciation programs, that can be life changing for community members.

Then there are those ways in which libraries deliver value just by being what they are – collections of information and community centers of knowledge building. Libraries provide access to collections that alone can create both life changing experiences and opportunities to explore and discover a self-transcendent path.

I am reminded of the story of Marla Spivak, who during her TED Talk on bee colony collapse, shares how she originally became interested in bees – which led her to become one of the world’s most prominent bee experts. She tells the audience that she was in the library one day as a teen, found a randomly placed book about bees, and just picked it up for no particular reason. The rest is history. Her story encapsulates all that we need to know about the types of value that libraries can deliver. Libraries can change lives. Libraries do have social impact.

Source: Designing Better Libraries

CBC News: 'The Thingery' aims to bring new kind of library to Vancouver neighbourhoods

Why buy when you can borrow? That’s the philosophy behind Vancouver’s new sharing initiative

By Megan Devlin
August 28, 2016

An artist's rendering of what a Thingery would look like in a Vancouver neighbourhood. The idea is to repurpose shipping containers to house a community borrowing library of tools, sports equipment and other shareable items.

A new pilot project will give Vancouverites the chance to take home everything from hammers to snow shoes, free of charge — as long as they return it within a week.

The Thingery is a new sharing project that set up shop in East Vancouver Saturday for one day to gauge the public's interest in a permanent library that would offer books, tools, sports equipment and more.

Founder Chris Diplock hopes it's here to stay. His long-term vision includes shipping containers nestled within Vancouver neighbourhoods that act as local lending libraries of "things."

"We've got some types of lending libraries currently in Vancouver," Diplock told The Early Edition guest host Stephen Quinn. "The tool library, our book-lending library. But we really wanted to expand what we can share through our lending libraries."

Not just what we share, but how we share, says Diplock

Diplock says he learned through research with The Sharing Project that people prefer to share when there is a social connection between borrower and lender — and that's why he wants to bring this project to the community level.

He's gauging interest with a series of pop-ups in Mosaic Creek Park using a shared van before he commits to getting the shipping containers, which can cost up to $10,000 to buy and retrofit. He'd also need to sort out a permit from the city.

"We're just starting those conversations," he said. "But a big piece of why we're doing this engagement is to bring that community support to the table, which we think is going to be a huge asset."

What kind of 'things' to expect

So far a few dozen items have already been donated, including snow shoes, rollerblades, hockey sticks and golf clubs.

"It's not uncommon for people to say 'I got all this stuff, I want to put it to good use. Let me throw it into this community lending library and see people use it,'" he said.

His experience working with the Vancouver Tool Library showed him there's actually a very low rate of people who borrow and don't return items. Eventually, like the tool library, The Thingery will be membership-based.

Membership fees would go toward a staff person in the container helping borrowers sign things out.

Quality, not quantity

Saturday's Thingery pilot was run out of a Modo car share van parked at Mosaic Creek Park in East Vancouver. The next pop-up is this Wednesday, Aug. 31 from 6-10 p.m. (Chris Diplock)

Diplock says a big lesson the tool library taught him was that people working together tend to pool their funds together to buy better equipment.

"If I go buy something I'm going to buy the cheaper version. If we're working together we're probably more likely to buy a better quality tool. A little more expensive," he said, adding that higher quality goods means a longer shelf-life for the library's items.

That pooling of resources means less demand for goods production, he says. In the end, it means fewer dead batteries ending up in landfills.

After Saturday's event, the next Thingery pop-up is happening at Mosaic Creek Park on Wednesday, Aug. 31 from 4-10 p.m.

Source: CBC News

Business Insider: Libraries of the future are going to change in some unexpected ways

By Chris Weller
Aug. 24, 2016

Jay Walker

Your idea of a library might be a musty, carpeted room with outdated technology, but don't ditch your library card just yet.

According to David Pescovitz, co-editor at Boing Boing and research director at the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto-based collective that makes forecasts about our world, it's likely in the coming decades that society's traditional understanding of a library will get completely upended.

