Flickr is a great image hosting site. http://plcmclearning.blogspot.com/2006/08/5-discover-flickr.html It contains an easy way to store, sort, edit (photoshop type thing), send, and manipulate images. For library applications, think about students sharing images on certain research topics or components in the school. For librarians, there is a really fun part that is called "Librarian trading cards." Librarians can create their own trading cards that include photos/images, plus facts about the librarian and/or his/her library. Librarians in trading cards?! It puts us right up there with sports stars and super heros! Check it out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/librariantradingcard/clusters/ I haven't completed one yet because I am still getting used to the idea of trading part of myself with strangers, but it is a fun idea.
Another fun idea is the Montager. It reminds me of something my daughter would get into. She is always creating art out of unlikely objects and images. It allows the user to create montages out of a collection of photos in the database. The user can search for the correct images by using color, image, or density as the requirement. The link shows a great example: http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Library displays Part 1
People really do judge a book by its cover
"Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them." --Samuel Butler
Once upon a time there was a sad, lonely library. It wasn't old or worn down but rath
er was a newer library in a high school that was only a few years old. It was spacious, with tall ceilings, lots of windows, and couches and tables grouped to invite students to stay a while. Banks of computers filled one side, and a reading area with periodicals filled the other.
But there was a popular misconception about the library: people thought the library didn't have very many books. Books were not easily accessible! All of the library's wide-open spaces meant the book stacks were hidden in the back of the library. Look at the photo -- you can almost see them back there.
But that problem might also have helped bring about a solution. A television production company that rented the school during the summer moved into the library and turned it into a movie set. A Hollywood set designer was in charge of that transformation.
Eventually, when the time came for the television folk to leave, that same set designer and the librarian came up with a plan to liberate the books! Set pieces were sold, and some donated, to the library. The designer placed them such that students coming into the library were not just invited by the open space, but by books -- and not just rows of book spines, but the front of books, with their titles and inviting cover art easy to see.
The look is quite different. The difference in student traffic into the library was immediate. It turns out the idea of displaying the books instead of just having a library space to store them is an idea with both science and art behind it.
The next post will explain some of both of those components. In the meantime, the photos will start telling that story.
People really do judge a book by its cover
"Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them." --Samuel Butler
Once upon a time there was a sad, lonely library. It wasn't old or worn down but rath
er was a newer library in a high school that was only a few years old. It was spacious, with tall ceilings, lots of windows, and couches and tables grouped to invite students to stay a while. Banks of computers filled one side, and a reading area with periodicals filled the other.But there was a popular misconception about the library: people thought the library didn't have very many books. Books were not easily accessible! All of the library's wide-open spaces meant the book stacks were hidden in the back of the library. Look at the photo -- you can almost see them back there.
But that problem might also have helped bring about a solution. A television production company that rented the school during the summer moved into the library and turned it into a movie set. A Hollywood set designer was in charge of that transformation.
Eventually, when the time came for the television folk to leave, that same set designer and the librarian came up with a plan to liberate the books! Set pieces were sold, and some donated, to the library. The designer placed them such that students coming into the library were not just invited by the open space, but by books -- and not just rows of book spines, but the front of books, with their titles and inviting cover art easy to see.
The look is quite different. The difference in student traffic into the library was immediate. It turns out the idea of displaying the books instead of just having a library space to store them is an idea with both science and art behind it.
The next post will explain some of both of those components. In the meantime, the photos will start telling that story.
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