Miles's Library - Part One
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 06:00AM I have been asked to write a chapter on "future libraries" for a book being put together by an Australian colleague. While I had meant to write a short scenario to introduce the chapter, the scenario took over.
Below is the first of several parts of what a school library might look like in 2025 - the approximate year my youngest grandson, Miles, will graduate from high school (assuming one still graduates at the traditonal age of 18 - a big assumption.)
The ideas here are a combination of extrapolation of current happenings, wishful thinking and maybe a little dread. Your comments are always welcome.
Miles’s Library: A Day in the Life, 2025 - Part One
7:00 AM
“Miles… Miles, honey, time to get up,” the librarian’s voice whispered softly in the still dark bedroom. Miles, a senior in the graduating high school class of 2025, slowly came awake.
“OK, OK, I’m awake, Marian. Schedule, please,” Miles requested using the auditory interface to his school library portal, accessed through a small device on his nightstand.
“You are meeting with your ecological science team F2F in Learning Space 17, Main Library at 8:45. Carlotta will be 15 minutes late. You’ve registered for “Advanced Semantic Web Searching” with Head Librarian Baxter from 9:30-11:00 in Seminar Room B of the Main Library. Your IEP Advisor, Dr. Li, wants to meet with you in her office at 1:00 about your senior project. And I have finalized the MUVE meeting schedule with Professor Shahada in Amman for 4:15 SLT this afternoon. Your lacrosse team practice has been cancelled, but time has been reserved in the simulation area of the gymnasium for team members wanting virtual practice.”
“Gee, that’s all?”
“No, Miles, dear. Your report on theologian Reinhold Niebuhr is due tomorrow. Would you like me to reserve a video rendering terminal in the library for you?”
“Marian, you are a slave driver!” Miles cried, slowly crawling out of bed.
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8:30 AM
“Looks like almost a full day in the library for me,” Miles tells his girlfriend Jennie as they walk from the bus stop up to the school. Jennie is one of the main reasons that Miles still goes to his neighborhood bricks and mortar school at least three days a week. “Let’s grab a cup of coffee there while we have time.”
“Seems like you’ve been living in the library this year,” observed Jennie. “They should be charging you rent!”
“Well my senior project, ‘Can sims be programmed to exhibit free will?’ has really been more involving than I thought. I mean, it is the perfect combination between my interest in religion and computer programming, but it’s been a lot more work than I thought. And the library has been my primary resource for this project.” Miles was embarrassed to admit that his presence in the school’s physical library was only a fraction of the time he spent in the library’s virtual spaces. “Just stamp ‘nerd’ on my forehead, I guess,” Miles sighed.
The library Miles and Jennie enter might look cavernous were it not for the low ceilings and dividers filled with green plants that break up the spaces into small, intimate work areas. A combination of soft seating and small, easily rearranged worktables in coordinated colors make the library look both work-like but comfortable. There is a low hum of conversation, especially near the entrance to the library where a small coffee shop is located, but noise-cancellation technologies keep the main part of the library surprisingly quiet – considering there are over 200 students working there. The perimeter of the library has doorways leading to small conference and seminar rooms, faculty offices (this location is in high demand), and technology labs filled with powerful, specialized computers. Student work is silently displayed throughout the library space on monitors of various sizes with small signs indicating the channel on which the audio is being broadcast.
Students and faculty alike carry a variety of small portable computing devices that automatically connect to the data network via library's portal interface.
Miles says goodbye to Jenny and heads toward Learning Space 17 for his meeting with his team meeting.
To be continued...
Reader Comments (3)
You may very well have a budding successful fiction career!
Thanks, Cathy. But judging by the reaction this has gotten, others must think it pretty boring or embarrassingly bad!
Doug
Interesting stuff Doug - who would have dreamed of what we are now doing 15 years ago? iPad, iPods and all the interaction they provide.