With the fnancial support of the Harvard Library Lab,
to design, build and deploy products, services & experi- ences that model the future of the Harvard Libraries. Questions What form should the Harvard Libraries assume in the 21st century? Should they simply vanish into virtual desktops and merge into a timeless and placeless univer- sal database? Should they alter their identity and become workshops, laboratories, innovation incubators where emerging and future forms interact and dialogue with the relics of the past? Or should they simply merge with the university itself as a place of knowledge production and reproduction? Bibliotheca II: Te Library Test Kitchen Te Harvard Library is amidst an enormous transition and these questions are all on the table. As a collaboration between the Graduate School of Design and the Harvard Library, the Test Kitchen is an invitation for students to defne new dimensions of the library experience. Afer a brief crash-course in library history, theory and practice, we will shif to creative work. We will begin with two design exercises before beginning work on our main projects. As they gel, we will deploy these projects in Test Kitchens -- partner libraries, such as the Loeb and Widener Libraries, that allocate portions of their public space to these experiments. Ben Brady Library Test Kitchen Harvard University | Graduate School of Design | www.librarytestkitchen.org LTK for the librarian Ann Whiteside Te Library Test Kitchen took place in the library at the GSD. Why the library? Because its about libraries! What better place to think about the future of libraries? And in a new, future oriented space that is the new visual collections- materials collection space in Loeb Library. Te materials and visual content are also all about the making of places and environments, as is the LTK. LTK has been this amazing process of discussion, idea- generating, and prototyping of things we can do in libraries to engage in and foster change in how we perceive libraries. I worked most closely with Jessica, Yuhka, and Kaitlyn on their projects. We talked several times over the course of the semester to bring their ideas into being. A Tale of Two Courses Jefrey Schnapp During the summer of 2011, the past collided with the future and two courses were born. Te Past? Harvards extraordinary archipelago of seventy-plus bricks- and-mortar libraries was beginning to undergo a wholesale reorganization that would centralize their operations, reposi- tion them for the new millennium, rethink habits built up over the prior century. Te Future? Under the aegis of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) project had been launched. A competition for innovative ideas and designs followed thereafer and, by the end of the summer, two Harvard-based entities had made the fnal cut: metaLAB (at) Harvard, the newly formed digital humani- ties research center, and the Harvard Library Innovation Laboratory. Past + Future = ? It was hard not to feel implicated and enthused by the task of conjugating the librarys history with its future, its physi- cality with the digitally architectural. Tere was an immediate task at hand as well: I had to make my teaching commitments for the fall of 2011. So I approached my friend and colleague John Palfrey, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School, to see if he might be willing to co-teach a course on the past, present, and future of the library at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. So arose Bibliotheca, a hybrid history/theory/design studio dedicated to probing the full span of the librarys history as an institution of memory, to fostering historically and criti- cally informed speculative design thinking, including design thinking dedicated to resolving the Harvard library systems most intractable challenges. As documented in the syllabus, the course was designed as a porous seminar with four sessions serving as open com- munity forums. It was divided between a properly historical prelude in which key moments in the history of libraries were probed, case studies of contemporary library construction, and the development of specifc design projects. Energized by local conversations about the library reorganization and by national ones regarding the DPLA, it seemed unthinkable that it should end. Te question of libraries and their future was way too hot. From the beginning of the semester, Jef Goldenson from the Law Library Innovation Lab and Anne Whiteside, direc- tor of the Loeb Design library were our closest collaborators, so when the semester came to a felicitous close and John had to move on, the three of us decided to proceed. Son of Bibliotheca alias Bibliotheca II alias the Library Test Kitchen was born. Now with Jef Goldenson at the helm, the goal was more hands-on: to build the 21st century library one component at a time: to dream up appliances, furnishings, policies, rules, navigational systems that would render librar- ies sites of activation, animation, activation, and making, even as physical records migrate into of-site storage and documents migrate into digital forms. A project for multiple lifetimes here prefgured in a modest broadsheet flled with news from the immediate future.
