Aims

With the fnancial support of the Harvard Library Lab,

to design, build and deploy products, services & experi-
ences that model the future of the Harvard Libraries.
Questions
What form should the Harvard Libraries assume in
the 21st century? Should they simply vanish into virtual
desktops and merge into a timeless and placeless univer-
sal database? Should they alter their identity and become
workshops, laboratories, innovation incubators where
emerging and future forms interact and dialogue with the
relics of the past? Or should they simply merge with the
university itself as a place of knowledge production and
reproduction?
Bibliotheca II: Te Library Test Kitchen
Te Harvard Library is amidst an enormous transition
and these questions are all on the table. As a collaboration
between the Graduate School of Design and the Harvard
Library, the Test Kitchen is an invitation for students to
defne new dimensions of the library experience.
Afer a brief crash-course in library history, theory and
practice, we will shif to creative work. We will begin with
two design exercises before beginning work on our main
projects. As they gel, we will deploy these projects in
Test Kitchens -- partner libraries, such as the Loeb and
Widener Libraries, that allocate portions of their public
space to these experiments.
Ben Brady
Library Test Kitchen
Harvard University | Graduate School of Design | www.librarytestkitchen.org
LTK for the librarian
Ann Whiteside
Te Library Test Kitchen took place in the library at the
GSD. Why the library? Because its about libraries! What
better place to think about the future of libraries? And in a
new, future oriented space that is the new visual collections-
materials collection space in Loeb Library. Te materials
and visual content are also all about the making of places
and environments, as is the LTK.
LTK has been this amazing process of discussion, idea-
generating, and prototyping of things we can do in libraries
to engage in and foster change in how we perceive libraries.
I worked most closely with Jessica, Yuhka, and Kaitlyn on
their projects. We talked several times over the course of the
semester to bring their ideas into being.
A Tale of Two Courses
Jefrey Schnapp
During the summer of 2011, the past collided with the
future and two courses were born.
Te Past?
Harvards extraordinary archipelago of seventy-plus bricks-
and-mortar libraries was beginning to undergo a wholesale
reorganization that would centralize their operations, reposi-
tion them for the new millennium, rethink habits built up
over the prior century.
Te Future?
Under the aegis of the Berkman Center for Internet and
Society, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
project had been launched. A competition for innovative
ideas and designs followed thereafer and, by the end of the
summer, two Harvard-based entities had made the fnal cut:
metaLAB (at) Harvard, the newly formed digital humani-
ties research center, and the Harvard Library Innovation
Laboratory.
Past + Future = ?
It was hard not to feel implicated and enthused by the task
of conjugating the librarys history with its future, its physi-
cality with the digitally architectural. Tere was an immediate
task at hand as well: I had to make my teaching commitments
for the fall of 2011. So I approached my friend and colleague
John Palfrey, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice
Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law
School, to see if he might be willing to co-teach a course on
the past, present, and future of the library at the Harvard
Graduate School of Design.
So arose Bibliotheca, a hybrid history/theory/design studio
dedicated to probing the full span of the librarys history as
an institution of memory, to fostering historically and criti-
cally informed speculative design thinking, including design
thinking dedicated to resolving the Harvard library systems
most intractable challenges.
As documented in the syllabus, the course was designed as
a porous seminar with four sessions serving as open com-
munity forums. It was divided between a properly historical
prelude in which key moments in the history of libraries were
probed, case studies of contemporary library construction,
and the development of specifc design projects. Energized
by local conversations about the library reorganization and
by national ones regarding the DPLA, it seemed unthinkable
that it should end. Te question of libraries and their future
was way too hot.
From the beginning of the semester, Jef Goldenson from
the Law Library Innovation Lab and Anne Whiteside, direc-
tor of the Loeb Design library were our closest collaborators,
so when the semester came to a felicitous close and John had
to move on, the three of us decided to proceed.
