The Distributed Library Project

The Distributed Library Project “is an experiment in sharing information and building community in the San Francisco Bay Area.


Unfortunately, the traditional library system doesn’t do much to foster community. Patrons come and go, but there is very little opportunity to establish relationships with people or groups of people. In fact, if you try to talk with someone holding a book you like – you’ll probably get shushed. The Distributed Library Project works in exactly the opposite way, where the very function of the library depends on interaction.”

Via This /. Thread

August 24, 2003 by Uncategorized 3

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3 Responses

  1. Anonymous Patron says:
    August 24, 2003 at 9:36 pm

    Shushed?
    An interesting idea, but one wonders how often the creators go to real public libraries.

    Reply
  2. Greg says:
    August 25, 2003 at 5:04 am

    My response
    Sorry, but I hate to repeat myself:

    Warning – My post is a bit on the long side.

    Reply
  3. Fiona says:
    August 25, 2003 at 7:08 am

    Interesting, but
    Community is in decline, people.

    People are grasping at straws trying to re-establish community, but more and more we become disconnected. This project really isn’t any different – they say that they’re a community, but they’re really just a very small group who have things in common. Isn’t real community about meeting and talking with people that you may have nothing in common with except where you live? The kind of people you might bump into say, at a real, physical library or the shopping centre, or the swimming pool, or the park?

    I asked a panel at a conference last year how libraries could attempt to arrest community disintegration and get more people into libraries as volunteers and whatever, and they didn’t know how to answer the question.

    The answer is, don’t turn away from what already exists. Your local library is not fun? Make it fun. Volunteer, hold your group meetings there, whatever! Do what the State Library of Victoria does, and set up your library’s lawn as a meeting space. They have Reclaim the Streets, activists, skateboarders and all types meeting on their lawn. There’s a speaker’s box every weekend. Make the library what you want it to be!

    Reply

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