Te Library Test Kitchen will go on indefnitely. Projects Projects may assume a range of forms. Tey may be built, grown, coded or performed. Tey may involve redesigning existing library websites. Tey may be pieces of furniture or new reference services. Projects may address existing problems or serve as speculative probes or provocations. Library Test Kitchen is an open call. Funded Research & Sharing our Findings Library Test Kitchen is funded research, supported by the Harvard Library Lab. As such we have a responsibility to share our work. To best communicate our fndings to the Harvard Library. We will compile and publish selec- tions of our work. (Tis is what youre holding.) ADV-09115 | Bibliotheca II: Library Test Kitchen Syllabus Excerpts Thursdays, 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 net assignable square feet (occupiable space, ex- cluding mechanical & structural space) 16.3 million volumes 12.8 million digital fles 100,000+ serial titles,millions of manuscripts, photographs, musical recordings, flms, and artifacts 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, 2009 Beginnings Jef Goldenson We are in the midst of the Harvard Library Transition. Its a multi-year efort to create a coordinated management structure for the 73+ libraries across the University. It is a massive undertaking, and Deloitte Consulting has been retained to help design and operationalize the new vision. Earlier this fall, Bibliotheca, the seminar led by professors John Palfrey and Jefrey Schnapp, brought the institutional reality of the Harvard Library Transition into the classroom. Trough a series of hosted events, the core issues and op- portunities were openly discussed by Library staf, adminis- tration and students alike. It was exciting and illuminating to have students at the table of this. (continuted on back) T i me / S l i c e Time/Slice assumes that community goings-on are valuable information that is an essential part of a communitys past and present, and should thus be under the purview of the community library. It provides a slick and simple platform to display collaboratively-submitted, media-focused digital content. A diverse range of community members can submit the events and activities that are important to them. Time/Slice diversifes and expands what is considered a community event; any activity that can be represented can be submitted. Time/Slice increases event visibility and the potential for interdisciplinary or serendipitous involvement to occur. Users create event posts by sending photos from phones or via email. The display can be accessed independently by suers, or on a monitor in the community library. An event advertised prominently at the GSD Currently, community information tends to be disorganized, inaccessible, fragmented, and impermanent; Time/Slice organizes and preserves it. a project by jessica yurkofsky Time/Slice takes the sloppy and dynamic community bulletin board and makes the content more accessible and engaging. It simultaneously archives content, including it as part of the communitys actively created history. Above, an event announcement at Harvard GSD. Time/Slice is an online interface that displays upcoming events associated with a specifc geographic community. WHERE I read this book... Fig. No. ___ Fig. No. ___ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. additional SUBJECT terms WRITING in BOOKS How can library books become more interactive? Writing in Books is an experiment that conceptualizes library books as a work in progress, an amalgam of the original text in addition to the annotations, criticisms, and additions of readers. By sticking a variety of margin expansions and paper foldouts to books it provides room for 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 yurkofsky S C A N
M E s e e
&
s n a p event@gsdtimeslice.simpleyak.com April 12th 7pm s e n d ! Curated Collections for the Curious an exhibition of the research processes within the Harvard community Curated Collections for the Curious is a proposed exhibit to be housed within participating Harvard University Libraries. Te overarching goal of the project is to expose the process of research within the Harvard community and link formerly isolated groups with others who share similar interests. Tese linkages serve to foster discussion and cross-disciplinary engagement with larger ideas. Te individual whose work is to be displayed will be selected by a research librarian within the participating library. Te librarian works with the researcher to identify the key formative sources used during their production of a project. Te librarian will then set about compiling the items identifed by the researcher and displaying them with the Curated Collections for the Curious exhibit. Te collections will also have a web presence which will highlight the items displayed, provide a synopsis of the research, and introduce a space to discuss the projects. Te web site will also serve as a digital archive of all prior exhibits to provide a clear record of the trajectory of research within the community. Te collections will display key sources (books, images, videos and artifacts) associated with the research of a prominent member of the librarys larger community. As excerpted from Unpacking My Library: Architects and Teir Books Jo Stefens, Edito, Yale University Press, 2009 Kaitlyn Fitzgerald STEP 1: structure book display artifact display media display traditional research materials audio and video research and presentation materials audio research and presentation materials physical research materials (models, artifacts, etc.) 2010 2003 2002 1999 1998 1996 1995 1982 1978 2009 2008 2007 2006 Collage City Real Estate Finance and Investments Heat Islands Principles of Microeconomics Function of Form Urban ecology: an international perspective on the interaction between humans Ecological Urbanism Urban Design Urban regions: ecology and planning beyond the city Living systems: innovative materials and technologies for landscape architecture Cities X lines: a new lens for the urbanistic project Drosscape Landscape urbanism: a manual for machinic landscape Statistics: a tool for social research Points and Lines S,M,L,XL Herzog & de Meuron = complete works Land mosaics: the ecology of landscapes and regions Te Architecture of the City Te second indicator was check- outs. Top checkouts by GSD students from the Loeb Library for 2010 and 2011 were exam- ined (source: Harvard Library Innovation Lab). Tee top check- out titles included a high ratio of periodicals to total top checkouts (19/50 for 2010, 20/47 for 2011). Periodicals checkouts are signif- cantly higher at Loeb Library com- pared