Son of Bibliotheca alias Bibliotheca II alias the Library Test
Kitchen was born. Now with Jef Goldenson at the helm, the
goal was more hands-on: to build the 21st century library one
component at a time: to dream up appliances, furnishings,
policies, rules, navigational systems that would render librar-
ies sites of activation, animation, activation, and making,
even as physical records migrate into of-site storage and
documents migrate into digital forms.
A project for multiple lifetimes here prefgured in a modest
broadsheet flled with news from the immediate future.

Te Library Test Kitchen will go on indefnitely.
Projects
Projects may assume a range of forms. Tey may be
built, grown, coded or performed. Tey may involve
redesigning existing library websites. Tey may be pieces
of furniture or new reference services. Projects may
address existing problems or serve as speculative probes
or provocations.
Library Test Kitchen is an open call.
Funded Research & Sharing our Findings
Library Test Kitchen is funded research, supported by
the Harvard Library Lab. As such we have a responsibility
to share our work. To best communicate our fndings to
the Harvard Library. We will compile and publish selec-
tions of our work. (Tis is what youre holding.)
ADV-09115 | Bibliotheca II: Library Test Kitchen Syllabus Excerpts
Thursdays, 11am - 2pm, Visual + Material Resources Room, Loeb Library
Jeffrey Schnapp, Jeff Goldenson, Ann Whiteside, Ben Brady
(continuted on back)
Visual + Material Resources Room, Loeb Library
73 separate libraries containing 1,000,000 net
assignable square feet (occupiable space, ex-
cluding mechanical & structural space)
16.3 million volumes
12.8 million digital fles
100,000+ serial titles,millions of manuscripts,
photographs, musical recordings, flms, and
artifacts
1,200 full-time employees
Supporting more than 20,000 students

2,100 faculty members
Largest (by far) university library in the world
About the Harvard Library, 2009
Beginnings
Jef Goldenson
We are in the midst of the Harvard Library Transition.
Its a multi-year efort to create a coordinated management
structure for the 73+ libraries across the University. It is
a massive undertaking, and Deloitte Consulting has been
retained to help design and operationalize the new vision.
Earlier this fall, Bibliotheca, the seminar led by professors
John Palfrey and Jefrey Schnapp, brought the institutional
reality of the Harvard Library Transition into the classroom.
Trough a series of hosted events, the core issues and op-
portunities were openly discussed by Library staf, adminis-
tration and students alike. It was exciting and illuminating
to have students at the table of this.
(continuted on back)
T i me / S l i c e
Time/Slice assumes that community goings-on
are valuable information that is an essential part
of a communitys past and present, and should
thus be under the purview of the community
library.
It provides a slick and simple platform to display
collaboratively-submitted, media-focused digital
content. A diverse range of community members
can submit the events and activities that are
important to them.
Time/Slice diversifes and expands what is
considered a community event; any activity that
can be represented can be submitted. Time/Slice
increases event visibility and the potential for
interdisciplinary or serendipitous involvement to
occur.
Users create event posts by sending photos from phones
or via email. The display can be accessed independently
by suers, or on a monitor in the community library.
An event advertised prominently at the GSD
Currently, community information tends to be
disorganized, inaccessible, fragmented, and impermanent;
Time/Slice organizes and preserves it.
a project by jessica yurkofsky
Time/Slice takes the sloppy and dynamic community bulletin board and
makes the content more accessible and engaging. It simultaneously archives
content, including it as part of the communitys actively created history.
Above, an event announcement at Harvard GSD.
Time/Slice is an online interface that displays
upcoming events associated with a specifc
geographic community.
WHERE I read this book...
Fig. No. ___
Fig. No. ___
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
additional SUBJECT terms
WRITING in BOOKS
How can library books become more interactive?
Writing in Books is an experiment that conceptualizes
library books as a work in progress, an amalgam of the
original text in addition to the annotations, criticisms,
and additions of readers. By sticking a variety of margin
expansions and paper foldouts to books it provides room
for readers to react.
Can readers contribute to the cataloguing process?
Could reader annotations be useful / interesting / worth saving?
