When we started this program only last year, I was not really sure what it would "deliver" and nor was I keen on providing too much direction to the selected artists. Rather, I wanted to provide them some context about the Library, let them explore it and see what resulted with full artistic or creative freedom. I must say that I am more than happy with the progress so far.
This post includes the presentation that Josh Vawdrey (our IT Manager) and I gave at the recent THETA Conference in Hobart, Tasmania. It showcases our current and recent thinking, aspirations and work towards the addition of real discovery capabilities to our services and programs within the Library and via our online presence.
The presentation below discusses some of the ideas we have for our future library. It has been presented in various forums of late. We'd like to know what you think about it, so if you have some thoughts or suggestions, please let us know. We're still planning and doing some research into the ways the Library is used and what our clients want or expect in such an institution. We are also looking for inspiration well beyond our own environment and we believe there is much to learn from new and relatively new spaces like MONA in Tasmania and The Tate Modern in London.
At the risk of boring some of you, I thought I'd post a little about the recent library conference that some of us attended: the ALIA Information Online conference held in Brisbane during February 2013. I have to declare that I was on the Program Committee for the conference, so maybe you'll read some bias into my comments here. I'm trying to be objective.
Please watch this lecture by Lawrence Lessig on Aaron's Laws - Law and Justice in the Digital Age. It is a really moving address about our obligation to try to do what is right for humanity.
It is about the need to reform dumb law.
It is about how we can honour Aaron's legacy....
So this is my first posting on this new blog. It is mostly to do with our thinking about the future library, and as I do a fair bit of thinking, talking and writing on that subject I thought I'd start with a bit of a summary on all of that from 2012. It is a good start because most of the presentations, interviews, events and articles below are about our future in one way or another. Here we go then, mind the step ..