to other Harvard libraries. We can assume that GSD students prefer to check out the hard copies of these periodicals for better graphic quality. Of the top book checkouts from 2010, seen below, only 7 titles were part of the current non-circulating collection. All were either pub- lished pre-2000 or written by GSD Faculty. One of the most difcult aspects of the project is to create an iden- tity for this collection. In order for these books to be placed outside the library, they must retain some aspects of librarynesssomething that identifes them as belonging to a specifc collectionin order to deter thef and create a feeling of shared responsibility. Because the books will not be checked out, they should not have barcodes or call numbers typical to Loeb Library books. However, they need some kind of identifying marker. Te hope is to deter thef (to some degree) without the use of chains. Adding plexi cut with a collection title to the book cover is ofered as an experimental solution. Tese add weight and thickness to the books and readily identify them as non- personal copies. Titles that are put on reserve can be a good place to begin identifying items that refect the curriculum of the GSD. Te question at hand is whether this collection should have a canonical aspect. Te original ideas behind the core collec- tion were built around an idea of a canon of books. While this idea may be outdated, the collection is a good opportunity to curate books that may be or should be of interest to the students based on what they are currently studying. While reserves data may be helpful towards this end, it seems librarians or professors are better equipped to predict and curate this portion of the collection. Te library is an active place. Te collection is constantly growing and things become hot for awhile. Some things remain relevant despite age but other items become obsolete or less relevant. Shouldnt this NEED IT NOW collection, which is a re-examination of the core collection refect the chang- ing nature of the library? What was core 20 years ago may not still be considered core? How ofen should this collection be updated? Every week? Every month? Every semester? Te problem of the recall war lies in the circulating collection. So perhaps the solution lies in the non-circulating collection? Te current non-circulating collection is shelved alongside the circulating collection in the general stacks. In addition, the library has limited hours so perhaps the solution is to create a collection outside of the library for use by students in the Trays. Te idea is to deploy a collection outside the library as a sociological experiment A common problem encountered at the Graduate School of Design is to fnd that the copy of a (popular) book that one wants to look at quickly is not currently available. Te recall war is something that can quickly ensue, whereby a book that is normally available for a 28-day loan period is then recalled by another patron, cutting short the current loan to 5 additional days. Or if there is already a long line of patrons who are interested in looking at the book, there may be a 5 day loan limit in place when the person who originally recalled the title fnally receives said book. Te frst step was to identify pat- terns of use to see how far the data can take us towards defning the new collection. Te two main in- dicators examined were recalls and checkouts. Recalls (source: Loeb Library) were generally of recently published titles. All titles that were recalled more than 5 times in the last 11 months were published post-1997 and about half were published in 2010 and 2011. Tere were 13 titles that were recalled despite having more than 3 copies each in the cir- culating collection. Of these, only 2 titles were designated as part of the current non-circulating collection and both were published over 10 years ago. post-1997 2011 2010 2007 2006 2002 2003 1999 1997 2005 2009 2008 2001 post-1997 2011 2010 2007 2006 2002 2003 1999 1997 2005 2009 2008 2001 100% of these were published post-1997 52% in the last 2 years of the 46 individual items recalled more than 5x each for the past 11 months (as of March 16, 2012) STEP 3: branding / identitycreating library-ness outside the library identify books that can be considered canonical? STEP 2: STEP 1: identify borrowing patterns towards building a new collection ...but I NEED IT NOW!!! i should really take a look at this book on _____. let me find it on hollis .... dammit, all the copies are checked out TOP LOEB BOOK CHECKOUTS 2010 = ten individual checkouts = non-circulating available Top checkout titles indicate that the GSD community is particularly interested in periodicals 2011 TOP 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 Trays NEED ITNOW: Yuhka Miura Tis project explores the link between the presence of the EPAs Field Repository at the Ashland Public Library in Ash- land Massachusetts and how this knowledge is viewed by and made public to the citizens. In 1983 the EPA listed the Nyanza Colorant Plant in Ashland as one of their frst 10 Superfund Sites. However it took over three years to begin remediation and by then the citizens of Ashland demanded that the environmen- tal engineers make their fnd- ings public. An agreement was reached between Ashland and the EPA to locate the knowledge of remediation at the Ashland Public Library. Tis form of activism inspired the EPA to initiate their Field Repository program for all of their future Superfund Sites, today number- ing over 1,200 throughout the U.S. Tis project, Te Cloud of Unknowing: Our Future is Our History aims to contextualize the Field Repositories by adding the stories of the contaminated within the space of their history of the contaminants. Te frst step was to explore the relation- ship between the information in the Field Repository to how it is displayed within the physical space of the public library, and whether this matches the digital structure of this information on the EPAs website. The Cloud of Unknowing: Our Future is Our History Dan Borelli (Bibliotheca I) Creating a living archive of stories from people within the EPAs Field Repository of documents on contamination Prototype of the timeline lightbox and field notes. Spatial Programming of Ashland Public Library Basement Top Floor Top Floor Foyer Enlarged Open Space Historically Locating the Field Repository Locating the Living Archive within the History of the Library
