Here is a sample of projects over the past couple of years that libraries have used go green and help their patrons go green, too. Before you look at it, you should know that libraries generally do not keep the book jackets that publishers put on hardcover books. Also, they must “weed” old books that no one borrows or consults any more from their collection. Although they often try to sell these books, they still have to get rid of the ones no one buys.

A book bookshelf. Just one of the clever things that can be made of old books!

• New library buildings designed on LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) are becoming more and more common.
• The Pleasanton (California) Public Library building, built in 1988, supplies abundant natural light with large windows and skylights, yet the design of the electrical system did not allow staff to dim or turn off electric lights when they weren’t needed. So it recently replaced the old lighting system with a new one. That change alone reduced the building’s energy usage by 46%.
• The Rifle Branch of the Garfield County Library in Colorado has a parking lot with special areas for fuel efficient cars and for plugging in electric vehicles. Being in Colorado, the lot is also horse-friendly.
• The educational program of libraries now routinely includes workshops and classes on sustainability.
• The library at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro designed and distributed a book mark that not only publicized a sustainability workshop, but also listed other energy-saving and money saving tips from asking professors to allow electronic submission of term papers to climbing the steps in the library tower for exercise.
• A staff member at one library learned how to make gift bags from book jackets and then made a presentation at The Green Paraprofessional Conference, hosted by East Carolina University Libraries in 2009, to teach others how to recycle their jackets in this way.
• It doesn’t appear that a librarian came up with the idea of making furniture from old books, but Going Green @ Your Library posted a couple of pictures. I hope some libraries have taken up the idea. They’d be more likely to sell furniture made of old books than from trying to sell the books themselves!

I have certainly enjoyed writing a post that combines two of my passions, libraries and sustainability. If you, too, are passionate about both, or even just interested in both, be sure to read one of my other blogs, Sustainable Future, Green Homes.

Sources: Going Green @ Your Library
American Libraries
Photo credit: Inhabit.com, found in the Going Green @ Your Library post Recycle Books Into Furniture

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Mismatched pear of shoes?

Did he have trouble spelling? Or did he just not know what homonym to use? “Aloud” (adverb) means with the voice, and louder than a whisper. He meant “allowed” (verb, past participle of allow), or permitted.

Here are some more choice mistakes:

1. The only alternative to marketing, according to one authority, is “Do nothing and prey that whatever happens it brings more good than bad.”

“Prey” (noun) means a victim, especially a creature hunted for food. Back up one vowel! Its homonym “pray” (verb) means to speak to God or some other deity. By extension, it can also mean to make any fervent request, possibly to the extent of begging or pleading.

2. As long as we’re in a vaguely religious mood, someone referred to a non-prophet organization.

I personally wouldn’t want to be part of a church that meets that description. A prophet, properly speaking, is someone who hears from God and speaks the word. In a looser sense, a prophet is considered someone who can predict the future.

On the other hand, a non-profit organization is one that does not exist for the sake of making money for stockholders. A profit is some kind of advantageous return, usually in the sense of a return on investment after all expenses have been paid.

3. “Unleashing your creativity and you will put the petal to the metal when it comes to accelerating your online success.”

I don’t think that would work very well. A “petal,” after all, is part of a flower. The cliche this fellow tried to write refers to flooring the accelerator on a car. (I get a lot of good advice from his blog. I’m withholding his name to protect the guilty.) It takes more than a petal. The accelerator is a “pedal,” something operated with the foot. At least he didn’t write “peddle,” a rather sneering way of saying “sell.”

This blogger probably just picked words with similar spelling. He could have mistakenly used two other homonyms: pedal to the “medal,” a piece of metal with some kind of design or inscription and used as an award. Further afield, he could have forced two verbs into duty as nouns by writing “peddle to the meddle,” meddle meaning to interfere.

At least he couldn’t have written “pettle to the mettle.” There is no such word as pettle. Mettle, on the other hand, means courage or spirit. I suppose that a display of mettle might accelerate success, too! There are certainly a lot of combinations of homonyms to get that sentence wrong!

4. Lest anyone think that all of these wrong words are perpetrated only by the spelling challenged, I heard a howler on NPR. The reporter said that the Egyptian government arrested some Americans, accusing them of fermenting unrest.

Maybe, being good Moslems, who disapprove of strong drink, couldn’t stand the thought of those Americans turning all of that Egyptian unrest into alcohol.