What would a book that left room for its readers look like?
jessica yurkofsky
S
C
A
N

M
E
s
e
e

&

s
n
a
p
event@gsdtimeslice.simpleyak.com
April 12th 7pm
s e n d !
Curated Collections for the
Curious
an exhibition of the research processes
within the Harvard community
Curated Collections for the Curious is
a proposed exhibit to be housed within
participating Harvard University
Libraries. Te overarching goal of
the project is to expose the process
of research within the Harvard
community and link formerly isolated
groups with others who share similar
interests. Tese linkages serve to foster
discussion and cross-disciplinary
engagement with larger ideas. Te
individual whose work is to be
displayed will be selected by a research
librarian within the participating
library. Te librarian works with the
researcher to identify the key formative
sources used during their production
of a project. Te librarian will then set
about compiling the items identifed
by the researcher and displaying them
with the Curated Collections for the
Curious exhibit. Te collections will
also have a web presence which will
highlight the items displayed, provide a
synopsis of the research, and introduce
a space to discuss the projects. Te
web site will also serve as a digital
archive of all prior exhibits to provide
a clear record of the trajectory of
research within the community. Te
collections will display key sources
(books, images, videos and artifacts)
associated with the research of a
prominent member of the librarys
larger community.
As excerpted from Unpacking My Library: Architects and Teir Books
Jo Stefens, Edito, Yale University Press, 2009
Kaitlyn Fitzgerald
STEP 1:
structure
book display
artifact display
media display
traditional research
materials
audio and video research
and presentation materials
audio research and
presentation materials
physical research materials
(models, artifacts, etc.)
2010 2003
2002
1999
1998
1996
1995
1982
1978
2009
2008
2007
2006
Collage City
Real Estate Finance and
Investments
Heat Islands
Principles of Microeconomics
Function of Form
Urban ecology: an international
perspective on the interaction
between humans
Ecological Urbanism
Urban Design
Urban regions: ecology and
planning beyond the city
Living systems: innovative
materials and technologies for
landscape architecture
Cities X lines: a new lens for the
urbanistic project
Drosscape
Landscape urbanism: a manual for
machinic landscape
Statistics: a tool for social research
Points and Lines
S,M,L,XL
Herzog & de Meuron = complete
works
Land mosaics: the ecology of
landscapes and regions
Te Architecture of the City
Te second indicator was check-
outs. Top checkouts by GSD
students from the Loeb Library
for 2010 and 2011 were exam-
ined (source: Harvard Library
Innovation Lab). Tee top check-
out titles included a high ratio of
periodicals to total top checkouts
(19/50 for 2010, 20/47 for 2011).
Periodicals checkouts are signif-
cantly higher at Loeb Library com-
pared to other Harvard libraries.
We can assume that GSD students
prefer to check out the hard copies
of these periodicals for better
graphic quality.
Of the top book checkouts from
2010, seen below, only 7 titles were
part of the current non-circulating
collection. All were either pub-
lished pre-2000 or written by GSD
Faculty.
One of the most difcult aspects
of the project is to create an iden-
tity for this collection. In order for
these books to be placed outside
the library, they must retain some
aspects of librarynesssomething
that identifes them as belonging
to a specifc collectionin order to
deter thef and create a feeling of
shared responsibility. Because the
books will not be checked out, they
should not have barcodes or call
numbers typical to Loeb Library
books. However, they need some
kind of identifying marker. Te
hope is to deter thef (to some
degree) without the use of chains.
Adding plexi cut with a collection
title to the book cover is ofered as
an experimental solution. Tese
add weight and thickness to the
books and readily identify them as
non- personal copies.
Titles that are put on reserve can
be a good place to begin identifying
items that refect the curriculum of
the GSD. Te question at hand is
whether this collection should have
a canonical aspect. Te original
ideas behind the core collec-
tion were built around an idea of a
canon of books. While this idea
may be outdated, the collection
is a good opportunity to curate
books that may be or should be of
interest to the students based on
what they are currently studying.
While reserves data may be helpful
towards this end, it seems librarians
or professors are better equipped to
predict and curate this portion of
the collection.