Prototype of the timeline lightbox and field notes. The Ashland Public Library as the Site of Living History Te Ashland Public Library opened in 1904 in part by $10,000 donated from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Recently reno- vated in 2005, the Ashland Public Library also houses the EPAs history of site remediation at the Nyanza Colorant Plant. In 1983, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys National Priority List of Superfund sites listed the Nyanza Chemical Waste Dump, a 35-acre site used for industry between 1917 and 1978. Te listing was named for the Nyanza Chemical Company, which operated a dye manufacturing plant there from 1965 to 1978. Groundwater, soil, and sediments were contaminated with heavy metals and chlorinated organic compounds. Te site cleanup is being addressed with the initial cleanup and four long- term stages focusing on source control and cleanup of the soil, of-site groundwater, wetlands and drainage ways, and the Sudbury River. Located in a small, unmarked Quiet Study room is a set of book- shelves containing over thirty three-ring binders that comprise the physical corpus of the Field Repository. Tis is the only loca- tion throughout the town where the subject matter of the Nyanza contaminated site is made physi- cally manifest. An interesting side note to this narrative is that once the EPA began the remediation in 1988, the Ashland community demanded that the EPA make their remediation eforts, fndings, and data public, and that these materi- als would be located at the local public library. Tis agreement explicitly made the data public be- cause of the implicit understand- ing that the public library is an architectural mechanism for public knowledge. In Spring 2012 I will host a se- ries of workshops and interviews with people throughout the com- munity to capture their stories of living with, near, or in fear of the contamination. Te stories of the contaminated will now reside next to the contaminants and transform the library space into a site of liv- ing history, this is the intent and in the following sections I will begin to identify the mechanisms for bringing this to fruition. The Cloud of Unknowing: Our Future is Our History Making Public Knowledge Public Troughout the town the Nyanza Superfund site is only physically embodied within the library, its absence is noticeable and yet its presence within the library un- derscores the role that the library plays as an architectural actor that shapes our cultural identity, both contemporary and historical. As such, the presence of the backlit timeline table and the subsequent object-based arrangement in the bookshelf takes the public data and gives it physical presence in library space. On the surface of this table, I cre- ated a graphic that maps the town to scale within the continental US on the lef and then on the right placing the site within the towns overall history of industrialization. Opposite the table I intend to acti- vate the empty bookshelves into an artifact-based timeline incorporat- ing various media across epochs. I created a prototype of this rede- signed space in my studio at the Saxonville studios in Framingham Massachusetts. We hosted an Open Hosue on November 12 and13 and this event gave me 10 hours of watching the general public view- ing this setup. Additionally I had letter-sized scaled copies of the mapping area where visitors could create their own map to leave their memory of place. Lightbox Graphic Scaled mapping which places the contaminated site within the overall industrialization of the Ashland landscape. The diagram below tracks the various entities who have some jurisdiciton, ownership, or knowledge over the Nyan- za Superfund Site in Ashland Massachusetts. The Ashland Public Library becomes the physical locus of exchange for this subject. BIBLIO ROOM WIFI Ben Brady Ben Brady Ben Brady LIBRARY FRIEND IN A ROOM COLD SPOT Meet Biblio, your library friend. Te design-fction clip above was made by Ben Brady, student (and teaching assistant) the Library Test Kitchen, a course about building the library of the near future taught by metaLABs Jefrey Schnapp and Jef Goldenson of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. Inspired by simple, charismatic digital pets like Tamagotchi, Ben imagines Biblio as a digital creature who serves as a digital guide and assistant, mediating the world of printed books and the realm of networked, open, personal information. Biblio lives in the libraryit travels with you from book to book, keeping track of the titles you browse, noting the relationships those books have with others, and urging you to feed its blinking curiosity with further research. Te creature seems to have evolved to live in the crook of the palm, a kind of spandrel made by the gestures and manual habits that we use with both books and digital devices. Its a wonderful example of the projects Library Test Kitchen students are cooking upincluding a nap carrel, a digital welcome mat, and roving collections of curated books (to name just three; well feature them all here in weeks to come). Teyre ideas that not only inform, but surprise and delightqualities the library of the future will sorely need. (text by Matthew Battles) Te wif cold spot is an extension of Crag but is a full- scale room. From afar, it appears solid. As you approach you see plastic emerging from the interior begging you to enter. And as you enter, a drastically diferent interior is revealed. You can only attempt to make sense of the space you are in and nothing more. You forget about the invisible pressures of the digital world. Te interior is painted with a grounded, EMF-blocking black paint that blocks all radiation and signals in the space, rendering your wif and your cell phone useless. Tis anti- phone booth exists in highly digitally charged public areas as a moment of pause and refection. Te dramatic lighting efect is achieved by milling through the plywood into the backing veneer and re-plugging these holes with acrylic tubes which act sort of like fber-optics, difusing the warm light. In the library today we see books fghting for their physical position. A trend of extraneous programs leaching onto the book has prevalent recently but is more a refection of our false-desire for hybrid programs. Tis will change in the future as the pressures of personal technology increase, our desire for dedicated typology and space will as well. Te book has also recently had to justify itself against space for digital research and storage as well its relevance in the face of the emerging e-book. Te book remains our most stable form of archiving and preservation of information and will continue this in the future. While the powers of the digital are unparalleled, they cannot be reduced to a mere carbon-copy of the physical (e-book) and as storage devices are too new and untested to invest so much faith into. signage