It’s not quite as funny as I thought. My dictionary gives “to make turbulent, agitate, excite” as one definition of ferment. I suspect, however, that that definition acknowledges a very old confusion with the word “foment,” which means to incite or encourage.

I’d ask if anyone has any usage data to back up the reporter, but I found another warning that gives me pause:

5. “Anybody can take statistics and pole numbers and find ways
to use them to support their own campaign.”

A pole is a long, relatively thin, and usually rounded piece of wood or other material, as in telephone pole. There aren’t many numbers there. If it weren’t for the “usually rounded” part of the definition, I would have thought that speed limit signs could be mounted on a pole, but I don’t understand just how those numbers would be of any use in a campaign.

Poll numbers are a different matter. The noun “poll” has several senses. The one that best fits the sentence is a selected sample of people giving answers to a particular question, such as whom they intend to vote for. Related meanings include the casting of votes in an election and the number of votes cast.

Hmm. I wonder how far we’d get with a sign that said, “No polling/campaigning/advertising aloud?” The Supreme Court would never back enforcement of “allowed,” so only its homonym could give us any peace and quiet at certain times. I’d approve.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by gadl.

I do not subscribe to the notion that libraries ought to be run like businesses, largely because businesses exist to make a profit for their owners and shareholders. A good marketing campaign, on the other hand, can be used as a means to more than one end.

Stores market in order to get shoppers to come in and buy things. That’s what makes the profit. If no one shops at the store, it goes out of business. The owners and employees all lose out. Libraries offer services and, well, products that stores can’t. Without patrons coming in to use these services and products, the government or academic officials over the library are likely to cut funding or even shut them down. Everybody loses out.

American Library Association poster from World War One.

Have you noticed posters with the phrase @ the Library?The American Library Association hopes so. It designed and printed those posters as part of its nationwide marketing campaign. The slogan may be fairly recent, but the association has promoted libraries with posters for more than a century.

Local libraries also market, or ought to. I hate to say this, but in our market-driven economy each library has become a brand. It needs to call attention to that brand and make it attractive.

A library’s web page projects an image of its brand.Is it attractive? Does it have the kind of information potential patrons are looking for? Is it easy to use? The library’s facilities also project an image of the brand? Does the library look attractive? When it puts up displays, are they eye-catching and entertaining as well as informative? Can patrons easily see what the library has to offer them? Are the librarians and other staff visible and helpful?

Stores and other businesses pay a lot for TV and print ads. The American Library Association has probably paid a bundle for all those@ the Library posters. Individual libraries may not have the resources for an advertising campaign, but marketing is more than advertising.

If you notice your library buying new furniture or rearranging parts of its facility, it is trying to make the library experience better for its patrons. And perhaps it is also doing it to enhance its brand, in other words, doing it in part for marketing. A library not attuned to projecting its brand as something of value faces the danger of being shut down. It has certainly happened to corporate libraries.

Dedication of the Doris Dillon Children's Library at the Almaden Branch Library, San Jose

If you have ever dropped your kids at the library for story time, you know one way that libraries support families. If that’s all you know, you have hardly scratched the surface of what the library has to offer.

The Children’s Reading Foundation has determined that pre-schoolers need hundreds of hours of being read to in order to be adequately prepared for kindergarten. Even parents with minimal or no reading skills can make up stories to go along with the pictures in books. Twenty minutes a day beginning in babyhood will easily add up to that much time. Unfortunately, not all kindergarteners have received that kind of background. That’s one reason why families need help.

Children’s services at the library

The library has plenty of books suitable for children of every age, from pre-school through high school. The book collection comprises picture books, story books for young children, and juvenile fiction and non-fiction–including winners of the Newbery and Caldecott Awards. In addition, the collection has dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference materials appropriate for each age level, as well as a variety of children’s periodicals. Most libraries will also have large print and Braille books for seeing impaired and blind children.

It should go without saying that library collections have much more than books and magazines. You will find an audiovisual collection of music, books on CD, and a variety of movies and other visual materials. You will almost certainly also find computers with various special programs, educational games, and Internet access.

In addition, children’s libraries offer various special events and programs, of which the story times are just one. Kids Connect, the children’s website of the Orange County Library System (Orlando, Florida) shows a representative selection of the kinds of programs libraries have offered for years. Besides the various events, children’s librarians help children with homework.

Special children's program, Asheboro (North Carolina) Public Library

Family services

Libraries serve not only children, but the entire family. All of these after-school programs and homework centers help the parents by providing a safe place for children to go between the time school lets out and the parents get home from work.

