A slam dunk for libraries?
In April Aureoo will launch its first collaborative project with a library in Rovereto, Trentino. The project titled ‘OpenBiblio’ is being supported by local artist Luca Nicolini who will create a Vision on Aureoo based upon his photography and the theme ‘reality and illusion’.
For those of you unfamiliar with Aureoo, a Vision is an interactive map of books linked to web content. Each connection between a book and web content is called a BuB. Video, audio, images, links, quotes and documents can be linked in a BuB and the creator is able to explain the correlation or ‘meaning’ of the connection.
Matteo Marzadro, co-founder of Aureoo, wants to involve the whole community in this project to raise awareness of local culture and artists, but to also create a map of knowledge for all users of Rovereto library. “At the moment we are working with the school of tourism at the Istituto Don Milani, a Serie A youth basketball coach, and a startup at the University of Trento.
The beauty of a Vision is that the content leads the reader on a journey of discovery, that mutates and changes its path from the work of a photographer to the knowledge of a basketball coach. OpenBiblio will allow our collaborators to connect and create content, intertwined with books from Rovereto library.”
Much has been reported of the demise of the library throughout Europe, but also America and Canada, where budgets have been cut, collections reduced and many closed altogether.
In the face of these difficult times the library has been reinvented as a hub of social activity, where the community can meet to use the internet, job search, attend meetings, borrow DVDs and the book, the archive, the social records have long been forgotten.
As the NY Times reported:
Every economic crisis responds, first of all, by cutting funds to culture. But the dismantling of our libraries and changing their nature is not simply a matter of economics. Somewhere in our time, we began to forget what memory — personal and collective — means, and the importance of common symbols that help us understand our society.
Of course it may be argued that a lack of interest in reading, researching and knowledge is the reason why libraries have lost their traditional role. Why use a library when you can download books to an eReader, discover knowledge online and research archives through online databases?
OpenBiblio will change the way in which the local community interacts with their library, by connecting culture which is accessible to the library user, bringing the books to life though multimedia connections and by pinpointing places of interest in the community, identified though content geolocated in this Vision.
This will be the first of many Aureoo initiatives in collaboration with libraries in Italy, but if successful the team at Aureoo would like to expand the project to work with libraries around the world.
Aureoo users can follow, add or discuss the content of this Vision when it is launched on April 11 and will run for 4 weeks.
This project will coincide with the relaunch of the new Aureoo platform later this month and the new mobile app.
For further information on OpenBiblio or if you would like to collaborate with us please email nicola@aureoo.com