for the wif-cold spot Much of this semester was exploring the digital divide in the library. I have determined that on a device scale, we can accept the faults of hybridity for the benefts of 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 free to grow as it wants. FIGHTING Ben Brady BOOKS Books fghting against extraneous programs integrated side table and light conceptual rendering of wif-cold spot interior watch video!!!!! Books fghting against space for digital media, the e-book, and space for digital research SKEUOMORPHIC Ben Brady SIDE TABLE Te wif-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 for us to want to connect everything, to make everything accessible and easy. However, soon we will have to imagine the opposite condition, moments of pause and refection in otherwise fast and connected space. Te wif-cold spot cannot be conceived as simply the absence of the digital connectivity, but rather the addition of no connectivity, no radiation, nothing. Nothing is not the absence of something, but rather the creation of isolation. Te same craf and care and nuance that we put towards the design and progression of the digital world must Crag is a skeuomorphic side table. At some point he seems to be carved out of a solid block of wood, but as you approach him, he reveals himself again and again as a series of sharp knife-edges and unpredictable grain patterns. On closer look Crag appears to be a bad texture-mapping. Crag reveals himself as fake. Nothing about Crag suggests wood construction yet Crag must remain wooden in appearance in order to feel a part of the library. Crag is intended to formally speak to the speed of digital information but at the same time is trying to negotiate the familiarity of wood and warmth and touch in the library of the future. Crag is intentionally uncomfortable. photograph of interior of wif-cold spot be given to the opposite, the design of isolation. Te feelings of isolation and focus are achieved through light and re-orientation. Te space is designed to re-orient you, to cleanse your pallet and prepare you for a period of focus and isolation. Te lighting efect is two-fold. It at once creates a sof difused light on the interior, and acts as a signifer. Afer you have re-oriented yourself, you are welcome to sit, turn on the artifcial light and read or write or just sit. When you do this, the skin of the wif-cold spot appears to be polka-dotted and lets passers by know of its occupancy. STUDY CARREL [RE] INTERPRETED THE FLEXIBLE [RE] PROGRAMMABLE LIBRARY Jennifer Esposito Harvard Graduate School of Design MArch II Candidate 2012 Andr Villejoin Harvard Graduate School of Design MArch II Candidate 2012 Te library, as an institution, a building, and a space, is in transition. Libraries have always been a place for knowledge consumption and production in academic and public librar- ies alike. However, the library is no longer simply a repository for books or an institution for knowledge storage, nor is it merely a building that contains a quiet place for individual research. As the library evolves and changes, so too does the nature of academic research. University courses seem to be including more collaborative approaches to learning in addi- tion to focused individual research. Design schools in particular are experiencing an in- creased need for space in which groups of individuals can work together on collaborative and multidisciplinary projects that utilize the resources of the library. In this period of transition, it seems unclear what the future of the library will be. Te ques- tion that arises is: How do we design physical space for something unknown? Te Carrel [Re] Interpreted proposes a strategy to address the changing needs of existing libraries. Te project suggests that by designing fexible systems that can adapt to changing needs and user preferences, the physical environment of the library can also adapt over time. Te ultimate goal is that these fexible systems successfully negotiate the interaction between the user, the content, and the space of the library. Te Carrel [Re] Interpreted project conceives of a new type of library carrel whose function can oscillate between individual and group use. Te library selected as the testing ground for the proposal is the Francis Loeb Design Library located in Gund Hall at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Te project addresses two particular and current needs that are relevant not only to Loeb Design Library, but to many existing academic and public librar- ies today. Te frst need is increased space for collaborative work and the second need is the integration of user technology into the infrastructure of the existing library. Te project proposes three carrel types, each composed of the same material palette and construction system that allows for easy assembly and transport. Each type consists of a raised foor with integrated wheels for mobility, a solid ceiling with integrated lighting and mechanical space, and two opposing solid walls - one analog and one digital. Each analog wall includes a curated bookshelf on the exterior, while each digital wall includes digital displays on the exterior and interior of the carrel. Te frst type is the Booth Carrel designed with compartments for up to six individuals. Te typology of the booth accommodates individual users in an intimate space that allows for private study. Te second type is the Exhibition Carrel. Tis type builds on the idea that the library is a place where information is displayed through visible artifacts. Te Exhibition Carrel is thought of as an instrument to display ideas and work from both within and out- side the library, promoting the exchange of knowledge through physical and digital forms of representation. Te Group Study Carrel is the third and main carrel type from which the other two types have been derived. Te Group Study Carrel type is composed of two oppos- ing glass walls that are aluminum framed with glass infll panels that rotate to enclose the entire space, or fold to open the carrel up to the existing library space. Trough this very simple operation, the carrel can remain open and accommodate individual users, or the glass walls can be closed and the carrel can be reserved for group work. Te solid walls of the Group Study Carrel are designed to accommodate both digital and traditional content. Te digital wall is ftted with exterior and interior digital displays that could be used for library searches, event publications, presentation projection, video searches, and video con- ferencing. Te Carrel [Re] Interpreted is a proposed solution to the evolving function of the library and changes in academic