@Catherine: This is EXACTLY what I’m talking about!!! What a great program!!! Now, how can those photos be made discoverable and counted as a service linked to Brooklyn Public Library? Could they be tagged and somehow linked to through our site? Do they become a part of the library’s virtual web collection? Imagine the pride a kid would have if the library catalog had a drop-down or tab for “library user content” that searched flickr or wherever else and you could search the catalog by the patrons name… Each one of those images from your program is easily as valuable a demonstration of the library’s value as the circulation of materials.

When UCL set up a Publishing course in their Information department, you’d have hhoped the emphasis was going to be on what that industry could learn from non-scarcity distribution models like libraries, archives, etc., but it seems the emphasis is still on how to increase loans-as-sales figures… At the same time, libraries (previously a godsend to publishers looking for a steady market for long-tail type products) a choking under chasing TV bookgroup short heads. And those heads are *super* short.

What’s needed is a new model of value.

i think a user has to have explicit intent that can for the most part be addressed by designers, and the experience should always be context-sensitive and “calm” when it comes to digital-to-physical transitions. it seems to me that this is less of an issue when it comes to designing for the web, since the surface context will typically be the website you’re visiting.

let me be clear: the ambient signifiers i was talking about are those that ‘d integrate into a library website, not through pushing info to your bluetooth when you walk by the library. although with ubicomp growing, i’m sure there’s a going to be a good way to design for that. whether or not people are disciplined enough to deal with the info-streams themselves is another story.

i’m with you on all that, but i’m leery of ambient signifiers like you speak of. bluetooth “push” style advertising creeps me out. it seems like that, along w/ a few other services, is all about giving library patrons an opt-in kind of scenario. perhaps in the future with the “always on, always connected” wireless internet it will become a cultural norm to get those pushes coming at you, but i suspect it’ll be fought back against by users in much the way pop-up blockers work now. what do you think, you agree?

but yeah… lots more work… that is for sure!

The crossover b/w physical/digital space only provides more room for growth and adaptability between the two. Consumer trends (http://trendwatching.com/trends/offon.htm) can help show where the public space can benefit. By paying attention to the curve, you’ll see that the affect of digital on physical absolutely needs to run both ways as well. An ambient signifier for local users can inform you if the physical library is open, a book is checked in, etc as much as a digital exposition can inform the physical experience!