Since children’s librarians have special expertise in helping children with their information needs, and since they remain in communication with teachers, they can often give better and more appropriate help with homework than the parents. That, in turn, frees the parents to interact with their children in other ways.

Libraries also have materials on parenting. Larger public libraries often have parenting centers that gather all of this information (in print, online, and audiovisual) in one place. Other librarians besides the children’s librarians staff these centers, offering their different expertise.

In addition to traditional family services, some librarians are becoming Family Place Libraries™. Some 250 libraries have joined this organization. Besides the kinds of collections and welcoming spaces libraries have offered, Family Place Libraries offer a five-week parent/child workshop.

Besides coordinating with the schools, Family Place Libraries build coalitions with other community agencies that offer various family services. The librarians receive special training in family support in order to understand best practices in family needs beyond providing information.

Besides children’s services, I have previously written about how libraries help the unemployed and illiterate adults. This work directly helps not only the individuals they work with, but of course also their entire families.

With all of the services libraries offer to families, they serve the whole community. Libraries make up an important part of the solution to numerous social problems that face communities from large cities to small towns. Besides taking full advantage of library services, citizens need to make their voices heard so that city councils and county commissioners will fund them adequately.

Photo credits:
Doris Dillon Children’s Library: Some rights reserved by San Jose Library
Special children’s program: Some rights reserved by Asheboro Public Library

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Pike's Peak. Don't just peek. Enjoy it as long as you like!

• He left in a fit of peek.
• I peaked out the window.
• That really peaked my interest.

Peak is usually used as a noun. It refers to some kind of tapering or projecting point. The peak of a mountain, therefore, is the summit. You see the mountain going up on one side till it gets to the top. Then it visibly goes down the other side. The whole mountain can be called a peak.

Not only mountains have peaks, though. A hat can have a peak. So can a beard, or the roof of a house, or all kinds of things. When you beat an egg white and lift the egg beater, it should leave peaks.

Metaphorically, a peak can also be the highest level of development or intensity. Before the stock market fell in 2008, it reached its peak. Likewise, vegetables can reach a peak of perfection. Flowers can reach a peak of beauty. Political candidates can reach a peak of voter acceptance, and if it comes too soon before an election, they might lose to someone else.

And so we come to “peak” as a verb. The losing candidate may have peaked too early. The same can happen to a racer who fades on the last lap. Something peaks when it is formed into a peak (as in the egg whites) or when it reaches a peak in one of the other senses.

This spelling also works as an adjective. Something can be in peak condition or achieve peak efficiency. Energy debates can be concerned with something called peak oil, which means that the amount of oil already taken from the ground has reached a maximum; if we have indeed reached peak oil, it means we can’t produce any more and eventually, like the mountain top, oil production will have to go down.

Let’s see. I have put these three words in alphabetical order, so “peak” comes on the tip top. Think of that when deciding which to use. If in any sense you want to convey the concept of a tip or a top, use “peak.”

(Unfortunately, there is another word with the same spelling that means to get sick, especially if it leaves you pale or emaciated. It’s a verb I see in the dictionary, but I don’t remember hearing anyone use it or seeing it in anything I’ve read. I have heard of people who look peaked. That’s peak-ed, two syllables, not “peakt” like the other word we’ve just looked at.)

Peek has to do with seeing. See and peek both have double ee’s. That might help to remember when you need this one.

A peek is a short look or glance. Rolling through interesting scenery on a tour bus, I only get a peek at things I’d really like to look at longer. If I have no business looking at anything but want to be nosy, I might sneak a peek (not a peak!)

If I peek at something, then, I am looking quickly and maybe furtively. So the word can be used either as a noun or a verb. There is no adjective form of peek, however. No matter where you stand on environmental issues, you can depend on this: we’ll never come to peek oil!

Pique means basically to simulate. It most often serves as a verb, which comes from an Old French word that means to prick. That may, in turn, come from a Latin word meaning to peck like a woodpecker.

If you have read this far, then perhaps the two misused words in the title piqued your curiosity. You just had to read this post in order to satisfy it. Curiosity, interest, and anything else that might be piqued are direct objects. And so pique, in this sense, is what we call a transitive verb. The word means something a little different if it’s intransitive, that is, if it doesn’t take a direct object.

Pricking and pecking don’t seem to be particularly pleasant experiences. If I’m piqued at something, it’s bound to be something I resent or find annoying. That brings us to the noun. It’s a feeling of irritation or resentment. More specifically the resentment comes from wounded pride. If you’re insulted by something, you might be tempted to leave the room in a fit of pique.