learning. Te Group Study Carrels could bring additional user technology into the existing library, while also providing the necessary collaborative and individual workspace. Although designed and proposed for the existing arrangement of the Loeb Design Library, the project could readily adapt to the context of any existing library 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 GROUP STUDY CARREL INTERIOR GROUP STUDY CARREL ELEVATION + Te library needs to be QUIET TO FACILITATE COM- FORTABLE AND EFFECTIVE STUDYING. Te smaller the reading room (or study space), the better. + NATURAL LIGHT is key. It is great to have a studying space when one is surrounded by books. Libraries should have lots of win- dows to be able to see greenery out- side. + Seats need to have BET- TER BACK AND SEAT SUPPORT. Although, too much cushioning is not unfavorable. + Need to ACCOUNT FOR GROWTH in the library. Is the depository the way to go? Students wont need to come to the librar- ies to look for books if there are no books to BROWSE through. Te library then could become just a reading space or studying space and a place to distribute something that you have reserved. But it is important to keep some books in the library to be able to browse and fnd something you might never stumble upon otherwise. + If the search system is limited to an online catalogue, the need to come to the library is reduced. LIBRARIANS JOB needs to be emphasized. He/she needs to INTERACT WITH RESEARCH- ERS to guide them through ef- cient way to do their research. + Te most comfortable areas of the reading room are the nooks where students are surrounded by bookcases and are seated in com- fortable chairs. Although the chairs are cozy, they are not ideal. Te scale of a smaller study area is more comfortable than being in a large open space. + Te reading room is too big for comfortable studying. + A reading room is in need of ROUND TABLES. + Te CHAIR is the most im- portant item in the library. Students spend time sitting in those chairs for hours. + 40% of the good library is SUFFICIENT LIGHTING, espe- cially natural light. + Currently carrels act as storage space but at the same time the area for seating takes away precious storage space. Most of the students just take a book and use the reading room. Although it is nice to have your own personal space, the carrels of Widener are not doing the job. A suggestion is to keep the CARRELS FOR PER- SONAL STORAGE SPACE. + What is something that Widener absolutely needs: LOCK- ERS. Tey should be able to be re- served by students for a set amount of time. Lockers should be available to not only store books that one doesnt want to take home, but also to store their personal items in- cluding laptops. + Te great aspect of the li- brary is that the space is broken up into SMALLER STUDY SPACES. Lower ceilings provide for a more comfortable atmosphere. + A good library is compact. + Widener is good to see when you are a tourist. But it is not a good place to stay in for a pro- longed period of time. Chairs are not comfortable. Unlike in Lamont, one has to cover large distances to get from point A to point B. + A carrel is good for writ- ing a paper but not to read a 300 page book. Te main problem with a carrel is that it is inaccessible afer certain hours. When one has a working space, you want it to be available to you at all times. + Some of the elevators only work one way. It would be great if one could use the elevator to access the stacks directly from downstairs. Multiple layers of security are frus- trating. + Libraries need a WELL- FUNCTIONING CAF. + Manual security check is frustrating. + For someone who is a scholar, they wouldnt come to a li- brary without a purpose. It is there to study and do research. + SOFAS AND ARMCHAIRS ARE THE BEST ITEMS IN THE LIBRARY. Library As A Mini City Differentiating Activity For Multiple Users Vera Baranova + A scholars use of libraries tends to change every semester. NEW HABITS are established over time. In Widener, if one has ac- cess to a quiet study room that is designated for a particular depart- ment, it is a great place to study due to the lack of distractions. It is the wooden fur niture, globes, objects in glass cases, etc. that makes a reading room a comfortable study space. + If one has a small computer screen, it is useful to study in the computer lab. Ten one DOESNT NEED TO CARRY A LAPTOP to the library with them. + Tere should be DEPART- MENTAL LIBRARIES. + CHAIRS SHOULD BE CONDUCIVE TO GOOD POS- TURE. + One should never sleep in the library. Chairs should not be comfortable they encourage sleep. + Libraries make one focus on their work because the environ- ment encourages it: at least STU- DENTS LOOK LIKE THEY ARE STUDYING. + Bag check is frustrating. Suggestion: It would be best if there were ZONES IN THE LIBRARY that contained precious books that require strict security. + Carrels. Although it was available, it was never used because it was too depressing, cold and dark. Te only good use of cur- rent CARRELS IS FOR STORAGE PURPOSES, when the books get checked out to those carrels. + USE THE CARREL LIKE A REFERENCE DESK OR A RESERVES SHELF. Tose books would never be taken home. + STORAGE so that books can be stored under students name. In the case of this research I have been working with properties inherent to an academic library at Harvard. I started my research with a goal of improving the undergoing changes occurring in academic libraries at Harvard, especially from the user and performative side of the library space. I interviewed a few difer- ent students who use Harvard libraries extensively and many of the students, as avid users of the library, had very particular ideas about what the library should and be and how to improve it. Many of the qualities that were shared amongst those interviewed are well known library features great lighting and comfortable seating. But each student had very particular habits that infuenced the way they wished the library to operate. Below are a few notes I made from the interviews. Please go to http://simmeringideas.tum- blr.com/ to fnd more comments. An extension of public urban space into a built form is rather inherent to a library. Utilizing the resources of the Library Test Kitchen, I have been working with an idea that reimagines the library as a mini city. A mul- titude of functions necessary in a changing twenty-frst century library transforms the typical typology into one with zones of varying program- matic activity. A library, containing all of those spaces, transforms into an enclosed public space. Within, one is able to fnd the space that suits them for research, study or browsing a