In 50 years' time, Pescovitz tells Business Insider, libraries are poised to become all-in-one spaces for learning, consuming, sharing, creating, and experiencing — to the extent that enormous banks of data will allow people to "check out" brand-new realities, whether that's scaling Mt. Everest or living out an afternoon as a dog.

To understand how libraries will change by the mid-21st century, Pescovitz says people need to understand what function they currently serve. At their core, libraries in the information age provide a public means of accessing knowledge, he says. That's what people crave.

The hallmark of future libraries, meanwhile, will be hyper-connectivity. They'll reflect our increasing reliance on social media, streaming content, and open-source data.

AP/Christof Stache

The definition of a library is already changing.

Some libraries have 3D printers and other cutting-edge tools that makes them not just places of learning, but creation. "I think the library as a place of access to materials, physical and virtual, becomes increasingly important," Pescovitz says. People will come to see libraries as places to create the future, not just learn about the present.

Pescovitz offers the example of genetic engineering, carried out through "an open-source library of genetic parts that can be recombined in various way to make new organisms that don't exist in nature."

For instance, people could create their own microbes that are engineered to detect toxins in the water, he says, similar to how people are already meeting up in biology-centered hacker spaces.

microbes Ho New/Reuters

Several decades from now, libraries will morph even further.

Pescovitz speculates that humans will have collected so much data that society will move into the realm of downloading sensory data. What we experience could be made available for sharing.

"Right now the world is becoming instrumented with sensors everywhere — sensors in our bodies, sensors in our roads, sensors in our mobile phones, sensors in our buildings — all of which all collecting high-resolution data about the physical world," he says. "Meanwhile, we're making leaps in understanding how the brain processes experiences and translates that into what we call reality."

That could lead to a "library of experiences."

In such a library, Pescovitz imagines that you could "check out" the experience of going to another planet or inhabiting the mind of the family dog.

What probably won't change that much are librarians and the physical spaces they watch over. Pescovitz suspects that humans will always need some sort of guide to make a foreign landscape more familiar. Whether humanity turns that job into one for artificial intelligence is another matter, he says.

"We talk a lot about information and the information age, but really what I think people are looking for is wisdom and knowledge," Pescovitz says.

That has been true for thousands of years and will continue to be true for thousands more, no matter how weird the future might get.

Source: The Business Insider

American Libraries: Dewey Decibel Podcast: Library Design

Episode Five features the best—and worst—of library design

(Click the image to access the podcast.)

August 30, 2016

Episode Five of American Libraries Dewey Decibel podcast tackles a topic close to host Phil Morehart’s heart: library architecture and design. As editor of American Libraries Magazine’s annual Library Design Showcase, Morehart was primed and perfectly suited to talk to this episode’s three guests:

1. Brian Lee from Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, the chief architect behind Chicago Public Library’s award-winning Chinatown branch. Lee and Morehart discuss the new Chinatown library and why it’s important for a library to integrate itself into and reflect the community it serves.
2. Kimberly Bolan, the library consultant behind Kimberly Bolan and Associates and author of Teen Spaces: The Step-by-Step Library Makeover, 2nd edition (ALA Editions, 2008). Bolan and Morehart talk about the importance of providing teens with a space in the library that they can call their own.
3. Fred Schlipf, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Schlipf and Morehart take off the gloves to talk about bad library design and how libraries can prevent it.

If you have any feedback for the Dewey Decibel team, send us an email at deweydecibel@ala.org. Tell us what you like, what you don’t like, or what you’d like to see us cover. Follow us on Twitter or leave us a review on iTunes.

Stay tuned for Episode Six in September, when Morehart talks banned books and censorship with James LaRue, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and more.

Source: American Libraries

The Huffington Post Canada: Halifax Library Named In List Of 10 Most Beautiful Libraries On Earth

By Mohamed Omar
September 7, 2016


The Halifax Central Library has landed on a list of the world's 10 most beautiful libraries and we are 100 per cent not surprised.

Just look at it:

Exterior shot of the Halifax Central Library in Halifax, N.S. on Dec. 9, 2015.
 (Photo: Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)

Wired magazine's list, released Tuesday, praised libraries as more than just "singular temples to the written word." They're community centres, concert halls and "works of art in themselves."