So, do you mean peak, peek, or pique? Learn the difference and you will no longer entertain people like me who enjoy chortling at misused language. But you will gain the respect of anyone who values good and accurate writing.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Brian Gautreau

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Media lab

Many libraries, both academic and public, offer media labs. Even smaller libraries can set aside one fully loaded workstation where patrons can find advanced software and the peripherals necessary to use them. The Barrington Area Library, for example, has

Media lab at the Lied Library, University of Nevada at Las Vegas

• One MacPro computer with dual monitors
• A tablet computer
• Professional grade microphones
• A music keyboard
• A fast-track audio interface
• Stereo multi-media speakers
• Headphones
• A film and negative scanner
• A card reader
• An external hard drive (available for checkout)
• A digital camera (available for checkout)
• A high definition camcorder (available for checkout)
• Tripods (available for checkout)
• Plenty of software

With this equipment, elementary and high school students can complete class projects. In the process, they can discover and develop their talents in other ways. Small businesses can use it to make brochures, videos, and other marketing materials. And how could any one post enumerate all of the creative projects various adult users might take on.

For example, if someone wanted to compile a family history, they can use the media lab to record and preserve oral histories. They can scan family pictures, home movies, etc. going back several generations.

The library media lab not only makes it unnecessary for individuals to purchase so much equipment and software. It greatly shortens the learning curve for learning to use it. Library staff trained on all the lab’s resources work with patrons on their projects.

Media labs in larger libraries may or may not offer a greater variety of hardware and software than the Barrington library. They will surely have two or more workstations to accommodate their larger patron base.

Small business incubators

Starting a new business is a complicated process. It requires first an idea, then funding, and then a workable plan to turn the idea into reality. All of these things further require finding and collaborating with the right partners. Business incubators have long existed to speed the process along. They help entrepreneurs refine their ideas to make them workable and then introduce them to suitable partners.

Now that so many new businesses deal in information and need a strong online presence, libraries as small business incubators just makes sense. After all, libraries have always been in the idea business. Quite apart from a media lab, the library has the information that entrepreneurs need to stimulate their creativity, refine their ideas and learn basic business skills. What’s more, larger libraries probably have expert business librarians.

According to an April 2011 article, the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, Minnesota, is planning to start a business incubator. The library’s web site has not yet announced its opening.
Media labs, business incubators, hackerspaces, and other fairly new library innovations may not be widespread yet. But if your local library offers nothing of the kind, it does have information sources, reference librarians, and a wide variety of programming to nourish your creativity.
Do you need to reinvent your way out of a tight box? Check its schedule for classes, workshops, lectures, discussions, and other opportunities to learn new ideas and meet like-minded people. Get in on some of this creative activity for yourself.

Photo credit: Media Lab, Lied Library (UNLV) Some rights reserved by Tom Ipri
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Have you ever used a search engine and wondered what on earth the results have to do with what you were looking for? I remember very well the day (some time before Google) I was cataloging a book and had a question about it. Whatever keywords I thought of, my search returned only four results. I was afraid to look at any of them. They appeared to be porn sites.

I don’t remember what search engine I was using, but I’m pretty sure Google eventually put it out of business. When I use Google Images, I still have to wonder what most of the pictures have to do with my search term, but at least I nearly always get something plausibly related to my terms otherwise. I have become a lot more sophisticated in choosing keywords to search, but even my most successful searches turn up many more results than I can ever look at, and there’s nearly always something completely irrelevant on the first page of results. A search engine doesn’t give the option of using a controlled vocabulary.

So what is a controlled vocabulary? It is the concept that every name (personal, corporate, legal jurisdiction, or anything else capable of authorship), every subject heading, and the title of every book or other work must be expressed in one and only one way throughout the catalog. In the US, every library uses the same controlled vocabulary, which is devised and controlled by the Library of Congress.

screen from the Library of Congress Name Authority File

I have written a special article on finding names in a catalog. Basically, however many Frank Smiths there are, each one of them ought to have his own unique identifier:

• Smith, Frank
• Smith, Frank, 1847-1892
• Smith, Frank, 1859-1921
• Smith, Frank R.
• Smith, Frank R., 1944-
• Smith, Frank R (Robert)
• Smith, Frank Robert
• Smith, Frank Robert, June 16, 1948
• . . . and so on

Those are not intended to be real, authorized headings. I made them up. All of the real headings have their own separate records in the Library of Congress Name Authority File. In the case of Frank Smith, there are screen after screen of records. Each record contains unauthorized forms that might turn up on various title pages, etc. That way, if anyone uses them in a search, the catalog will return the authorized heading. In practice, it is not always possible to distinguish every single Frank Smith, so there are actually records that combines all of the undifferentiated Frank Smiths with their varying middle names or initials. After all, someone might eventually be able to distinguish one of them and give him his own record.