Te library is an active place. Te
collection is constantly growing
and things become hot for awhile.
Some things remain relevant
despite age but other items become
obsolete or less relevant. Shouldnt
this NEED IT NOW collection,
which is a re-examination of the
core collection refect the chang-
ing nature of the library? What was
core 20 years ago may not still
be considered core? How ofen
should this collection be updated?
Every week? Every month? Every
semester?
Te problem of the recall war
lies in the circulating collection.
So perhaps the solution lies in the
non-circulating collection? Te
current non-circulating collection
is shelved alongside the circulating
collection in the general stacks. In
addition, the library has limited
hours so perhaps the solution is to
create a collection outside of the
library for use by students in the
Trays.
Te idea is to deploy a collection
outside the library as a sociological
experiment
A common problem encountered
at the Graduate School of Design is
to fnd that the copy of a (popular)
book that one wants to look at
quickly is not currently available.
Te recall war is something that
can quickly ensue, whereby a book
that is normally available for a
28-day loan period is then recalled
by another patron, cutting short
the current loan to 5 additional
days. Or if there is already a long
line of patrons who are interested in
looking at the book, there may be a
5 day loan limit in place when the
person who originally recalled the
title fnally receives said book.
Te frst step was to identify pat-
terns of use to see how far the data
can take us towards defning the
new collection. Te two main in-
dicators examined were recalls and
checkouts.
Recalls (source: Loeb Library)
were generally of recently published
titles. All titles that were recalled
more than 5 times in the last 11
months were published post-1997
and about half were published in
2010 and 2011. Tere were 13 titles
that were recalled despite having
more than 3 copies each in the cir-
culating collection. Of these, only 2
titles were designated as part of the
current non-circulating collection
and both were published over 10
years ago.
post-1997
2011
2010
2007
2006
2002
2003
1999
1997
2005 2009
2008
2001 post-1997
2011
2010
2007
2006
2002
2003
1999
1997
2005 2009
2008
2001
100% of these were
published post-1997
52% in the last 2 years
of the 46 individual items
recalled more than 5x
each for the past 11
months
(as of March 16, 2012)
STEP 3: branding / identitycreating
library-ness outside the library
identify books that can be
considered canonical?
STEP 2:
STEP 1: identify borrowing patterns towards
building a new collection
...but I
NEED IT NOW!!!
i should really take a look
at this book on _____.
let me find it on hollis ....
dammit, all the copies are
checked out
TOP LOEB BOOK CHECKOUTS 2010
= ten individual checkouts
= non-circulating available
Top checkout titles indicate that the GSD
community is particularly interested in
periodicals
2011
TOP RECALLED TITLES
2009 2008 2005 2001 1999
2010
=

n
o
n
-
c
i
r
c
u
l
a
t
i
n
g

a
v
a
i
l
a
b
l
e
a collection for the GSD Trays
NEED ITNOW:
Yuhka Miura
Tis project explores the link
between the presence of the
EPAs Field Repository at the
Ashland Public Library in Ash-
land Massachusetts and how
this knowledge is viewed by and
made public to the citizens. In
1983 the EPA listed the Nyanza
Colorant Plant in Ashland as
one of their frst 10 Superfund
Sites. However it took over three
years to begin remediation and
by then the citizens of Ashland
demanded that the environmen-
tal engineers make their fnd-
ings public. An agreement was
reached between Ashland and
the EPA to locate the knowledge
of remediation at the Ashland
Public Library. Tis form of
activism inspired the EPA to
initiate their Field Repository
program for all of their future
Superfund Sites, today number-
ing over 1,200 throughout the
U.S.
Tis project, Te Cloud of
Unknowing: Our Future is Our
History aims to contextualize
the Field Repositories by adding
the stories of the contaminated
within the space of their history
of the contaminants. Te frst
step was to explore the relation-
ship between the information in
the Field Repository to how it
is displayed within the physical
space of the public library, and
whether this matches the digital
structure of this information on
the EPAs website.
