Simon Chamberlain's library weblog » public libraries

Games in libraries

Simon Chamberlain — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:49:48 +0000

Are public libraries turning into video game arcades? Should they? Steven Cohen responds to an article by Dave Gibson. Jenny Levine makes some good points in the comments to Steven’s post. Steven posts a follow-up. (Parenthetically, it’s sad that both Steven and Jenny have to stress that their disagreement on this issue isn’t personal. That should surely be a given, and it’s a bit of a sad reflection on the state of our (in general, not Steven’s and Jenny’s) online discourse that they have to state it explicitly). As for games in libraries: coming from a special/academic library background, I see less use/need for them than might a public librarian. I’m keeping an open mind, though. And the good thing is, as Jenny says:

not everyone likes cataloging, not everyone likes reference work, not everyone likes children’s services, not everyone likes law libraries. You don’t want to do gaming, don’t do gaming.

And we have others (in my case a colleague) who can look at these subjects on our behalf. If gaming turns into a realistic prospect for our libraries, then they’ll be placed to offer advice. We don’t all have to do or know everything.

New from New Zealand

Simon Chamberlain — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:34:13 +0000

The Digital Futures summit is underway in Auckland, with some very impressive names presenting (including Tim Berners-Lee and Chris Andersen, though both only by video). Watch online here, read the programme here (PDF) and read Russell Brown’s commentary here (thanks to Jon P on the VUW internal staff blog).

Kawerau is the first community in New Zealand to benefit from the Aotearoa People’s Network, which provides free access to broadband internet services through public libraries to small rural areas (National Library).

Archives New Zealand have placed a selection of old New Zealand films online, for viewing (though not downloading, I think). The films seem to be mostly (or solely?) documentaries. A nice feature is that the site is built on a wiki, and viewers can add their own descriptions of each film. A perfect example of combining authoritative cataloguing and the wisdom of crowds. (The first link goes to descriptions of the films, the second to the films themselves).

The government has launched a web standards wiki (National Library blog).

From the people who brought you Koha…

Simon Chamberlain — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:14:27 +0000

Last year at the National Digital Forum, Horowhenua Library Trust demonstrated a new product called Kete. It’s since gone live on their website.

Kete is “a community built digital library” that enables people to upload and share their stories, memories and images. It’s designed for people with little or no computer experience, and it’s an open system, meaning that other users can edit the topics, add pictures, audio/visual material, tags, or links to other pages. Users can also comment on each story/topic. It looks (to me at least) rather like Wikipedia, but with multimedia content, and focused very much on the Horowhenua community and its stories.

Kete won a special mention at the World Summit Awards, and won the 3M Award for Innovation at LIANZA 2007.

Horowhenua Library Trust is also responsible for Koha, the open-source ILS.

The word ‘Kete’ is a Maori word meaning ‘basket’. It’s often used as a name, or part of a name, for a collection of resources, like a database.