Dear Don,
In practical terms, most libraries, and many current research universities, historically are secondary artefacts of a successful solution developed 200 years ago to a bigger problem - using education to address social inequity.
At a similar-scale time of technological innovation, there was a similar problem that for the general (non-rich) public, education had to be paid for and access to information was too expensive.
In the early 1800s started two powerful and highly effective public education movements intended to provide free education for adults that would improve their lives and the lives of their families.. They were established in large houses in many cities in the UK, Australia, US, and the cities of the British Empire and paid for by public donation and industrial philanthropy. Typically, they provided up to the minute education for free, access to the relevant material in libraries and museums that offered access to real and useful historical artefacts form which new innovations could be derived.
From these organisations emerged most of the public libraries and a large proportion of the research universities of the world.
They were the Mechanics Institutes and Settlement Houses.
They changed the world, and for a while offered hope of upward mobility for anyone without access to wealth - a significant problem today. All that was required was a commitment to use spare time to study.
Following their inspiration, the funding for university libraries could be used to redress the currently increasing ly entrenched social inequity in education to offer free education and access to useful information to all - to enable similar pathways to upward mobility and development for those without access to wealth.
References;
http://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mechanics-institutes/
http://mechanicsinstitutes.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.pmi.net.au/home/mihistory/
http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/14051/1/415.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanics%27_Institutes
https://www.thoughtco.com/settlement-house-movement-3530383
http://www.ifsnetwork.org/ifs/resources/history/a-history-of-the-settlement-hous:en-us.pdf
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&prodId=UHIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CBT2350040371&mode=view&userGroupName=k12_histrc&jsid=28ed3e092eba98439c9e3b931369f1cc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_movement
Best regards,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love
Design Out Crime & CPTED Centre
Perth, Western Australia
[log in to unmask]
www.designoutcrime.org
+61 (0)4 3497 5848
==
ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Don Norman
Sent: Monday, 4 December 2017 2:23 AM
To: phd-design <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Looking for creative ideas: the Future of the University Library
I'm looking for help.
I have agreed to give a Keynote talk to the University of California Librarians on February 28 on February 28 (the conference is called "Building the UC Digital Library"). This is for the librarians of all 10 campuses of the UC system. https://ucdlfx2018.sched.com/ <https://ucdlfx2018.sched.com/>
I want to use Design Thinking to figure out what the 21st-century University library is about. What is the core issues it should work on? How might it be approached? I do NOT want to repeat the same issues and arguments that have long been discussed. e.g., Not about the value of electronic versus print, the value of different media, the copyright
issues.)
Note that the conference I will be talking about states this as its goal:
The inaugural 2018 University of California Digital Library Forum (UC DLFx) "Building the UC Digital Library: Theory and Practice" will explore a range of topics such as engaging, enhancing our communities and creating data from materials at our respective University of California libraries; demystifying data curation; project collaboration; using emerging technologies such as 3D scanning to enhance access, and creating a UC system wide standard for born digital archival material.
Because my talk is for University of California librarians, the problems of a University Library are very different from that of a public or community library. Thus, many cities are transforming their libraries into wonderful community engagement spaces. In my recent travels, the Amsterdam
(Netherlands) holiday is one example. The new San Diego Library is yet another -- it even houses a high-school within it. This, however, is not a sufficient model for a University library.
(I have already spent time talking with the UCSD Head Librarian: I did not get inspired.)
I have gathered together students from the design lab to observe and talk with library users: students, staff, faculty, researchers, bums, derelicts,
the homeless, .... We will do the normal data=-gathering, ideation, etc.
==
Most people on this list are at universities where the same issues might exist. What is the future of the library in this age of electronic media that can readily be accessed from home or office or anywhere there is internet?
So PhD-Design list: Any ideas? or do we simply turn the vast space that a
library requires into study halls?
I want to make this exciting and thought-provoking. It might be completely impossible, as long as it causes people to think.
---
Don
--
Don Norman
Prof. and Director, DesignLab, UC San Diego [log in to unmask] designlab.ucsd.edu/ www.jnd.org <http://www.jnd.org/>
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