Read Streetcolor’s account of the knitting and installation.
Berkeley Public Library Yarnbombed
May 11, ’11
9:34 AM
National Library Symbol History & Implications
Apr 5, ’11
6:00 AM
From ALA Library Fact Sheet 30:
The image debuted in its official capacity in the 1982 ALA publication, A Sign System for Libraries, by DeVore and Mary S. Mallery, and was the cover story of the September 1982 issue of ALA’s member magazine, American Libraries. DeVore’s original design scheme for the image (similar to the image shown below) was an opaque white silhouette against a blue (specifically, PMS #285 blue) background.
This is a great symbol on a number of levels. It’s striking, memorable, and the “L” is clever. If I were DeVore or Mallery I’d be so proud to see this symbol all over.
But characterizing libraries as places where people read alone was a mistake.
Here’s another take. It isn’t as clear – a major shortcoming for a symbol – but it is a more accurate way to describe how we should be thinking about libraries. There’s still room for solitary reading, sure. But there’s more going on. There are people. Not only do we need to think of our institutions in these terms, we need to convince the public to think of us like this too. Otherwise, more libraries will turn into kiosks.
The article “Tomes’ time might be up at Newport Beach library” gets it all wrong. We shouldn’t be concerned about library spaces without books. We should be concerned about library spaces without librarians. However, our current offerings and our representative symbol tell a story in which a bookless library makes less sense than a librarianless library.
We can change that narrative by emphasizing not content, but people and interactions.
Gamify Your Library Fines
Apr 4, ’11
6:00 AM
As usual, Brian Herzog nails it:
Instead of just using traffic cameras to catch people speeding, they’re using them to also catch people obeying the speed limit – and by following the law, those people earn a chance at winning a share of the revenue generated by speeding tickets. By offering a reward, the police are hoping to encourage more people to drive safely.
The theory, called gamification, is that people enjoy playing games because of the positive reinforcement from doing something well – thus turning something normally punitive, like a speeding fine, into a game of consequences: play badly and get punished, play well and get rewarded.
How awesome would it be to do this with library overdue fines?
It would be even better to arrange the game so that there’s no punishment involved. Only rewarding folks who bring items back in a timely manner.
Creating “Us” Cases
Apr 3, ’11
7:00 PM
Golly knows I’ve published my share of typos, but there’s something extra funny/bad about a typo on usability.gov. I’ve been a good web citizen and sent them a friendly note. Any guesses about how quickly they’ll correct it?
Take to the Ship!
Feb 3, ’11
5:19 PM
The Independent Printing Resource Center in Portland is hosting a 24 hour reading of Moby Dick starting at 17:00 on 11 Feb 2011. I like the explanation of why they’re doing it:
When first published, Moby Dick was a near flop. It remains a totem to the importance of small, independent publishing for keeping alive great works ahead of their time.
It starts at Powell’s and moves to a mystery location from there.
All the World’s a Page
Feb 2, ’11
8:57 AM
These folks have put the entire text of Faust, The Illiad, Das Kapital, and Macbeth on posters. Type size is between 2 and 3pts so bring your magnifying glass.
Like a few posts ago, this is another example of print books as decoration. They cost €20 and you can by them at All the World’s a Page.
Things Organized Neatly
Dec 10, ’10
7:00 AM
About Roger
Dec 7, ’10
12:55 PM
All of the “roger” found in Spacelog is great and got me wondering how the word came to be used that way. I figured that using “roger” and “copy” in the sense of “I understand” were rooted in military communication. “Copy” makes sense, but “roger?” It turns out that before the NATO phonetic alphabet in which R is spoken as “Romeo” the US military used the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet in which R is “Roger.” So the shortened version of “received” was R, or “roger.”
Explanations of the differences between “copy” and “roger” are varied and unsatisfactory. I’m sure that like many words the usage changed subtlety over time and distance and a definitive answer might be impossible to find.