The Cloud of Unknowing:
Our Future is Our History
Dan Borelli (Bibliotheca I)
Creating a living archive of stories from people within the EPAs Field
Repository of documents on contamination
Prototype of the timeline lightbox and field notes.
Spatial Programming of Ashland Public Library
Basement Top Floor Top Floor Foyer Enlarged
Open Space Historically Locating the Field Repository Locating the Living Archive within the
History of the Library

Prototype of the timeline lightbox and field notes.
The Ashland Public Library
as the Site of Living History
Te Ashland Public Library
opened in 1904 in part by $10,000
donated from philanthropist
Andrew Carnegie. Recently reno-
vated in 2005, the Ashland Public
Library also houses the EPAs
history of site remediation at the
Nyanza Colorant Plant. In 1983,
the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agencys National Priority List of
Superfund sites listed the Nyanza
Chemical Waste Dump, a 35-acre
site used for industry between
1917 and 1978. Te listing was
named for the Nyanza Chemical
Company, which operated a dye
manufacturing plant there from
1965 to 1978. Groundwater, soil,
and sediments were contaminated
with heavy metals and chlorinated
organic compounds. Te site
cleanup is being addressed with
the initial cleanup and four long-
term stages focusing on source
control and cleanup of the soil,
of-site groundwater, wetlands and
drainage ways, and the Sudbury
River.
Located in a small, unmarked
Quiet Study room is a set of book-
shelves containing over thirty
three-ring binders that comprise
the physical corpus of the Field
Repository. Tis is the only loca-
tion throughout the town where
the subject matter of the Nyanza
contaminated site is made physi-
cally manifest. An interesting side
note to this narrative is that once
the EPA began the remediation
in 1988, the Ashland community
demanded that the EPA make their
remediation eforts, fndings, and
data public, and that these materi-
als would be located at the local
public library. Tis agreement
explicitly made the data public be-
cause of the implicit understand-
ing that the public library is an
architectural mechanism for public
knowledge.
In Spring 2012 I will host a se-
ries of workshops and interviews
with people throughout the com-
munity to capture their stories of
living with, near, or in fear of the
contamination. Te stories of the
contaminated will now reside next
to the contaminants and transform
the library space into a site of liv-
ing history, this is the intent and in
the following sections I will begin
to identify the mechanisms for
bringing this to fruition.
The Cloud of Unknowing:
Our Future is Our History
Making Public Knowledge
Public
Troughout the town the Nyanza
Superfund site is only physically
embodied within the library, its
absence is noticeable and yet its
presence within the library un-
derscores the role that the library
plays as an architectural actor that
shapes our cultural identity, both
contemporary and historical. As
such, the presence of the backlit
timeline table and the subsequent
object-based arrangement in the
bookshelf takes the public data and
gives it physical presence in library
space.
On the surface of this table, I cre-
ated a graphic that maps the town
to scale within the continental US
on the lef and then on the right
placing the site within the towns
overall history of industrialization.
Opposite the table I intend to acti-
vate the empty bookshelves into an
artifact-based timeline incorporat-
ing various media across epochs.
I created a prototype of this rede-
signed space in my studio at the
Saxonville studios in Framingham
Massachusetts. We hosted an Open
Hosue on November 12 and13
and this event gave me 10 hours of
watching the general public view-
ing this setup. Additionally I had
letter-sized scaled copies of the
mapping area where visitors could
create their own map to leave their
memory of place.
Lightbox Graphic
Scaled mapping which places the contaminated site within the overall industrialization of the Ashland landscape.
The diagram below tracks
the various entities who have
some jurisdiciton, ownership,
or knowledge over the Nyan-
za Superfund Site in Ashland
Massachusetts. The Ashland
Public Library becomes the
physical locus of exchange for
this subject.