Writer Liz Stinson praised how the downtown library's design allows it to "stack, twist, and cantilever to create a stunning building block effect."

The central library placed ninth on Wired's list.

The Halifax Central Library opened its doors to the public on December 13, 2014. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

The building is so gorgeous, in fact, that lead architecture firm Fowler Bauld & Mitchell won a Governor General medal for the library's design, according to CBC News. It was praised for being an "inviting, light and playful public space."

Asa Kachan, head of Halifax Public Libraries, told Metro it's a "thrill" to have the central library honoured.

“To me that’s a great signal to the rest of the country about this city," Kachan said. "About the kind of life and kind of community we like to create here.”

The Halifax Central Library has a green roof that absorbs solar energy. The library also offers electric vehicle charging stations and on-site bike storage in an effort to promote sustainable living. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

The list's top honour went to Denmark's Dokk1 Library, a building with several highlights — including a bell that rings every time a child is born at an adjacent hospital.

Check out Wired's full list here

Source: The Huffington Post Canada

New York Daily News: Librarians concerned over surge of heroin use inside nation’s libraries

By The Associated Press
September 10, 2016

The same qualities that make libraries ideal for studying and reading — unfettered public access, quiet corners and nooks, minimal interaction with other people — also make them appealing places to shoot up heroin, librarians are finding.

In Norfolk, Virginia, a 47-year-old man died after a patron found him in a library restroom. In Batesville, Indiana, and New Brunswick, New Jersey, police revived others in library restrooms using a popular overdose antidote.

The body of a homeless man who frequented the Oak Park Public Library in suburban Chicago might have been there for days, fully clothed and slumped on the toilet in a restroom on the quiet third floor, before a maintenance worker unlocked it on a Monday morning in April and discovered his inglorious demise. The empty syringe and lighter in his pockets and the cut soda can in the trash pointed to the cause, an accidental heroin overdose.

"On both a personal and a professional level, we were all very shocked and of course worried about how this could happen in our spaces," said executive director David Seleb, who fired the security company responsible for clearing the library before closing.

The country's heroin and painkiller problem has produced public overdoses in many places, including restaurants, gas stations, alleys and even hospitals, but the inherent attributes of public libraries leave them especially exposed. They're free and open for whoever walks in, and lingering is welcome, no transaction or interaction required.

"People need to know that this is happening everywhere and that public libraries haven't done anything wrong to cause it to happen in public libraries," said Josie Parker, director of the Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan.

In this September 9, 2014 file photo, Ann Arbor police, firemen, and medical personnel respond to an overdose at the Ann Arbor District Library in Ann Arbor, Mich. (KATIE MCLEAN/AP)

Her library already had removed bathroom ceilings and toilet tanks where people could hide drugs and restroom entrances that could be locked — changes made over a decade ago to curb cocaine trafficking, Parker said.

She raised drug-abuse concerns again in 2014 when officials were discussing a proposed park next to the library. Though unpleasant, starting a public discussion about drug and alcohol abuse observed at the library spurred a beneficial community response, Parker said.

These days, police routinely walk through the library, and social workers set up shop there, checking in with folks. All that, Parker said, strips away some anonymity.

"Anonymity allows people to do things they wouldn't do otherwise in public places," she said, "and if you can take away anonymity, you can help change behavior."

In Ohio, peace officers from Toledo's library system are being trained to help the sheriff's Drug Abuse Response Team. Boston's libraries have needle drop boxes and have offered overdose prevention training for employees and residents.

This March 18, 2014 file photo shows Director of the Ann Arbor District Library, Josie Parker in Ann Arbor, Mich. Librarians are finding themselves face-to-face with the heroin and opiod epidemic as drug users take advantage of the free access to quiet areas where people often keep to themselves. (KATIE MCLEAN/AP)

At the Humboldt County Library in Eureka, California, a librarian turned life-saver when she realized a man apparently sleeping in a chair was actually unresponsive, his lips turning blue. Health officials had provided the overdose antidote naloxone — often known by the brand name Narcan — for the library, so librarian Kitty Yancheff injected it into the man's leg, then into a still-limp arm before he gurgled and fluttered his eyes.

