[Web4lib] Campus without library - summing up

[Steven E. Patamia, Ph.D.]

Alan et al.

    I think what Alan described (an orchard as a representation)
involves rather advanced lesson programming and/or very advanced
course design.  I like it -- but what I was thinking of is creating a
well equipped, albeit virtual, library facility in which participants
activated controls or tools to create "hot" content displays and/or
collaborative (or maybe even just solo) compositional experiences tied
to the library's content database.  In other words, no course or
lesson programming by others would necessarily be required, but some
might be created on the fly as a byproduct and scripts might be
written for subsequent educational purposes that would run in such
environments.

    Be bold in your thinking... the future is coming fast and the
choice is either to make it into what you want or wait for someone
else to impose their ideas of what it should.

     A question: what is the essence of a library -- never mind how
you might exploit the  spare areas inside a physical structure?  Is it
first and foremost an indexed collection of recorded intellectual work
product?  Is the essence something else -- something more abstract,
but intrinsically more powerful and important?  I have some inchoate
ideas of my own, but don't let me prejudice your thinking.

On 11/19/08, Alan Cockerill <alan.cockerill at jcu.edu.au> wrote:
> Hi Steve
>  I'm not sure I can imagine them but I can see the potential. There was a bit
>  of work done in this area in the early to mid 1990s when Virtual Reality was
>  being hyped. But the technology just wasn't up to it.
>
>  And it wasn't just about remodelling spaces, it was also about representing
>  data, I have a dimly remembered example of the idea you could map the
>  properties of companies (for example) to the properties of apples, and
>  someone could wander a virtual orchard picking the juiciest apples to make
>  the best stock purchase decisions without having to be numerate or literate
>  - or even know the consequences of their choices.
>
>  I still think we're a way of having the perfect user interface technology,
>  negotiating a 3D space is still a pain even without gravity. Second life is
>  clunky on this side of the planet (bandwidth/time lags). But yea, I can see
>  that the sheer volume of information might be easier to deal with in 3D(4D
>  if you consider time) rather than the current 2D paradigm.
>
>  (now going off to read old cyberpunk novels...)
>
>
>  Alan.
>
>
>  Alan Cockerill
>  Library Technologies Coordinator
>  James Cook University, Cairns
>
>  PO Box 6811
>  CAIRNS QLD 4870
>  Phone:+61 7 4042 1737
>  Fax: +61 7 4042 1516
>  Email: Alan.Cockerill at jcu.edu.au
>  Skype: alan.cockerill.jcu
>  http://www.library.jcu.edu.au/Staff/alan.shtml
>
>  CRICOS Provider Code: 00117J (QLD)
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
>
> From: Steven E. Patamia, Ph.D. [mailto:patamia at gmail.com]
>  Sent: Thursday, 20 November 2008 1:53 PM
>  To: Alan Cockerill
>  Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
>  Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Campus without library - summing up
>
>  Hi Alan,
>
>     I wonder if there is more than fortuitous space availability
>  involved in having libraries become the forum for learning and even
>  research in a social setting.  In academic settings, the library is a
>  symbol for many things.  It symbolizes accumulated knowldege.  It
>  symbolizes the sanctity of knowledge almost as a kind of tabernacle.
>  It symbolizes the ethos of making knowledge freely available without
>  regard to the ability to pay (a stretch in many cases since tuition
>  contributes to the library).  The work areas and places in which
>  collaboration is encouraged symbolizes the notion that society needs
>  open collaboration as much as it needs commercialization.  (Somebody
>  stop me before I get too idealistic here!)
>
>    But seriously, symbols are powerful.  "Going to the library" is a
>  statement that says, sometimes reluctantly, that you too are a member
>  of the community of scholars.
>
>     If this is a valid insight, then perhaps the lesson to us all is
>  that even a virtual library will be enhanced by creating some of the
>  same capabilities -- especially if they can be tied to the library's
>  content.
>
>     A challenge renewed:  Imagine a "Second Life" environment
>  (hopefully even better!) and apply this insight to creating a library
>  with robust serious content AND a visual/aural space that makes it
>  more inviting.  Can you imagine how to adapt the normal notions of
>  study rooms, roaming reference librarians, etc.?  Can you imagine ways
>  to exploit that virtual environment to produce inspiring experiences
>  and genuine collaborations?  What can you do in that virtual
>  environment that you cannot do -- cost effectively -- in real life?
>
>
-- 
Steven E. Patamia, Ph.D., J.D.
Personal Cell: (352) 219-6592