BIBLIO
ROOM
WIFI
Ben Brady
Ben Brady
Ben Brady
LIBRARY FRIEND
IN A ROOM
COLD SPOT
Meet Biblio, your library friend. Te design-fction clip above was made
by Ben Brady, student (and teaching assistant) the Library Test Kitchen, a course
about building the library of the near future taught by metaLABs Jefrey Schnapp
and Jef Goldenson of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. Inspired by simple,
charismatic digital pets like Tamagotchi, Ben imagines Biblio as a digital creature
who serves as a digital guide and assistant, mediating the world of printed
books and the realm of networked, open, personal information. Biblio lives in
the libraryit travels with you from book to book, keeping track of the titles
you browse, noting the relationships those books have with others, and urging
you to feed its blinking curiosity with
further research. Te creature seems to
have evolved to live in the crook of the
palm, a kind of spandrel made by the
gestures and manual habits that we use
with both books and digital devices.
Its a wonderful example of the projects
Library Test Kitchen students are
cooking upincluding a nap carrel, a digital welcome
mat, and roving collections of curated books (to name
just three; well feature them all here in weeks to
come). Teyre ideas that not only inform, but surprise
and delightqualities the library of the future will
sorely need.
(text by Matthew Battles)
Te wif cold spot is an
extension of Crag but is a full-
scale room. From afar, it appears
solid. As you approach you
see plastic emerging from the
interior begging you to enter.
And as you enter, a drastically
diferent interior is revealed.
You can only attempt to make
sense of the space you are in
and nothing more. You forget
about the invisible pressures of
the digital world. Te interior is
painted with a grounded, EMF-blocking black paint that blocks all radiation and
signals in the space, rendering your wif and your cell phone useless. Tis anti-
phone booth exists in highly digitally charged public areas as a moment of pause
and refection. Te dramatic lighting efect is achieved by milling through the
plywood into the backing veneer and re-plugging these holes with acrylic tubes
which act sort of like fber-optics, difusing the warm light.
In the library today we see books fghting for their physical position. A trend
of extraneous programs leaching onto the book has prevalent recently but is more a
refection of our false-desire for hybrid programs. Tis will change in the future as
the pressures of personal technology increase, our desire for dedicated typology and
space will as well. Te book has also recently had to justify itself against space for
digital research and storage as well its relevance in the face of the emerging e-book. Te
book remains our most stable form of archiving and preservation of information and
will continue this in the future. While the powers of the digital are unparalleled, they
cannot be reduced to a mere carbon-copy of the physical (e-book) and as storage devices
are too new and untested to invest so much faith into.
signage for the wif-cold spot
Much of this semester was exploring the digital divide in the library. I have
determined that on a device scale, we can accept the faults of hybridity for the benefts
of convenience and mobility. But what has happened to the library where we expect the
same thing on a spatial scale? I am arguing that there isnt a productive relationship
between the digital and the physical on the spatial scale in the contemporary library and
we really need to think about creating a split, or a divide between them where the library
can be what it wants to be and the digital space can bee free to grow as it wants.
FIGHTING
Ben Brady
BOOKS
Books fghting against extraneous
programs
integrated side table and light
conceptual rendering of wif-cold spot interior
watch video!!!!!
Books fghting against space for
digital media, the e-book, and space
for digital research
SKEUOMORPHIC
Ben Brady
SIDE TABLE
Te wif-cold spot must exist in highly charged areas. It thrives on the
contrast between connectivity and isolation. For now, it is quite simple and
digestible for us to want to connect everything, to make everything accessible and
easy. However, soon we will have to imagine the opposite condition, moments of
pause and refection in otherwise fast and connected space. Te wif-cold spot
cannot be conceived as simply the absence of the digital connectivity, but rather
the addition of no connectivity, no radiation, nothing. Nothing is not the absence
of something, but rather the creation of isolation. Te same craf and care and
nuance that we put towards the design and progression of the digital world must
Crag is a skeuomorphic side table. At some point he seems to be carved
out of a solid block of wood, but as you approach him, he reveals himself again
and again as a series of sharp knife-edges and unpredictable grain patterns. On
closer look Crag appears to be a bad texture-mapping. Crag reveals himself as
fake. Nothing about Crag suggests wood construction yet Crag must remain
wooden in appearance in order to feel a part of the library. Crag is intended to
formally speak to the speed of digital information but at the same time is trying
to negotiate the familiarity of wood and warmth and touch in the library of the
future. Crag is intentionally uncomfortable.
