Yet, information technology has proliferated and become “humanized” over the last dozen years to the extent that we are now in the midst of revolutionary change. Some even see that change as a threat to the existence of libraries.

As information professionals, we occupy a significant amount of space at the epicenter of that change–but how are we really doing? Are we helping to direct that change or merely responding to it? Are we leveraging change, or simply managing it? As the world of information production and consumption undergoes a complete transformation, how is our place in society affected and what are our responsibilities? How do we justify our existence?

Please join us on Thursday, March 26th at the Darien Library for a conversation with John Berry (Editor-at-large, Library Journal, New York, NY) and Kathryn Greenhill (Emerging Technologies Specialist, Murdoch University Library, Perth Western Australia) about revolutionary change, youth, service, and civic responsibility, and the future of libraries.

Come prepared to participate in group discussion following both speakers. In fact, come prepared to help sketch out the role librarians should play in defining the future of libraries.

Coffee and bagels will be served at 9:00 and we will begin the program at 9:30. Lunch will also be served and we will go until we’ve exhausted the topic (around 5:00). This event is co-sponsored by Darien Library and Connecticut Library Consortium. Attendance is free but please sign-up in advance on the futurelibs09 event wiki: http://futurelibs09.wikispaces.com/Attendee+List

Also available, are travel and lodging tips. We’ve secured a conference block in the nearby Doubletree, so be sure to check out the details on the camp wiki (Thanks to Amanda Etches-Johnson for setting it up). Be sure to put your name down for a lightning talk or birds of a feather session if you’re so inclined. We have three distinct spaces available for the camp–an auditorium, a conference room, and a technology center and we’re planning a combination of lightning talks, group discussion, and workshop-ing throughout the day. We’ll also provide several tours for those who want to spend a little time getting to know our new building.

If you’re not going to make it in person but still want to join in on the event, we will plan on Ustreaming at least two of the rooms all day and keeping the chat rooms and twitter up for questions and back-channel discussion (#drupal4lib).

See you on the 27th!

Fait accompli.

Our Surface arrived this week.  We’ve been talking about it internally for awhile as a theoretical purchase.  Now it’s a reality.  It’s already made Microsoft’s Surface Blog, too!  It’s actually surprisingly easy to get one.  I thought we’d have to jump through hoops, sign NDAs, and give up our first-borns.  Not so.

So what are we going to do with it?  We’re giving it to the kids.  We have a perfect little niche in the Children’s Room that was literally designed with power and data in the floor to accommodate surface computing.  Yes that’s right.  Designed for the Surface.

We decided to put it in the Children’s Room for several very basic reasons.  Kids will just “get it” immediately without any explanation.  Kids are tactile creatures who are very comfortable with hands-on activity.  If we can give them a piece of really cool technology they’ve never seen before and invite them to literally put their hands on it, I have no doubt they will not only be impressed, but empowered as well.  They’re not going to ask silly questions like, “why would you put one of these in a library”, because they intuitively know why.

By the way, you clean it with a mild dish-soap solution.

Details!

We’ve purchased the SDK (software development kit) as well.  When the dust settles from our move, we will certainly begin exploring some of the myriad possibilities.  I can already think of a number of ways to build interesting applications on top of Locum and Insurge.  We were all musing this morning about how cool it would be if we tagged certain picture books so that when they were placed on the Surface, a video-recording of a story-time with that book would pop up.  As far as I can tell, the Surface SDK takes advantage of Silverlight, so it should be fairly simple to quickly develop attractive and fun applications.

There are challenges.  I had always assumed that interaction between the Surface and physical objects was RFID-based.  That would have been perfect.  Instead, the Surface uses proprietary tags that look to be something akin to semacode in ultra-violet ink.  We’ll look in to getting some, but I doubt we’ll be getting B&T to process our books with them any time soon!

We would like to eventually put a Surface in our Teen Room and then Reference.  I’ve liked the whole Surface concept from the onset.  I think that anytime technology and physical space can be mashed up in a natural, intuitive way, a whole new realm of posibility opens up.  A platform like the Surface extends our horizon of influence.  It’s also freaking cool.  We’ll keep you posted!

I’m really proud of the people I work with. If it were possible to capture in a single word the confluence of physical space, library science, technology, focus on service, hospitality, and user experience that our new building embodies, it would be something akin to “masterpiece”.

