Karen Munro, Learning Librarian

We’ve been snowed under in Portland for the last couple of weeks–work closures and the holidays have conspired to keep me from rolling up the garage door on the blog.  But now we’re thawing out (raining, actually) and I’m going through some of my Google Reader backlog to see what’s going on in the library-ish parts of the world.

Here’s a fun item from the New York Public Library (actually from Apartment Therapy and Design*Sponge, but NYPL is the sponsor.)

Design by the Book:  NYPL partnered with Design*Sponge to select and invite five visual artists to plumb the library collection, then create a work of art based on something they found that inspired them.  The NYPL then posted video interviews with the artists about their work.  Check it all out at the NYPL website (which isn’t loading for me right now, sorry.)

What a great example of something I’ve been thinking a bit about lately:  “activating” the collection.  That’s my own term, but I probably picked it up from somewhere else, since nothing is truly original.f  Every so often, in the midst of meetings and emails and drafting policy, it occurs to me that we’re sitting on these incredible collections, with really wonderful, mind-blowing stuff in them, and that the best way to reach out to our users is through that stuff.  Exhibits are great, but what are some other ways we can “activate” the collections to bring users in and remind them of the riches we tend and steward for the comomunity?  This is one terrific idea.