When someone’s name changes, the authorized heading changes, and the former heading becomes one of the unauthorized forms in the record. The same thing happens when countries change their names. What was called Belgian Congo became Congo at independence. Long-time dictator Mobutu changed it to Zaire, and his successor changed it back to Congo–unfortunately. I say unfortunately, because there is another country called Congo just across the river. The Library of Congress Name Authority File has sorted it all out, with proper dates and documentation.

Another kind of complication arises whenever a work is known by more than one title. That happens any time something is translated into another language. It also happens any time something, a musical composition perhaps, has a generic title like “sonata” or “symphony.” If three people translate one Russian novel into English, each translation is likely to have a different English title. I don’t even want to think about how many ways Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata can be expressed in English alone. The word “moonlight” doesn’t necessarily appear at all!

The preferred title for every work is in the name authority file and not a title authority file simply because more often than not, works are associated with a particular author, and therefore follow the author’s authorized heading.

There is a separate Library of Congress Subject Authority File. Most academic libraries use it. Most public libraries use something else. The National Library of Medicing and the National Agricultural Library also have their own subject vocabulary. Children’s libraries use a different subject file than any of the adult headings. The English language is rich in synonyms, and every controlled vocabulary uses one and only one term. Where most subject files use “Cancer,” the National Library of Medicine uses “Neoplasms.”

So how on earth is an ordinary person supposed to use controlled vocabulary. There seems to be no way to figure it out! Fortunately, there is an easy way.

1. Start with a keyword search. If you know an author’s name and a word in the title, that’s good. Unlike Google, though, the catalog probably requires you to put “and” between the terms. As for a title word, the less common the better.
2. Select something from the resulting screen–assuming, of course, that the results contain the right kind of thing. Otherwise, start over.
3. When you see the resulting record, you will notice that the names and subjects are hot links. That’s the controlled vocabulary for the library you’re in.
4. Click on any link to find everything the library has that’s associated with that name or subject.

Some names will not be hot links if no authority record has been written yet. Authorized name/title entries may or may not be links, depending on the capabilities of the library’s software. Subject headings present a special opportunity. Many of them have at least one subheading, and maybe as many as four. In well designed catalog software, the main heading and all of the subheadings should be underlined separately. If you click on the main heading, you will get a list of all the subheadings along with it. If you are only interested in the last subheading, click on that; you won’t get any of the stuff you don’t want. If there are multiple subheadings, the farther to the right you click, the narrower your results will be. As I say, that only works for well-designed software, and unfortunately, there are plenty of dreadful catalogs.

A record for printed music in WorldCat

Using that four step search strategy, you will find everything that your library has related to the hot link you select. (By the way, the call number will also be a hot link. You can browse the “shelves” from the computer.) Or, you can use WorldCat to find out what’s available all over the world. Whether you are using a small public library, a university library, or WorldCat, the catalogs all work on the same principles of controlled vocabulary even if they use different subject lists. The only difference is that you will have greater need to narrow your searches in WorldCat.

Take a look at the screen shot of the Newberry Libary’s catalog. The tab for “quick search” is open, and there is also a tab for “advanced search”. It is unusual to have so many choices for a quick search. Too often, a quick search screen will have only a single search box, based on the misguided notion that making the catalog look more like a search engine will make it easier to use. Except for the initial keyword search, you’ll be better off with whatever option the catalog provides for an advanced search, guided search, or whatever it may be called. But your first task is always to find the controlled vocabulary. Once you learn to use that, it gives you much more precise results than any search engine can, as well as manageable numbers of hits.

Originally, crowdsourcing meant that Wikipedia and other similar organizations invited a broad spectrum of the general public to write and edit articles. It didn’t matter if they were recognized subject experts or not. I recall (but can’t find) a study several years ago that compared Wikipedia to Encyclopaedia Britannica. In scientific articles, it suggested that both have factual errors, and that on the whole the information contained in them is equally reliable.