But we’ve got miles to go before …

It turns out that Louise Berry, our director, was interviewed months ago for the article and thought it was probably abandoned. Not so, and it’s quite good. It begins:

WHEN residents of Darien, Conn., walk into their new library sometime in 2009, they will be able to read a book or magazine while sipping coffee in a cafe that spills out to the sidewalk. They will find books grouped by subject, as they are in bookstores, instead of according to the Dewey Decimal System. They will lounge in overstuffed chairs, peruse DVDs in a Blockbuster-style video section, write a report on a wireless computer or print one on a color copier, and bind a proposal in the building’s small business center.

And I love this:

“Libraries see their roles as much more of a cultural gathering place where people come together, kind of like the salons of the French and Victorian coffee houses,” said Darien’s library director, Louise Berry.

Other Connecticut library directors were interviewed as well: Maxine Bleiweis (Westport), Pat Holloway (West Hartford), and Kathy Leeds (Wilton). Connecticut is really a nexus of library change–an observation I made when coming to speak at Quinnipiac for the Connecticut Library Consortium in October, 2006. The librarians here do not lack for passion and energy and it shows.

But I think the article is good because it doesn’t take the familiar “oh, look what the cute libraries are doing” tone. It also reinforces what I’ve been thinking all along–libraries are not just about content. We need to be focusing on the library experience. In fact, content is going to become a tertiary component of what we do. Instead, we will be become enablers and collaborative partners with our public. A strong focus on the community is key to that vision. Not just reactive care and customer service, but a proactive approach to enriching the lives of the citizens around us. If you look at where the houses and hotels are on the game board, this is the real estate that Google and Amazon cannot touch. As Maxine Bleiweis says, “Human contact has gradually gone away. You add the isolation of the suburbs and you’ve really got a situation where people need to come together. One of the most natural places is the library.” If I could get our users to associate any two words, they would be “home” and “library.”

And if you want to watch the progress of the New Darien Library (you know you do!), click on the image above to see our construction site web-cam.

I know all of ours deserve a good long rest. Great job guys, you’ve helped remind more than a few kids (and parents too) that the library is way cooler than Barnes and Noble.

Louise Berry (hands-down the most flickeringest library director in the known universe) has already put together a set on Flickr documenting the Darien Library’s Deathly Hallows launch. Some of these pictures should be ALA marketing posters.

Travel, lodging, and schedule information is available at the L2 wiki. If you’re in the area, be sure to sign-up, drop in and participate in what I’m sure will be some very good discussion.

We’ve deviated a little from the April format this time. LCE is still an Open Spaces event, but we’ve pre-slotted two discussions for the morning. The first one will be led by myself and will cover the topic of mash-ups and patron-oriented development. Following that will be a discussion led by WPOPAC author, Casey Bisson, about the state of the present-day OPAC, where we’d like to go and what we’d like to see–a topic du jour indeed.

Everything else will be up to the attendees.

Hope to see you there!

While a number of more high-profile libraries have garnered national attention for their blogs, Darien has been quietly assembling their all-star blogging team. What makes their effort truly different is that it has been a top-down initiative that involves staff members representing different parts of the organization. Last week, Jenny Levine took notice of Louise Berry’s blog. Louise is Darien’s director and she has a prolific and candid blogging style that I find inspiring. She’s not the only library director who is blogging right now, but she’s clearly the one who enjoys it the most.

I thought I was going to have to pester Alan Gray, Darien’s head of technology (and tech services), again to get him blogging as well–no need! Alan has started his blog, “Last Clear Chance.” Named after an intriguing legal doctrine, Alan’s blog will more-than-likely reflect his tell-it-like-it-is personality. You’re not going to find the party-line here.

Another major component of Darien Library’s master plan is the construction of a new 45,000 square foot $22 $26 million dollar library to replace the facility they are currently in. In the spirit of keeping the community informed of what’s going on with the new building, Darien has started a dedicated blog for the project; they’ve labeled it, “A Chronicle of Progress Towards a New Darien Library.” The blog seems to be staffed mostly by Alan, but I wouldn’t be surprised if other voices chimed in as well. For anyone interested in the process behind building a new library, this is the perfect blog for you.

In addition to these three blogs, Darien offers a suite of other blogs, all RSS-capable, all very interesting. From books to technology, they are creating a voice all their own.

You can also catch some Darien Flickr action: Louise Berry, Alan Gray, and the Darien Library itself.