"I felt grateful that we had this Narcan on hand and that we were able to save his life, but it was kind of surreal," said Yancheff, the library's public services division manager.

It was also a bit ironic, considering Yancheff had given a presentation titled "Librarians as First Responders" during a conference years earlier. She was talking about how libraries increasingly provide non-traditional services, such as job-search help and de facto daytime sheltering for the homeless; she hadn't figured on overdose rescue becoming part of the job.

Many librarians don't go that far, turning instead to emergency responders or security staff.

The American Library Association encourages librarians to get training on interacting with special populations, such as drug users and the homeless, but stresses the importance of partnering with groups such as police and social workers, said Julie Todaro, the association's president.

"Clearly when you have the epidemic that we have and the issues with the patrons that we have, we need to organize assistance," she said. "That doesn't mean we ourselves provide it."

Source : New York Daily News

Library-related News from Around the Web

CBC News: Smartphone charging stations come to Saskatoon libraries

By Josh Lynn
Aug 24, 2016

The new smartphone charging station at Francis Morrison Central Library. (Josh Lynn/CBC

Saskatoon Public Library is piloting a new, very 21st century service.

New smartphone charging stations have been installed at the Francis Morrison Central and the 20th Street branches...

If you would like to read more, please click here

American Libraries: The Freewheelin’ Library

Stark County District Library lends bikes to cardholders

By Megan Perrero
September 8, 2016

BikeSmart bikes at Stark County District Library in Canton, Ohio.
Photo: Stark County District Library

At the Stark County District Library (SCDL) in Canton, Ohio, you can borrow books, DVDs, and now bikes.

With help from kids in the community, SCDL started its BikeSmart program in June 2015. BikeSmart allows patrons to use their library cards to rent bicycles at one of six bike lending stations in Canton and Massillon. The program has returned for its second season...

If you would like to read more, please click here

ABC News (Australia): Live at the library: Pianos help evolution of modern-day community space

By Brett Williamson
Sept 12, 2016

Jackie Gosling says images of libraries being stuffy and quiet places
have been left behind. (891 ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Pianos and libraries go together like oil and water, right? Wrong.

This unusual pairing is working in harmony for two libraries in Adelaide.

The pianos were rolled into the Goodwood and Unley libraries in February after being made redundant by hall renovations nearby.

"We thought that we would be able to encourage some of our staff, as well as the public, to have a bit of a go on them," Jackie Gosling, literacy and learning team leader, said...

If you would like to read more, please click here

The Sydney Morning Herald: 'Book ninjas' are hiding free books on Melbourne's trams, trains and buses to get commuters reading

By Rob Moran
August 30, 2016

Bored of your Spotify playlist, your Facebook scroll, that whole Candy Crush thing my mum's still obsessed with? Keep your eyes peeled for a lonely book, hogging a seat on your afternoon tram, waiting for a curious reader to flip it open and take it home.

'Book ninjas' have been leaving hundreds of free books - classics, bestsellers and new releases - on Melbourne's inner city train, tram and bus lines, in a subversive attempt to bring reading back to workers' commutes...

The 'how-to guide' for book ninjas. Photo: Books On The Rail Instagram

If you would like to read more, please click here

Moapa Valley Progress: Going On A Camping Trip

August 10, 2016
By Brynne McMurray

Librarian Katie Muns helps kids to pick out stickers to decorate their night sky bottles during the Summer Reading Program at the Moapa Valley Library on Friday. PHOTO BY BRYNNE MCMURRAY/Moapa Valley Progress.

Local children at the Moapa Valley Library branch got a whiff of fresh air this week as the library Summer Reading program encouraged kids to explore “The Great Outdoors.” The Friday story time hour had a camp theme this week.

The event opened with kids making their own “night skies” in bottles in the yard on the side of the library. The kids picked up empty mini water bottles and filled them with glitter, sequins, and gems before the librarians carefully helped them pour baby oil and water into the bottles. The children were then able to pick out what color they wanted their night sky to be. The librarians helped them to pour food coloring into their bottles. The bottles were sealed with colorful duct tape and decorated with stickers to make a swirling night sky for each child.

