• General Information
• Feb 08
• Issue: 219

What’s Up on the Web?

With the new year still fresh, this is a particularly fitting time for thinking about how to keep our libraries vital in the months and years ahead. According to Steven J. Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University Libraries in Philadelphia, accomplishing this goal is all about enhancing the user’s experience. He discusses this within the context of “design thinking” which he promotes as a mindset for approaching any efforts to improve library services. Bell asserts that libraries should adopt the process that design professionals (architects, designers of manufactured products, etc.) use when undertaking a new project. “Design thinking” starts by carefully examining a need from the user’s point of view. For example, in the area of technology, Bell advises libraries considering a hot new gadget or resource to first clearly identify the problem or need that the item addresses.

To learn more about “design thinking,” go to Steven Bell’s web site at http://stevenbell.info/design.htm. From this page, you can link to an overview of the design approach and its benefits in Bell’s “Design Thinking” article, published in the January/February 2008 issue of American Libraries and posted with permission at Bell’s site. For quick introductions to applying the design process in libraries, Bell also offers two online videos (5 minutes and 9 minutes in length).

To see and hear Steven Bell discuss his ideas, you can view a webcast of his keynote speech at the Library Association of the City University of New York’s LACUNY 2007 Institute, held May 18, 2007. Entitled “Reversing the Technology Ratchet: Using Design Thinking to Align Hi-Tech and Hi-Touch,” the presentation can be accessed from conference host Baruch College’s Digital Media Library at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/dml/engine.php?action=viewAsset&mediaIndex=738. (Note: Apple Inc.’s free QuickTime media player is required to view the webcast.) Bell’s PowerPoint presentation is available at http://lacuny.cuny.edu/institute/2007/presentations/bell.pps and a handout of resources can be obtained at http://stevenbell.info/pdfs/LACUNYhandout.pdf.

Intrigued to keep learning about “design thinking”? Steven Bell and colleagues in the library field offer a relatively new blog, Designing Better Libraries http://dbl.lishost.org/blog/ that keeps the discussion going about applying the design process and user-centered approaches to library services. The site also serves as a point of referral to other good resources. For example, check out the Putting People First blog http://www.experientia.com/blog/, a fascinating site for learning about creating user experiences in a variety of endeavors, from art and architecture to education and research to marketing and technology, and social issues. In the “About” section of the site, Putting People First is described as a “non-commercial experience design gateway,” offered by the Italy-based design company Experientia, as a “public service to all those interested in the broader field of experience design and user-centred design.”

Another interesting site is Idea Sandbox http://www.ideasandbox.com from the Seattle-based international marketing firm by the same name. The site offers a blog, a free newsletter (Sand for Your Inbox), and lists of resources including books, articles, web sites, and tools. The September 2007 issue of Sand for Your Inbox offers a method for analyzing a problem that employs the metaphors of walls (problems), bricks (contributing factors), and cathedrals (the larger issues). Take a look at http://www.idea-sandbox.com/inbox_sand/sept_07.html.

In the “Creative Resources” section, Idea Sandbox links to the Library Marketing-Thinking Outside the Book blog http://librarymarketing.blogspot.com/ by Jill Stover, Undergraduate Services Coordinator at the James Branch Cabell Library of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. In a January 15, 2008 posting, she points to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s use of blog bars as an innovative example of enhancing the user experience.The Met has set up computer terminals (a blog bar) in the exhibition galleries for the “blog.mode: addressing fashion” exhibit where visitors can immediately post their reactions online. Read more about this fashion exhibit (offered through April 13, 2008) on the museum’s “Special Exhibitions” page at http://www.metmuseum.org/special/index.asp and link to the blog at http://blog.metmuseum.org/blogmode/.

Lots of resources and ideas to keep us creative and innovative in our libraries!

[Ann Gunning, Member Services Librarian, Nylink]