YouMedia leads on the path to geeking out

I thought I’d seen it all when I saw the plans for the Mediaspace in Aarhus, Denmark- but here in Chicago new media literacy needs are being addressed at the public library as well! Yesterday after a day of wandering around at the ALA conference, I visited the brand-new Youmedia space and was pleased to tour a facility that is clearly going to be a worldwide leader helping young minds grow and learn in our media saturated environment.

Check out the website and online space designed by a team from the Institute of Play.

Check out the House on Mango Street Project Presentation below. Programming in this space is done in collaboration with the Digital Youth Network.

The space itself was designed by a group of Carnegie Mellon graduate students and it was informed by the research of Mizuko Ito and his colleagues. The forthcoming book from MIT Press “Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media” goes into further detail.

Spaces like this really make me optimistic that public libraries are going to be able to remain relevant to future generations of readers, learners, and creators. Youmedia is inspiring. I hope other libraries around the country and around the world will be watching what happens here and will follow up with more projects like this.