If you would like to read more, please click here 

American Libraries: Libraries on Lockdown

Escape rooms, a breakout trend in youth programming

By Katie O'Reilly
September 1, 2016

Shelver Kara Van Muyen (left) and librarian Karissa Alcox at

the Kitchener (Ont.) Public Library escape room. Participants 

had 15 minutes to complete all puzzles. Photo: gr8 Escape

With a dash of the board game Clue, an element of theater, and a guaranteed adrenaline rush, escape rooms have taken off in a big way. According to a July 2015 MarketWatch article, at least 2,800 have sprung up across the globe since 2010. As a team-building exercise that encourages participants to flex their logic muscles, escape rooms are a hit with corporate organizers. It’s also why youth librarians are getting into the spirit of escapism.

“Anytime I experience something cool in my real life, I think, ‘How could I bring this to the library?’” says Karissa Alcox, escape room aficionado and youth librarian at Fort Erie (Ont.) Public Library. “It takes place indoors, and you don’t need much aside from some locks and props—a library can afford to do it.” Alcox adds, “Plus, it encourages critical-thinking skills and participatory storytelling.”

Last November, Alcox planned such an event at the Kitchener (Ont.) Public Library to coincide with the American Library Association’s International Games Day. She used a large room with a fire exit, cordoned off “problem areas” such as the surge closet, and brought in pros from a popular local escape room facility. To appeal to all ages, the library team designed three versions of the clues—easy, moderate, and difficult—and had players select their level ahead of time.

“We built it around a library-themed story,” Alcox says. “Participants were studying in the library when they fell asleep at some tables strewn with books and papers. When they awoke, everyone was locked in, but they had an important exam starting in 15 minutes.” Players’ first clue as to the whereabouts of the jumbo combination lock they’d need to open to get out was broadcast onto a whiteboard. Subsequent clues led them to uncover a blacklight flashlight, which they were to shine on a specific book and page number to make invisible ink visible, and reveal a code to open a treasure chest holding the key.

Mahomet (Ill.) Public Library borrowed props, 

including this double-locking briefcase, from 

local commercial escape rooms.

Photo: Neal Schlein

The first-come, first-served event attracted library users of all ages, including a large birthday party. Within three hours, 52 people divided into groups of two or more had managed to escape, after which they posed for victory photos. Whereas traditional escape rooms usually grant players an hour to get free and boast that only, perhaps, 25% of participants will find their way out, Alcox wanted all participants to emerge successfully and feel like “genius escape artist spies.”

Alcox kept the event organized with a registration table and board game café to occupy players awaiting their 15-minute turn to escape. Other libraries, however, prefer to set up a single, hour-long escape event that caters to all participants at once.

Andrea Elson, children’s librarian at Radnor Memorial Library in Wayne, Pennsylvania, planned “Escape the Library!” as a finale to the library’s 2015 Teen Tech Week digital programming events last March. “I wanted to get teens excited about a week of fun opportunities at the library and also give them a positive place to be on a Friday night,” says Elson.

Elson advertised the event via the library’s social media channels and print fliers, and set up a table outside the lunchroom of the local middle school to promote Teen Tech Week. “I had a 3D printer to pique their interest and told them about escape rooms, which many kids had heard of and were excited to try,” she says.

Though she tried to cap participation at 10, Elson ended up with 12 players. Participants had a full hour to find their way out of Radnor’s large programming space, half of which Elson sectioned off, creating walls with cheap black tablecloths. “We hid small clues—think brainteaser-like puzzles—and keys within extra furniture and desks, and added decoy items like old books, DVDs, and a fan.”

Elson says the kids spent “tons of time” going through individual books and devising theories about how titles could translate to clues—“all of which were completely wrong,” which may have been why the kids didn’t quite escape on time. “They were close, but in all their excitement, they couldn’t get the final combination lock to work properly,” Elson says.

