Design + Information = Love

I recently stumbled upon Information is Beautiful, a lovely website that creates visual representations of data in eye-catching, pleasing, beautiful ways. Some of the designs also force you to dig a little deeper, work a little harder, to understand the information. Engaging people with data is a good thing and allows us some time to think, to ponder, to understand what the data means in our "real" life. It can be hard to do this in the usual ways that data is presented to us--in simple bar graphs or lists of statistics. Information should be engaging. David McCandless makes it beautiful too. I would argue it should also be fun. I feel like he might agree.

Libraries are often pretty generic. Some libraries have the benefit of beautiful architectural spaces, but otherwise we seem to be pretty "neutral" in every sense of the word. As far as intellectual freedom and freedom to read goes, I'm all for it. When it comes to the surroundings we find ourselves in, there could be a bit more soul. Libraries present a lot of information to their patrons, whether it is operating hours, loan periods, fine information, directional, or news about local events. Pretty often the person making those posters is a library employee with a working knowledge of MS Publisher or InDesign. While I'm not against these programs, it would be nice to see a library create an organized, thoughtful aesthetic for all their publications. (And just throwing the letterhead and little book logo on the top doesn't count.) Good design, as shown by McCandless, can not only make information pretty to look at, but engaging. It also can, in my opinion, lead to a better quality of life. I'd love to see a library hire a design team--and not a corporate, let's make this look like every other library in a three county area team-- to make the library more colorful, fun, and aesthetically pleasing.

What do you think?

Photo source: Information is Beautiful: Colours in Culture

My Libraries: Sheffield, UK

In my short life, I've belonged to a few libraries. Not an alarming amount, but a few (like, 5. But for a young gal, that's a lot!) They each have their pros and cons, but I do have a favorite. And honestly, it wasn't the "best" library in terms of internet access or collections.

But it was the most charming.

Welcome, ladies and gentleman, to the Broomhill Library.



I know! It's too precious!

I can barely type this you guys; it just brings back so many memories. This library is tiny. Like, the bottom floor of a very very old English home tiny. And it is precious. If only I had interior pictures! For such a small library, it has a decent selection of fiction and travel guides. I found the travel guides pertaining to Ireland and the UK to be particularly useful, as I was studying abroad at University of Sheffield at the time. There was also a fairly well stocked biography section, although it seemed slightly biased towards members of the British Royal Family. The fiction section was the majority of the collection. I don't recall if they had a lot of teen materials, or if YA lit was even separated. I do remember seeing an awful lot of "chick lit" in the stacks.

But most of all, the reason I loved this library was that it was exactly the library I imagined Miss Marple frequented: a sunny, inviting place full of kind librarians, good books, a few computers (okay, Miss Marple didn't have those), and other readers. I never once felt out of place there. While the library may not have a large collection, it was connected to the many branches in Sheffield and could get you pretty much anything, anytime (as any library should). It also was a quick bus ride to the Central Library (which was also excellent.) In fact, that is where I found the location of a pet store to purchase my English fish, Dorian and Mildred.

While modern construction and gleaming new libraries have their advantages, I think I could happily work around the problems of an old building if it was as sweet as this one. There are ways to expand and work with what you've got, and while it may not be ideal, I love that generations of readers have fallen in love with books here. Old buildings are often gorgeous, and retrofitting them should be considered an option more often!

In the end, who can resist a library in an old stone house, tucked in amongst neighboring homes, on a steep hill, with bushes and flowers all around, a bright red door welcoming you in?

Photo credit: Sheffield City Council

And now for something completely different

Dad, me, Noah, June 2009

Late last night, I got a call from my father. He has been battling pancreatic cancer for 4 months. In the past four months, we've seen amazing kindness and compassion from our entire community. His phone call concerned a touching article detailing one of those many acts of kindness. Please click over to Marquette Hoops. Thank you to Jim Ganzer, Buzz Williams, and the entire Marquette team. You could not have bestowed your kindness and faith on a more grateful person or family. Ring out Ahoya!


For more information on pancreatic cancer, please visit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

Edible Book

To combine libraries and handmade things for the first time on the blog, I thought I would bring you something happening at my very own school-- the UW Edible Book Festival. I was not able to attend (I was busy making dinner for some very special friends who just got engaged!) but there was a lot of buzz about it in SLIS (School of Library and Information Studies).

The idea is to create something out of edible objects that resembles a book or relates to the experience of reading. This kind of project can appeal to a lot of different folks: artists, kids, teachers, bibliophiles, chefs, or someone who's bored and has a lot of extra spaghetti sitting around. Until I got to SLIS, I had never heard of an edible book--and judging from the emails sent around, they were having a hard time getting people to participate. To me this is an example of poor library marketing. (We'll get into that later...)

Opportunities to make libraries centers of creativity and community are why I got into librarianship in the first place. Hopefully, the Edible Book Festival will continue to thrive and expand, in turn bringing new faces and ideas into our libraries.

For more information and pics of previous festivals, go over here.

Manifesto, Adopted

Surfing the nets (I'm not a technophobe! Don't forget this!) this morning, I ran across a new print from the Keep Calm Gallery. It sums up a lot of things that I have been feeling lately and believe will make all of our lives a bit brighter.

So consider this an adoption of the Aardvark manifesto for my own purposes. I was in an all kazoo band in the Wauwatosa Fourth of July parade one year.

Photo source: Keep Calm Gallery

welcome

Hello,

I've made a blog to document my personal war. The two sides? Handmade, tangible goodness and tech-y, digital resources. As a future librarian, I spend a lot of time at a computer doing reference and research. While I appreciate the ways that technology has opened up research and scholarly communication, I struggle to find a deep connection to these technologies. Unlike a physical book or a teacup, blogs, websites, and databases don't cause me to daydream and sigh away an afternoon. For me, that's a problem. Like many others, the amount of technology in my life has sent me searching for tangible objects with which to spend my free time. This connection to objects is not, in my opinion, materialism, but simply a yearning for a real connection to the creative part of my brain. So, if you are at all interested in libraries, books, crafts, the arts, or daydreams, welcome. I'm looking forward to meeting you.

You might be wondering why a blog is the way to do this: after all, if I am so sick of technology, shouldn't I be writing in a leather bound journal? I don't hate technology; I just want to explore my relationship with it. Blogs have an enormous potential for communication. Please comment or email me. I'd love to hear what you're thinking about these topics.

My current obsessions: milk glass, paper, cupcakes, picnics.

See you soon!