particular book. Tere were students who were favoring departmental and zoned libraries. Tese could potentially be zones of diferent securities, departments, uses, types of items stored. Te fact just reinforced the idea of the fact that the library is a city in itself that becomes an area full of diverse activity and being able to adapt to changing environ- ment even with items that were considered permanent overtime. Te libraries are already undergo- ing constant re-planning. Every semester they are adapting to new confgurations. While someone else says that chairs should not be comfortable at all but make you want to study rather than relax and sleep in them. But inevitably no matter which seat they are seating in, endless hours of studying will result in heads com- ing down to the book surface and the students are found taking naps. In academia it happens inevitably and every student accounts for it in their studying regime and the librarians constantly encounter it. I further developed a Neo-Carrel as one of librarys urban nodes. I have been looking into the idea of reus- ing carrel surfaces for enhanced activities. Te neo-carrel is a chair pod that attaches to an existing carrel table top surface. It is a chair that has been designed with an elevated surface for a few reasons. One is to use the elevated surface to prop up a laptop to an eye-level height. Openings in the surface allow for ventilation. Te second purpose comes from observing a multitude of students napping in a library. Spending hours of studying in the library, it is inevitable for me to put my head down at some point. Having a chair accommodate for a short term nap would enhance my studying experience. It is open enough for the circulation crew to observe the behavior and to main- tain fair share of its use. If the library has to adapt, why not think of it as an open area that can be replanned over time. It could be an adaptable urban grid that contains functions, activities and spaces, old and new. Tat way I began to think of the library foor area as a land use diagram. Tere are three main us- ers of the library patrons, books and librarians. We have been seeing the library slowly changing from a formal space to an informal one, so I have proposed diferent zones in the library that can be designed for conservative, liberal and neo-liber- al library functions. Tese are the series of spaces that are adapting to informal uses. Seating alone is the most important and at the same time controversial subject that I have encountered speaking with patrons. No matter how one uses the library, they are always sitting. How they are sitting, on what they are sitting, where they are sitting Every patron has an ideal seat where they would pre- fer to sit. And the idea of the city reinforces the fact that every patron can fnd the nook they are comfort- able with. I have spent some time researching optimal seating patterns. One stu- dent says that the most comfortable seat is the armchair or the couch. Another one prefers a hard, slightly cushioned surface with arm rests. Neo-Carrel An Additive Piece to the Transforming Library Carrel Vera Baranova I further developed a Neo-Carrel as one of librarys urban nodes. I have been looking into the idea of reusing carrel surfaces for enhanced activities. spatial Googling Breaking the Boundaries Stacy Morton (Bibliotheca I) Browsing was once only achieved by the physical search of books following the advice of a friend or reference librarian. Looking for a book was a social experience and required us to participate in the culture of the library by going to the physical institution and tapping into its network. However, in the digital age of our current society, browsing has been dominated by the proliferation of cyber spatial tools. Cy- berspace provides an individual to browse from the comfort of their home by searching keywords, authors, or book titles with results in less than half a second. This mitigation of the search query along with the attempt to digitize all books and de- nounce their physical counterpart has led this line of inquiry; what if the physical book we are looking for was able to nd us? Spatial Googling is a concept that allows li- braries, composed of individual books, to break from its boundaries and become em- bedded within the urban fabric to enhance ones browsing. It combines the idea of ur- ban aneur, digital search query, and seren- dipity into one. This concept couples RFID technology and the growing abundance of smartphones to create 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 new information ecology and leverage the bottom up logic that our smartphones provide. By coupling RFID with smartphones, we begin to create an atmospheric technological platform within our urban fabric and library infrastruc- ture. Te discussions were enlightening for both sides: I learned frst-hand how we can be responsive to student library users and I think our LTK students also learned a lot about the library. What I like is the free-ing way in which the students are thinking about what a library is and can be. And its pushed me and other library staf to re-think collec- tions, how we make collections accessible, and services. We have this opportunity to create a new vision of the library because the LTK . LTK allows me to put into practice those ideas Ive been thinking about how curation is changing and is a col- laborative process between library users and librarians; how collections can be in places outside library walls and the library loses nothing. Te library has traditionally been about collection and managing, or curating, content, and making it accessible, or keeping it safe and sometimes locked up. When I watch library users, they are looking for content that libraries and archives hold, but then they want to make their own collections from the multiple collections we ofer; making new collections is part of the re-use of our content. Te diference is that we are putting these new collections together in tools that go far beyond the OPAC or image database. Tey are in diferent physical environments, and also in virtual environments in which search and retrieval are combined with tools for making presentations, slides shows, and digital publishing. Wisdom builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down reads the lead verse of Proverbs 14. Te verse may serve as a doubly apt epigraph for a seminar devoted to the past, present, and future of the library as an institution. Apt because the frst half has ornamented many a faade of a European library over the course of the past fve centuries. Apt also because we live in an age in which digital forms of communica- tion and