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A couple of weeks ago, our Undergrad library hosted their annual “Party for Your Mind” event to welcome the students back and introduce new students to the library. They have scavenger hunts, video games, craft tables, palm readings, and of course free pizza.

I wanted to do something fun for this event with a bit of a UX twist so, we turned the new presentation practice room into a “photo booth.” Using pre-printed signs, we asked the students to complete the sentence “My ideal library _______” and then pose with their signs like a mug shot. We got some great shots and the students seemed to be pretty entertained by it.

Here are some of my favorites:

My ideal library…is located in my room
My ideal library…is quite enough to hear the computers hum
My ideal library…is easy to navigate (or really fun to get lost in)
My ideal library…is this.

And here’s the full set of images

You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Behavior On Spring Break

Dude, everybody can see your ISBN

This is a follow-up to my last post.

From the Ann Arbor.com news article:

Next stop for the majority of the card catalogs is U-M Property Disposition on North Campus, where the university will attempt to sell the old catalogs one by one. Courant said he isn’t quite sure who is in the market for these pieces of library nostalgia. But, he added, “if I had the room in my house, I’d buy one.”

I’d also love to have one but I don’t have any room in my tiny little house. I don’t think they’ll have any trouble selling these lovely card catalogs, library chic is all the rage these days – as evidenced by Etsy’s Circulate and Renew Spotlight post and the quantity of Apartment Therapy card catalog posts.

Here’s my favorite:

The University of Michigan’s card catalogs are scheduled to be removed from the library stacks tomorrow. We desperately need the space but I’m still a little sad to see them go. Even though I’m firmly stationed in the digital realm, I still love the analog world – especially artifacts that have such a lovely tactile quality that can even produce a visceral response. So, here’s my attempt to capture a little of that feeling.

See also:my full set of photos | dfulmers card catalog flickr set (includes some interesting history) | Ann Arbor News article

The new bad usability calendar is out for 2009.

http://www.badusability.com/

Georgia Russell’s amazing The Library Series

[ link | via decor8 ]

Noriko Ambe Cutting Book Series

[ link ]

Jen Khoshbin’s Book Project series

[ link | via poppytalk ]

Su Blackwell’s Book Cut Sculpture

[ link | via decor8 ]

Laura Cahill’s Book Vases

[ link | via boingboing ]

I’ve been taking photos of objects in the library for years now… so when I saw Walking Paper’s lovely library-ish iphone wallpaper post – I was inspired to make group of my own.

Most of these were taken in the University of Michigan’s Hatcher Graduate Library, Preservation and Conservation lab, and the Art, Architecture, and Engineering Library.

All have been formatted specifically for the iphone (320×480) but they’ll probably work for other mobile devices too. Click to get full version.

The Future of Books

Here’s an interesting student project by Kyle Bean (illustrator, designer and maker of ‘things’)

[link | via notcot]

Asterick Bookends

By Blank Project

[link | via swissmiss]

Nicholas Jones

[via the Design Files | see also]

On Friday we (University of Michigan Library) celebrated a major milestone in our digitization project. Together with Google, we’ve just hit 1 Million Digitized Books!

Read what our University Librarian Paul Courant has to say about it.

I helped put together a few visual projects to describe what “1 million” means and to highlight some of the people behind it all. I also took some photos of some of the materials and tools that these people use to make the million happen.

http://www.lib.umich.edu/news/millionth.html

Who needs prehistoric attractions like pheromones when you can smell like an old book?

A new perfume called “In The Library” is described as:

English Novel taken from a Signed First Edition of one of my very favorite novels, Russian & Moroccan leather bindings, worn cloth and a hint of wood polish

[found via BB-blog]