For Bibliotheca II, the library test kitchen being generously funded by Harvard’s Library Lab, my collaborator Jeff Goldenson and I are planning to develop projects of our own alongside the student developed projects. I have two currently in mind on which I’m planning to work with Jeff, fellow metaLAB founder Bobby Pietrusko and other team members (tbd).

The first, entitled the Livebrary is a data visualization appliance that exposes the multilayered life of the Harvard Library System in real time in the form of a set of visualizations delivered on a large touchscreen that allows library users to explore what is happening system-wide

on a variety of scales: data flows, traffic patterns, emerging search and discovery patterns, etc. The touchscreen’s output would also be projected on the opposing curvilinear walls of the same walk-through space where the touchscreen is located, becoming a show for other library patrons.

The second, entitled the Curation Station is a reinterpretation of the carrel as a hybrid digital/physical desktop that is both an inward facing site (for research) and an outward facing site of display, exchange and sharing. This piece of furniture would be tested both as a library device and as a device for exhibiting work from the metaLAB curatorial innovation fellows, as their projects mature this spring.

Stay tuned for drawings, thought bubbles, test iterations…