media are quite literally exploding the prior culture of memory, with the demise of the printed book and the traditional library now a frequent topic of discussion. What form should the library of the 21st century assume? Should it simply vanish into virtual desk- tops and merge into a timeless and placeless universal database? Should it adopt a double identity, bridging the worlds of print and digital documents, of physical presence and telepresence? Should it alter its identity and become a workshop, a laboratory, an innovation in- cubator where emerging and future forms interact and dialogue with the relics of the past? Or should it simply merge with the university itself as a place of knowledge production and reproduction? If so, where then should books go in the 21st century? And how about all the other old media that make up the record of human civilizations? Informed answers to such questions require an un- derstanding of libraries themselves, the practices that have shaped them, their systems of access, retrieval, and storage. For libraries are not just collections of docu- ments and books, but also physical structures and, for that matter, infrastructures. Indeed, libraries are among the most venerable of building types, dating back to the ancient Near East. Teir history is also that of catalogu- ing systems, vault and case designs, carrels and desks, viewing devices, lecterns, and the like. Bibliotheca combines exploration of the history of the library as an institution of knowledge storage, retrieval and production with a design studio concerned with Ben Brady problem sets involving libraries on the Harvard campus as well as questions the future shape and functions of the library as an institution. Te seminar is divided into three sections: the frst is devoted to the history of libraries and library infrastructures; the second to case studies of major contemporary library projects; the third to brainstorming about design answers to the hard questions being confronted by the Harvard libraries. Topics will include: libraries in the cultural imagi- nation, library infrastructures from registers to card catalogues to digital catalogues, the history of shelving systems and lecterns, library architectures from the Library of Alexandria to the Digital Public Library of America. Porosities Bibliotheca is intended as a porous seminar that will interact with various ongoing conversations at Harvard and elsewhere. In the frst instance, it will dia- logue with the ongoing reorganization of the Harvard Libraries themselves, and in particular with a series of public events that are planned for the fall and spring semester related to this reorganization. Secondly, it will interact with Luis Rojos fall architectural studio Urban Superimpositions\Historical Archive: Negotiating Public roles in Piazzale Roma (GSD 1304), devoted to developing projects for the Archive of the city of Venice. Tirdly, it will track alongside the next stage development of the Digital Public Library of America: a visionary project that seeks to create a single unifed digital library structure for the entire United States. Last but not least, members of the Harvard librarian and archivist community will participate in the brainstorm- ing/problem-solving hours of the course (indicated in the syllabus), as well as in the project reviews. Visitors Individual seminar sessions will include the participa- tion of cultural historians and architects. Among the experts who we expect to participate are: Gregory Nagy, Robert Darnton, Katherine Park, Alex Csiszar, and William Rawn. DES-034985 | Bibliotheca: The Library Past/Present/Future Syllabus Excerpts Wednesdays, 8:30am - 11:30am, Visual + Material Resources Room, Loeb Library John Palfrey, Jeffrey Schnapp, Ann Whiteside, Jeff Goldenson Selected Readings Matthew Battles, Te Library: An Unquiet History (New York: Norton, 2003) Jose Luis Borges, Te Library of Babel, Te Total Library Henry Petroski, Te Book on the Bookshelf (New York: Knopf, 1999) Cornelia Vismann, Files (Palo Alto: Stanford, 2008) Ian F. McNeely, Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet (New York: Norton, 2010) David Weinberger, Everything is Miscella- neous: Te Power of the New Digital Disorder (New York: Times Books, 2007) Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977)
Whole Earth Catalog, (Menlo Park: Portola Institute, 1969) W. Brian Arthur, Te Nature of Technology: what it is and how it evolves (London: Allen Lane, 2009) Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens Afer Teyre Built (New York: Pen- guin, 1995) Berg, http://berglondon.com/blog/ (London: dive into their archives) w w w . l i b r a r y t e s t k i t c h e n . o r g Tis begged the question: how can we bring students into this larger institutional discussion in a more sustained and meaningful way? How can we communicate the amazing opportunity to reinvent the Harvard Library? Expecting extracurricular involvement was impractical. And then we realized with a bit of institutional jujitsu we could make reinventing the library the academic work itself. We could create our own mirror to Deloitte, an internal design con- sultancy comprised of students. We wanted to build real things and have an impact just like any real frm, and that meant money. We pitched the idea to the Harvard Library Lab, the granting entity within the library, and Robert Darnton, Pforzheimer Professor and Director of the Harvard University Library. Everyone agreed it was a worthy experiment and they signed on as our funders. Budget in hand; we had the makings of an ofce. We just needed to staf it. Under the umbrella of Advanced Seminar 09115, we tapped Graduate School of Design students to lend fresh eyes to the problems, challenges and opportuni- ties of the Harvard Library. While a useful thought experiment, we didnt see ourselves as a real frm or a normal seminar along the lines of Bibliotheca, for that matter. We didnt see ourselves as a lab either, we wanted to start fresh with a name that freed us to do something new. Ten Annie Cain, the ever- innovative co-worker of mine in the Library Innovation Lab, weighed in, What about calling it the Library Test Kitchen? She captured the homebrew vibe perfectly; the name stuck. Tis broadside contains the outtakes from the frst go around. Our funders are pleased, and theyve committed to another cycle of fnancial support for the Library Test Kitchen. Stay tuned. LTK for the Librarian (continued from cover) Beginnings (continued from cover) Logo, Jessica Yurkofsky Where we sit in the University Harvard Library Laboratory in the Ofce for Scholarly Communication Graduate School of Design Harvard University