This just meant players left the experience eager to prove their escape prowess at Radnor’s next escape room event, which Elson is excited to plan. “They can be developed for any level of difficulty, and to accommodate any space,” she says. “Youth librarians these days are great about trying something stimulating and thinking, ‘Why not make it accessible to youth?’”

The fun of imbuing a grown-up trend with youthful bona fides is exactly why Neal Schlein, youth services librarian at Mahomet (Ill.) Public Library, hosted a day-long escape event in June. When groups of two to six players, ages 10 and older, arrived for their 15-minute escape sessions, Schlein guided them into the community room, where they found a countdown clock and a note, explaining that a dastardly sorcerer had cast a catastrophic curse on the library: “Every book in the library is slowly being transformed by the curse, and if it is not stopped, all will become Hello Kitty graphic novels!”

In order to break the spell, participants needed to uncover clues to locate the wand and passcode used to cast the spell. Weeks ahead of time, Schlein placed holds on all of Mahomet’s Hello Kitty books, so as to create a shelf of them in the escape room with a laminated sign reading, “My favorite things!” A note also included guidelines about not needing to move furniture, and how no clues were located in off-limits places, such as the glass AV cabinet.

Like Alcox, Schlein sought help from local commercial escape rooms that lent props, such as a double-locking briefcase and a big fake lock—which meant no one had to hand over actual library keys. Schlein also made use of projector slides, as well as a friend’s discarded bookcase. “It was falling apart, so I secured it to the wall and split the back open to create a secret panel.”

Once participants found their way out, they were instructed to take the passcode they’d uncovered to the main desk. If it was the correct one, the on-duty librarian would swap it for a web address of a site that Schlein had created ahead of time—a congratulatory page deeming escapees official agents and instructing them to go pick up victory stickers.

As for those who emerged from the room with one of the wrong passcodes? “They received a message to go to this other website,” Schlein says, where the message, “Hello Library!” was superimposed over an image of Mahomet Public Library—one that had been tiled in Hello Kitty—and an evil genius proclaiming, “Muahahaha! You lost!”

“The idea was to offer people a challenge, with a little bit of a laugh at the end,” says Schlein.

4 Tips to Running an Escape Room at Your Library

1. Consult with a commercial escape room. Alcox, Elson, and Schlein all say partnering with local escape rooms is the way to go. They will often lend props or offer to help plan the event, free of charge, if they get to promote their escape rooms at the library event.
2. Brief your participants before they enter the room. Elson met with teens in a separate room before the event to lay out ground rules, describe what was off-limits, and encourage communication and teamwork.
3. Map out your clues. Elson recommends creating a flow chart to help organize how clues will lead to the final code or outcome.
4. Consider making your program portable. Schlein says there are kits that can be purchased, such as one offered by Breakout EDU (breakoutedu.com), that would allow libraries to bring escape room programming to schools, churches, and senior living facilities.

Source: American Libraries

Engadget: MIT uses radiation to read closed books

MIT uses radiation to read closed books

Terahertz imaging can scan pages that would be too fragile to touch.

Jon Fingas , @jonfingas

21h ago in Gadgetry

AP Photo/Akira Suemori

There are some books that are simply too delicate to crack open -- the last thing you want to do is destroy an ornate medieval Bible simply because you're curious about its contents. If MIT has its way, though, you won't have to stay away. Its scientists have crafted a computational imaging system that can read the individual pages of a book while it's closed. Their technology scans a book using terahertz radiation, and relies on the tiny, 20-micrometer air gaps between pages to identify and scan those pages one by one. A letter interpretation algorithm (of the sort that can defeat captchas) helps make sense of any distorted or incomplete text.

This doesn't mean you'll be reading fragile manuscripts any time soon. The current implementation can only read about nine pages deep before it's overwhelmed by noise, and it can't even gauge the depth beyond 20 pages. MIT will need to improve both the power and overall accuracy of its terahertz tech before you can read that precious first-run copy of War and Peace. The very fact that it's a possibility is exciting, however. Historians could read books that they're too afraid to touch in the first place, or let fellow researchers have a peek at a book they've read without worrying about additional wear and tear.

