Gamestorming The future of the library: How they’ll evolve for the digital age. Photo by Tom Rossiter from the book Building Ideas: An Architectural Guide to the University of Chicago; Photo courtesy Bexar Bibliotech/Facebook; Photo courtesy Mitch Altman/Flickr; Photo courtesy Marc Hall/NC State University Around the turn of the 20th century—a golden age for libraries in America—the Snead Bookshelf Company of Louisville, Ky., developed a new system for large-stack library shelving. Snead’s multifloor stack systems can still be seen in many important libraries built in that era, for instance at Harvard, Columbia, the Vatican, and at Bryant Park in New York City. A recent attempt by the New York Public Library to do away with stacks at its main branch and move much of its research collection to New Jersey invited just this concern. That decision will be just one milestone in the rapidly developing identity crisis of 21st-century libraries. Photo courtesy New York Public Library Ours is not the first era to turn its back on libraries. Photo courtesy Jeff Goldberg/Esto
Click With Me Now - share the web 250+ Killer Digital Libraries and Archives Hundreds of libraries and archives exist online, from university-supported sites to accredited online schools to individual efforts. Each one has something to offer to researchers, students, and teachers. This list contains over 250 libraries and archives that focus mainly on localized, regional, and U.S. history, but it also includes larger collections, eText and eBook repositories, and a short list of directories to help you continue your research efforts. death The sites listed here are mainly open access, which means that the digital formats are viewable and usable by the general public. Efforts were made to go to the root source for these collections. As a warning, many states listed their collections as “archives” when, in reality, the sources contained secondary sources such as books and transcriptions rather than a digital image of the actual document. Localized Collections Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana
7 Resources Every Designer Should Know It’s essential for designers to stay on top of the ever-growing list of galleries, apps, and tools that can be found. But at this point, there are so many great design resources on hand that sometimes it can be overwhelming to attempt a survey of them. So instead, let’s focus in on the ones that you’ll really find yourself returning to, day after day. Inspiration Get a Broad Scope: Designspiration Although you can browse through images from any creative field, such as architecture and photography, everything in this huge compendium of inspiration can be brought back to great design. Narrow in on a Specific Subject: Pattern Tap When you’re designing a web page, it’s important to be aware of the past and current trends and practices. Hone UI Details: UI Parade After getting a sense of what’s out there in terms of general and specific design inspiration, you’ll also want to look around for ideas on those specific elements that make a site a pleasure to use as well as look at. Tools
default What Are Your Values? - Decision-Making Skills Training from MindTools Deciding What's Most Important in Life Find out how to identify your values, in this short video. How would you define your values? Before you answer this question, you need to know what, in general, values are. Your values are the things that you believe are important in the way you live and work. They (should) determine your priorities, and, deep down, they're probably the measures you use to tell if your life is turning out the way you want it to. When the things that you do and the way you behave match your values, life is usually good – you're satisfied and content. This is why making a conscious effort to identify your values is so important. How Values Help You Values exist, whether you recognize them or not. If you value family, but you have to work 70-hour weeks in your job, will you feel internal stress and conflict? In these types of situations, understanding your values can really help. What job should I pursue? Tip: Defining Your Values What were you doing? Why were you proud?
Getting Started in Genealogy Step 1: Do your “home” work. On your mark … In most cases, you will need to know some background information about your family before you go to a library or archives or before you log in to an online genealogy database. The very best way to begin a successful genealogy project is to gather information that you already know about your family, or can find out by talking to relatives and looking at sources that you have in your home. These might include birth and death certificates, obituaries and other newspaper clippings, family Bibles, letters, diaries, the backs of photographs, yearbooks and diplomas or any other family papers. Older relatives often can give you information about previous generations that you may not know. Step 2: Organize your facts. Get set … When you visit a library, it is helpful to have your starting information organized on a standard genealogy chart. Step 3: Continue your research. Go! Visiting a library’s website before making a physical visit is helpful.
Brains, Behavior & Design These reference cards are helpful when becoming familiar with basic behavioral economics concepts. This tool is by no means a complete or comprehensive collection of all behavioral economics concepts; they are a selection meant to provide enough depth and coverage to help establish a foundation. Terms on the reference cards are categorized into four decision-making factors and four decision-making shortcuts. Each category includes an index card that provides an overview of the category and suggestions for related design strategies. Introduction to Reference Cards All Reference Cards top
Ancestors: Records at Risk Not many family records survive. Most people have few if any items that once belonged to a grandparent or great-grandparent. Rarely is a descendant lucky enough to have inherited a locket or comb or watch or Bible or lock of hair, let alone any old letters, diaries, or photographs. What happened to all those items that belonged to people living three or more generations ago? Generally, those bits of material with family heritage value that do manage to survive are not saved in proper ways, so they deteriorate or become damaged or ruined. The information contained on this page comes from a variety of sources, but relies heavily on The Everything Family Tree Book by William G. Business Origami – The Centre for Citizen Experience Jess McMullin Business origami is paper prototyping for systems design. It uses simple paper cutouts to represent the different parts of a system: the people, the locations, the channels used and the specific touchpoints where interactions occur and value is exchanged as a particular scenario unfolds. These cutouts are arranged on a horizontal whiteboard, which allows participants to show relationships in the system. I got introduced to business origami over dinner at Weatherhead business school with a visiting Japanese researcher. Despite the language barrier, we really connected talking about different methods for service design. Update: August 4, 2011 – It looks like the Hitachi Design Centre team now has a brief page up on their site about business origami (Japanese). Here’s a quick slideshare over view of how the components work together. Business origami works best in a workshop setting, with multiple people from different areas of the system you’re exploring.
Family History Books LEGO SERIOUS PLAY - BUILD YOUR WAY TO BETTER BUSINESS Text Analysis Tools Definition: Text analysis software enables users to determine the frequency with which words or phrases are used, create concordances, view words in context, and otherwise study patterns in texts. Tools: Resources: caqdas Networking Project: "We provide practical support, training and information in the use of a range of software programs designed to assist qualitative data analysis." References: Evaluating the Quality of Electronic Texts, Lisa Spiro, director of the Digital Media Center at Fondren Library, Rice University. See Also: