Mini Challenge 1 — Literature Review

This section covers the literature we researched in order to inform our design.

The Role of Libraries

As we move towards an information-driven global economy, it is important to consider how human interaction with knowledge sharing systems is mediated by technology. Traditionally this role has been held by the library, seen as an embodiment of social civic culture, shared values and knowledge hubs [9,11]. With the increasing trend of creating a digital extension to physical libraries, the role of libraries as hubs for storage of knowledge and materials decreases in value, yet the role of libraries as a ‘space’ where people can work both individually and collaboratively, and engage in social discourse and interactions has become increasingly important [3,9,12].

Inclusive by Design

Libraries are seen as public social spaces that encourage cohabitation by diverse groups of people [3,9,12]. They are some of the few public urban spaces that are able to inculcate a sense of safety and comfort amongst a wide array of visitors [6,9]. In terms of spatial construct, the library is an open, unconstrained space, allowing for a wide range of activities to be undertaken [2,3,9,12] and thereby catering to a variety of patrons with different needs — everyone from frequent visitors who view the library as an extension of their home, to those who come in less frequently but have a more directed purpose behind their visits [9]. Another feature of the library which helps generate a more inclusive atmosphere is the absence of a value exchange, i.e. no social contract requiring patrons to engage in monetary outlay, unlike with most private institutions — and therefore time spent within this space is not constrained and supports a sense of freedom [9].

Relevance Today

There are arguments that libraries today are struggling to stay relevant in today’s technological landscape, unable to identify and protect the value they offer people or a community [2], however this view looks at libraries as one-dimensional knowledge repositories. These views discount the importance of the symbolic, cultural and socio-economic roles that a library has within society [9]. Given that libraries are so much more than a place where knowledge is stored, the likelihood of technology driven electronic resources replacing the library is very low [9] and that libraries as an institution remain the central focal point of the information landscape [3]. Therefore the role of technology is seen to augment the role of the library, not act as a replacement [2,3,9,10]. Digital libraries are unable to encompass all the functions of the physical library space, however they supplement the physical by offering cognitive spaces [12], creating a more open platform for collaboration and extending the benefits of the library to a wider range of purposes and people. Information technologies augment and supplement the role of libraries, rather than threaten or diminish their value [3].

Emerging Challenges and Opportunities

The spatial construct of libraries has a unique way of encouraging learning through discovery. The act of shelf and space browsing within a library highlights the importance of tangential learning and serendipity [8] as a result of perspectives or knowledge gained through actions and the visual appearance of physical items (for example: wear indicating the amount of use, annotations and markings made by others who have used that item, and folded page corners). This type of supplementary information is often removed in a digital browsing experience.

The modern library also includes a vast array of media in terms of resources that are both physical and digitized. This hybrid of media and its reach allows for the broadening and enrichment of the impact libraries play in terms of our exposure to learning [12]. This also creates a challenge of making all of this information visible and discoverable by people.

Addition of technology in the physical space also creates the ability to explore resources through interactive media. Libraries have experimented by hosting exhibitions that use immersive video displays, interactive and multi-modal input interfaces to view ancient artifacts, scriptures and images. In addition to this, open-source data repositories allow everyday library patrons to engage in community research through creative analyses of publically accessible data, thereby encouraging building on existing work and growing knowledge. However, questions can be raised as to how accessible these types of information really are. Often these types of systems require devices with a high level of processing power that many people may not have access to other than by using a library owned device. Using these resources outside of the library may also necessitate a fast internet connection and involve the download of considerable amounts of data. The cost of these must be borne by the person seeking to access the service. Open data portals will often require a level of specialist knowledge that may range from working with downloaded spreadsheets to manipulate considerable amounts of data in different formats to a level of coding ability to retrieve data using a ‘call’ to an Application Programming Interface (API) and then put that data to some use.

The Future Digital Library

With the integration of technology into the library ecosystem, and inclusion of the library as a work or maker space through community allows for libraries to bring to the forefront their role as platforms that help create, develop, store and integrate community knowledge [1]. In essence returning to their core value of being symbols of culture and knowledge where patrons play a more participatory role in contributing to the shared body of knowledge [2,3,12], reinforcing the position of material and human resources being central to the concept of the ideology of the library. Future libraries are seen as vehicles of enhanced cognitive space; augmenting representations of ideas in materials through the use of technology [12]. The contribution of the library expands from promoting the culture of reading to acting as a platform that provides the means for development of creativity, development and entrepreneurship [3]. Libraries shall continue to propagate their role as creators and curators of intellectual and cultural capital to the world.

References

1. Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell, and Lone Koefoed Hansen. 2015. Immodest Proposals: Research Through Design and Knowledge. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, 2093–2102.

2. Gobinda Chowdhury, Alan Poulter, and David McMenemy. 2006. Public Library 2.0: Towards a new mission for public libraries as a “network of community knowledge.” Online Information Review 30, 4: 454–460.

3. Taísa Rodrigues Dantas. 2015. The Social Role of the Libraries: A Perspective Beyond Books. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality, ACM, 427–431.

4. Batya Friedman, David G. Hendry, and Alan Borning. 2017. A Survey of Value Sensitive Design Methods. Foundations and Trends® in Human–Computer Interaction 11, 2: 63–125.

5. Elizabeth Goodman, Erik Stolterman, and Ron Wakkary. 2011. Understanding interaction design practices. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, 1061–1070.

6. Liz Greenhalgh and Ken Worpole. 2013. Libraries in a world of cultural change. Routledge.

7. Kristina Höök, Peter Dalsgaard, Stuart Reeves, et al. 2015. Knowledge production in interaction design. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, 2429–2432.

8. Eike Kleiner, Roman Rädle, and Harald Reiterer. 2013. Blended Shelf: Reality-based Presentation and Exploration of Library Collections. CHI ’13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, 577–582.

9. Gloria J. Leckie and Jeffrey Hopkins. 2002. The Public Place of Central Libraries: Findings from Toronto and Vancouver. The Library Quarterly 72, 3: 326–372.

10. Gary Marchionini. 1999. Augmenting library services: Toward the sharium. Proceedings of International Symposium on Digital Libraries, 40–47.

11. Thomas A. Markus. 2013. Buildings and power: Freedom and control in the origin of modern building types. Routledge.

12. Jeffrey Pomerantz and Gary Marchionini. 2007. The digital library as place. Journal of Documentation 63, 4: 505–533.