In principle, Wikipedia’s editorial procedures should find and correct errors more quickly than those of a traditional encyclopedia, even the online edition. Wikipedia will also have articles on current events that no traditional encyclopedia could ever consider. No wonder Wikipedia has become one of the most-consulted online brands in the world.

At least two problems have kept Wikipedia controversial, however. It is too easy for small groups of highly opinionated people to hijack an article and skew the information and its presentation. I remember reading of editing wars between partisans in various controversies. Not only would the articles in question undergo constant change (an intended feature of crowdsourced work), but their viewpoints and the facts they contained would change from day to day or even hour to hour as one group would delete what the other had just done! I haven’t heard much about that lately.

The other problem turns out to be more pervasive. Most of the information in Wikipedia articles comes from other online sources. There is a great deal of wonderful, valuable information on the Web that deserves use as sources for encyclopedia articles. Even for very contemporary topics, there is much, much more information that either can’t be found online at all or can only be found in expensive databases available only by subscription.

Promoting the NYPL editathon

On October 22, 2011, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts hosted one of the editathons specifically to add articles to Wikipedia and update existing ones about musical theater. For six hours, dozens of people gathered in the special collections area, a closed-stack collection of published material (programs, sheet music, newspaper clippings, etc.) and unpublished material (correspondence, manuscripts, stage designs, etc.), as well as various recordings etc. that probably represent both categories.

On average, 20 researchers from college students to retirees were at work there at any given time. They did not work separately, but collaboratively. At least three different kinds of advantages resulted from this one project:

• Wikipedia benefitted from the depth of information made available in the new and updated articles.
• The participants benefitted from learning both how to edit Wikipedia articles and how to use the resources of a closed-stack special library collection. Many of them may not have even been aware that such a treasure existed before they actually went to work there.
• The library benefitted from the number of new patrons they had that day. The editathon resulted in approximately double the normal number of call slips submitted. The library also benefitted from the number of links from the articles back to the library’s web site.

During the same month, other libraries hosted similar events, each devoted to a different single topic. Each undoubtedly enjoyed their own version of the same three kinds of advantages.

Collaborations between libraries and Wikipedia are a natural fit. The 2011 editathons are not the first such, only the largest. Many participants and organizers hope it will become an annual event.

Source: Libraries Tap into Crowd Power / Sanhita SinhaRoy

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Many in the current generation of young adults consider email antiquated. Libraries or any other institutions that want to stay in touch with them must use newer forms of communication. It’s not just young people who use social media. In 2008, 9% of the older part of the baby boom. In a survey taken by the same polling organization two years later, the percentage had jumped to 43%. At the same time, their parents’ generation’s involvement in social networking quadrupled from 4% to 16%.

So what do libraries do with social media? So far, largely for branding and promotion of their services. They also provide yet another means of communication when patrons have reference questions.

What may be surprising is that librarians are beginning to find ways to use Twitter to answer reference questions. Just as librarians can often find answers on Google or other search engines that have eluded their patrons, they are more likely to have some training to be power users of Twitter and know how to find the useful content among all the noise.

So far as I know, no library has yet hired a social media specialist. It seems only a matter of time; not only is Twitter beginning to emerge as a source of answers, but many libraries are beginning to teach social media along with all their other educational activities.

Starting a hackerspace is a serious commitment. it must provide a physical location with electric power and a computer network with Internet connectivity, with all the servers and other hardware required to build it. Beyond that, it must provide specialized tools for its members to work with: machine tools, audio and video equipment, game consoles, 3D printers, and other electronic instruments, as well as raw materials such as plastic for the output of those printers.

A company called TekVenture was looking for affordable space in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The director of the Allen County Public Library reached out to its president and offered a partnership. TekVenture’s hackerspace now occupies a 50-yard trailer in the library’s parking lot.

Not very many hackerspaces have yet teamed up with libraries, but the partnership makes sense. The Fayetteville Free Library in New York has even obtained a grant to start its own hackerspace within its building. Libraries have long been on the cutting edge of new technology. For even longer, they have involved in learning, expanding people’s minds, and providing resources to their communities that otherwise most individuals would not be able to afford.

Libraries gain from the partnership by being able to expand their services without, in most cases, having to purchase expensive equipment or train their staff in how to use it. It also fits within their role of building community. Hackerspaces gain from having a physical location at an institution used by people of every demographic in the community. They also gain visibility, free publicity, and potentially, active members.

See also: Libraries make room for high-tech “hackerspaces” / Jon Kalish

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Chloester.