[Web4lib] What do you call your library's experimental web site?

[Lars Aronsson]

Ken Varnum wrote:

> I¹m curious on this Monday morning...  If your library¹s web site has a
> place where experimental web tools and services are provided for public use
> and comment, what do you call the page or subsite where you describe those

Eight years ago(*), the answer would have been your institution's 
name followed by "Labs", because all the dotcom startups thought 
that "Bell Labs" (where UNIX was created) sounded cool.  And "our 
little technology playground" is just an embarrassing synonym. The 
worst example is "Google Labs", http://labs.google.com/

And that's older than calling every new thing a "beta" or "2.0".

(*) And therefore, not anymore!!! Please! This has long since 
passed off of Wired Magazine's "wired, tired, expired" radar 
screen. Some pathetic examples of "not getting" this:

http://labs.eventful.com/

http://labs.oshlack.com/

http://labs.metacarta.com/

http://labs.adobe.com/

http://labs.silverorange.com/

http://labs.autodesk.com/

http://labs.opera.com/

Lund University libraries used to have a "Netlab", but has wisely 
stopped using that name a few years ago, as can be seen here, 
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.lub.lu.se/netlab

I'm not sure what's "wired" today, but perhaps a touch of 
steampunk? Launch things with brass ornaments and dark varnish, 
rather than shining new applications in beta. More like "we've 
taken this old application down from the attic", rather than 
"developed this new beta in our lab". Old is the new new.

Instead of bragging about having replaced the card catalog with a 
computer, tell your patrons of when your library *introduced* the 
card catalog (in 1895 or 1915?) and what was used *before* that. 
Make a point of the fact that your library is *older* than Google.  
They can't really beat that.  (But they could close down the 
"Labs" name and they could rewarp Google Book Search in steampunk, 
so watch out!)

If you think a video interview with Brewster Kahle is an everyday 
item, just look at how the German business magazine Handelsblatt 
has framed this in their "Elektrischer Reporter" weekly video.  
(That's 1940s electric, not 1980s electronic or 1990s digital.) 
The interview is in English with German subtitles, and starts one 
minute into the video, but it's the first (and last two) minutes 
(in German) that I want you to watch, made in 2007, 
http://www.elektrischer-reporter.de/index.php/site/film/13/

The 2007 OpenLibrary website, http://demo.openlibrary.org/
definitely looks more "old" than the still very "2.0"
LibraryThing from 2005, http://www.librarything.com/


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se