Designing libraries

Lately I have been writing about the usability/ethnographic study portion of User Experience (UX) but I want to start talking more about designing experiences.

There is a great  TED talk on design, a bit old now, but still great. Given by David Kelley, he is one of America’s leading design innovators, and is active in Ideo. He really talks about how his design work has gone from being product based to now looking  at how things are used, and focusing on human-centered design. One of the videos that Kelley shows is of a Prada store; I should disclose that  my husband’s firm did that store, which is kind of cool. Kelley also shows an interactive wall that is at a science museum. Brilliant.

The experiences that Ideo builds into their design process is one that I want to see more and more libraries incorporate.

Of course, Ideo is famous; they were highlighted in a  60 Minutes episode in 1999, and then were the cover story “The Power of Design” (Download PDF)(which should more approriately been named “The Power of Design Thinking“) in the BusinessWeek in 2004 and the latest one is an article in the Harvard Business Review. You can see the 60 Minutes episode on YouTube. Earlier this month, it was announced that they were opening a non-profit arm to do more social good. Can’t wait to see what comes out of this!

For a library perspective, check out Steven Bell, over at Designing Better Libraries; I recommend that you keep up with his blog.

That’s in Google Books? Really?!

Much talk has been made about Google Books over the last year. I have poked around some, and even wrote about it last year. But, I continue to be amazed at the scope! Today I needed a classic mathematics paper from 1882, one by Enneper that was originally published in Zeitschrift fur Mathematik und Physik. My library owns the print, but like most of our users, I wanted to get it quickly online.

I usually search  Numdam, and Gallica, and if I am looking for a book, Google Books. But, I was in a hurry, and thinking that this was a journal, I didn’t even THINK of looking in Google Books! I hadn’t found it online, so I submitted an ILL request. It is just a normal part of my ILL department’s work process to check in Google Books, so they did, and shot me a link to find it online. And, lo, and behold, my 1882 journal article is in Google Books. It is really amazing. Now, this weekend I must find time to catch up on the old Popular Science issues!

And, I have to think about how our discovery tools work with Google Books.

And, how they might work better in the future!

Scientists and how they do their research

A few weeks ago I went to a great conference at Rice, called Scientia. The theme was Research and Innovation in Undergraduate Science and Engineering Education.  One of the most interesting speakers was Wendy Newstetter, Director of Learning Science Research, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. She talked about her ethnographic work looking at labs, and her most recent book arrived on my desk today. Science as Psychology: Sense-Making and Identity in Science Practice. This is an inside, cognitive look, at a large number of labs, and how learning and science happens in them. I am so excited about this approach, because it directly relates to the Research Flow problem the UX team will be working on over the next six months. Leah Krevit, AUL for Public Services, pondered last Fall, essentially, How does research happen? And how can the library make a tool that will include all of the things that researchers need in one place? We are calling this Research Flow, and it probably includes the initial research process, communicating with lab partners, publishing, printing, posters, discovery layers, catalog, journal articles and PDFs, citation needs, plagiarism education needs, and more.

It is exciting when the cognitive sciences, librarianship, and scientific research can all collectively work and solve problems together, especially complex problems like scientific communication and information organization.

Web Reviews

One of my favorite librarians published a great little “web review” in the Special Libraries Association Sci-Tech News yesterday. Lisa Johnston covers (2011) “Web Reviews: User Experience (UX) in Libraries: Web,” Sci-Tech News: Vol. 65: Iss. 1, Article 11. Available at: http://jdc.jefferson.edu/scitechnews/vol65/iss1/11 SciTech News, is the official bulletin of the Chemistry, Engineering, and Science-Technology Divisions, the Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division, and the Materials Research and Manufacturing Section of the Chemistry Division of the Special Libraries Association. Web Reviews is a great column. It is a nicely organized, concise, colorful, everything-you-need-to-know look at different topics, with nice reviews of web resources, and great screenshots. I highly recommend it.

Lisa Johnston had a great write-up in AIP Library Matters in 2009, and you can see how she writes her column, and some of her views about why tech and libraries go hand in hand.

The Library Experience

I am currently working on a book chapter, and despite having pretty good online access to good library literature, I decided I wanted to go sit at a table, and surround myself with print books, and lots of current journals. I know, old school. But, I am a tactile learner, and there is something about being immersed, physically, in what you are studying.

Unfortunately, my library doesn’t really have the print books and current print journals that I need. So, I headed across town to another huge university library. It was a wonderful experience. There were so many students, and a true excitement in the air. There was lots of work being done in the information commons areas. But, the stacks were a different story!

No room at the inn

Hellllooooo......

Some of the bookshelves were overcrowded, with books stacked upon books, stacked upon books, and then, just around the corner, there were rows and rows of empty bookshelves. Now, I know that my own stacks are super crowded in certain areas, and I suspect that more libraries than not have areas like the two above.

So, why does this happen? One, we only have so much time in a day. And, most of the time we are working to make sure our virtual presence is amazing. (The library above has a stellar website.) Do we forget about the stacks? Maybe.

I know that I have needed to weed my VHS (video) collection for several years. And, typically, I am not a procrastinator. But, there are always other jobs to be done, and that task gets pushed down the list, because my users have more pressing needs.

Is it time to think about the death of stacks?

The days of huge columns of stacks in research libraries are numbered. They are so out of sync with the dynamic information commons areas. Recently, one of my favorite mathematicians introduced me to a library in Germany. Now, it has some special circumstances; it actually gets publisher support to have beautiful collections of print journals, as well as, lots of new books all the time. The Oberwolfach http://www.mfo.de/ understands the way that mathematicians do work, and has  several types of working spaces for both individuals, and groups.

But, more interestingly, they have a book exhibition program with the publishers:

http://www.mfo.de/cgi-bin/path?general

This program benefits everyone. The publishers, in essence, have exhibition space, and the researchers see the newest, best math books in a well-lit, beautiful space. In many ways, it looks like a book store, doesn’t it? The lighting is perfect. The new journals are displayed like books, each on the shelf, ready to be browsed. The mathematicians also have book stacks available, in nice, uncrowded conditions.  They also have lots of computers, of course, but print lives in this space, and is not an overcrowded, dark, mysterious thing. In essence, they have the best of all worlds.

So, where are we going? Are we left with overcrowded, dark, or worse, empty stacks? Or do we recreate these areas? Can we make beautiful, discipline-specific homages to print? Can we inspire our users with beautiful space?

I am taking a walk through my own stacks today. I’ll let you know what I find.