jaap van de geer | David Lee King

Larger YouTube version

I recently spoke at the UGame ULearn conference in Delft, Netherlands … and had some time to visit the DOK Library Concept Centre while I was there.

DOK is Delft’s local public library – but my, what a library! Cool building, forward-thinking staff, lovely setting … and lots of amazing technology, too. So I took some video!

This video highlights some of the neat projects DOK creates for their community. In each of them, you’ll notice a nice melding of technology, content, and community. Whether they’re working with a Microsoft Surface, creating a video, or setting up gaming in the kids area, they always include content and community connections.

I think the best example of this is highlighted towards the end of the video, when Erik Boekesteijn explains how their art gallery works with local schools to remotely display art in the classroom. Students can view a digitized version of the painting on a TV monitor setup in the classroom – they might see 20-30 works of art, have classroom discussions, etc. Then they take a trip to the library to see the actual painting.

Connecting community to content through technology – nicely done, DOK!

photo of DOK in the video by dmsmidt

This Week in Libraries #4: Helene Blowers, Michael Stephens and David Lee King. from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

Do you know about This Week in Libraries yet? It’s the creation of Jaap van de Geer and Erik Boekesteijn, both in the amazing Innovation department at DOK, Library Concept Center in Delft, Netherlands. Besides working at a beautiful library, they help organize the UGame ULearn conference and tour the world’s libraries collecting stories as the Shanachies.

In their spare time, they recently created This Week in Libraries. It’s a weekly video show that does exactly what the show’s name claims – they talk about what’s going on this week in libraries … globally. Interesting concept! Even cooler (to me, anyway) – they create the show in the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam’s (Amsterdam Public Library) podcast studio … how many libraries can say they have one of those?

I was on last week’s show, along with Michael Stephens and Helene Blowers. We talked about the conferences we just spoke at, digital innovation, the iPad and ebooks, change, and the recent budget woes of many US libraries. It was a fun conversation – watch and see if you agree.

Anyway – I suggest checking out This Week in Libraries, and subscribing if you find it useful (I have subscribed).