From: Engadget

CBC: #JacksLibraryTour sees father, son on mission to visit all Toronto public libraries

#JacksLibraryTour sees father, son on mission to visit all Toronto public libraries

Duo has visited 28 of the city's 100 libraries so far, reaching the branches via public transit

CBC News


Posted: Jun 16, 2016 9:33 AM ET
Last Updated: Jun 16, 2016 2:35 PM ET

Jackson and Lanrick Bennett, Jr. were given a tour by the staff at the Weston library, who caught wind of their plan to visit the branch through Twitter. (Lanrick Bennett Jr.)

For some, Toronto's public libraries are something akin to civic sanctuaries, a place for community gatherings and learning.
For five-year-old Jackson Ryan Bennett and his father, Lanrick Bennett Jr., they're places of pilgrimage as they've embarked on a mission to visit all 100 of the city's libraries.
Dubbing the quest #JacksLibraryTour on Twitter, the idea first sprung up through a book they owned that included illustrations of Toronto's libraries by Daniel Rotsztain.

Morningside Library, Apr. 16. (Lanrick Bennet Jr.)

"I brought it home and showed it to Jack and he wanted to go to the Fort York library," the elder Bennett told CBC's Metro Morning. "I thought, 'nice and easy, we'll pop over there, take a look at it.' [We] had a fun time and went home and he was like, "I want to see the rest." And there were 99 more of these to see."
During the interview, young Jackson disputed his father's account of the genesis of their journey.
"Daddy, it wasn't like that," he said. "It was you."

Scarborough Civic Centre Library, June 1. (Lanrick Bennet Jr.)

The Bennetts have visited 28 libraries so far, reaching each of them via public transit.
They've been to Scarborough, and they've visited the libraries along Jane Street, Queen Street, College Street and St. Clair Avenue.
Jackson said he mostly likes to watch videos when he goes to the library, but at one location "there was only books."
So he checked out his favourite: Transformers Rescue Bots.

Parliament Library, Apr. 23. (Lanrick Bennet Jr.)

They spend two hours at each branch, walking around and reading and checking out books.
Lanrick's favourites so far are the Runnymede and Riverdale libraries.

Swansea Library, May 28. (Lanrick Bennet Jr.)

But his favourite part of the project is the chance to spend time with his son.
"I work Monday to Friday like many fathers," Bennett said.
"You've got to find time to spend with your kids."

(Lanrick Bennett Jr.)

From: CBC

D.C. will hide once-banned books throughout the city this month

by Perry Stein
September 8, 2016

If you enter just the right business or library this month, you may stumble upon a hidden book that was censored or challenged at one point. And if you find it, it’s yours for the keeping.

The D.C. public library system is hiding several hundred copies of books — which were once banned or challenged — in private businesses throughout all eight wards to celebrate Banned Books Week. The “UNCENSORED banned books” scavenger hunt kicked off Sept. 6 and will run through the month.

Each book is wrapped in a cover that explains why that book was banned or challenged. For example, J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” will say “Anti-White” because in 1963, parents of high school students in Columbus, Ohio, asked the school board to ban the novel for being “anti-white.”

Other challenged or banned books included in the scavenger hunt: “The Color Purple,” “Slaughterhouse Five,” “A Separate Peace,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Native Son.”

D.C. public libraries will dole out clues about the books’ whereabouts on its social media accounts throughout the month with the hashtag #UncensoredDC. People who find a book are encouraged to post a picture of it on social media with that hashtag.

Winners at least 21 years old have a chance to win free tickets to “UNCENSORED: The Cocktail Party” as part of a fundraiser for the D.C. Public Library Foundation.

The city’s library system will host banned-book-related events at 25 neighborhood libraries throughout the month.

“This year’s theme is ‘Diversity,’ which will celebrate literature written by diverse writers that has been banned or challenged, as well as explore why diverse books are being disproportionately singled out,” the library system wrote in a release explaining the festivities. “It’s estimated that more than half of all banned books are by authors of color, or contain events and issues concerning diverse communities, according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.”

Source: The Washington Post