Design opportunities for linking digital and physical libraries

Amanda Cuello & Kaspar RaatsStudents MSc. Interaction Design and TechnologiesChalmers University of Technology

What is Interaction Design? What motivated this project? Our methods• Participatory design• Interviews• Workshop

Opportunities Conclusions & recommendations Q&A

Agenda

Project: Design opportunities for academic libraries aimed at making the digital dimension of the library more visible in the physical space

Why? Libraries are in a transitional state – from purely physical to digital Digital technologies can do more for libraries than what they are doing right now

Methods

Participatory design

Participatory Design

Interviews

Workshop

Opportunities

To illustrate the possibilities, we developed

4Visions for the library

DIGITAL MOTILE WALLS

Digital motile walls can be used as digital shelves for browsing the digital catalog, as digital whiteboards

allowing collaborative drawing to be saved directly to user accounts or as interactive screens for conducting

online meetings and watching video recordings.

The walls can be freely rearranged to form semi-closed group workspaces with supporting innovative tools.

They can be used for exhibiting new and interesting resources.

PHYSICAL LOCATION FOR THE DIGITAL CONTENT

Division of the physical library in areas by SUBJECT or DISCIPLINE. Within each area, users have

options for easy access to the digital resources for that subject or discipline.

New and popular titles for each area are displayed in shelves, screens or search stations.

The size of the ‘rooms’ changes according to the size of the collection.

EXTENDING THE LIBRARY

Extending the library is about installing interactive

stands all around the university campus to make

the students aware of the possibilities and size of

the digital library. Also to present any new and

relevant material and make it possible to browse

the digital catalog without going to the library.

EASY FILTERING

Tangible filtering board that allows users to quickly visualize and

control the results they need.

Conclusions

We found that the physical library has relevance beyond being a place where people go to borrow books, challenging the idea that it will be completely replaced by the digital library in the near future.

The most important role of the physical library is as a space to find culture and social interaction.

For the workshop, it is important to consider all stakeholders. This includes staff and visitors.

Designing together with the library users is the best way to reach meaningful solutions.

Q&AThank you!