photograph of interior of wif-cold spot
be given to the opposite, the design of isolation. Te feelings of isolation and
focus are achieved through light and re-orientation. Te space is designed to
re-orient you, to cleanse your pallet and prepare you for a period of focus and
isolation. Te lighting efect is two-fold. It at once creates a sof difused light on
the interior, and acts as a signifer. Afer you have re-oriented yourself, you are
welcome to sit, turn on the artifcial light and read or write or just sit. When you
do this, the skin of the wif-cold spot appears to be polka-dotted and lets passers
by know of its occupancy.
STUDY CARREL
[RE] INTERPRETED
THE FLEXIBLE [RE] PROGRAMMABLE
LIBRARY
Jennifer Esposito
Harvard Graduate School of Design MArch II Candidate 2012
Andr Villejoin
Harvard Graduate School of Design MArch II Candidate 2012
Te library, as an institution, a building, and a space, is in transition. Libraries have always
been a place for knowledge consumption and production in academic and public librar-
ies alike. However, the library is no longer simply a repository for books or an institution
for knowledge storage, nor is it merely a building that contains a quiet place for individual
research. As the library evolves and changes, so too does the nature of academic research.
University courses seem to be including more collaborative approaches to learning in addi-
tion to focused individual research. Design schools in particular are experiencing an in-
creased need for space in which groups of individuals can work together on
collaborative and multidisciplinary projects that utilize the resources of the library.
In this period of transition, it seems unclear what the future of the library will be. Te ques-
tion that arises is: How do we design physical space for something unknown? Te Carrel
[Re] Interpreted proposes a strategy to address the changing needs of existing libraries. Te
project suggests that by designing fexible systems that can adapt to changing needs and user
preferences, the physical environment of the library can also adapt over time. Te ultimate
goal is that these fexible systems successfully negotiate the interaction between the user, the
content, and the space of the library.
Te Carrel [Re] Interpreted project conceives of a new type of library carrel whose function
can oscillate between individual and group use. Te library selected as the testing ground
for the proposal is the Francis Loeb Design Library located in Gund Hall at the Harvard
Graduate School of Design. Te project addresses two particular and current needs that are
relevant not only to Loeb Design Library, but to many existing academic and public librar-
ies today. Te frst need is increased space for collaborative work and the second need is
the integration of user technology into the infrastructure of the existing library. Te project
proposes three carrel types, each composed of the same material palette and construction
system that allows for easy assembly and transport. Each type consists of a raised foor
with integrated wheels for mobility, a solid ceiling with integrated lighting and mechanical
space, and two opposing solid walls - one analog and one digital. Each analog wall includes
a curated bookshelf on the exterior, while each digital wall includes digital displays on the
exterior and interior of the carrel.
Te frst type is the Booth Carrel designed with compartments for up to six individuals. Te
typology of the booth accommodates individual users in an intimate space that allows for
private study. Te second type is the Exhibition Carrel. Tis type builds on the idea that the
library is a place where information is displayed through visible artifacts. Te Exhibition
Carrel is thought of as an instrument to display ideas and work from both within and out-
side the library, promoting the exchange of knowledge through physical and digital forms
of representation. Te Group Study Carrel is the third and main carrel type from which the
other two types have been derived. Te Group Study Carrel type is composed of two oppos-
ing glass walls that are aluminum framed with glass infll panels that rotate to enclose the
entire space, or fold to open the carrel up to the existing library space. Trough this very
simple operation, the carrel can remain open and accommodate individual users, or the
glass walls can be closed and the carrel can be reserved for group work. Te solid walls of
the Group Study Carrel are designed to accommodate both digital and traditional content.
Te digital wall is ftted with exterior and interior digital displays that could be used for
library searches, event publications, presentation projection, video searches, and video con-
ferencing. Te Carrel [Re] Interpreted is a proposed solution to the evolving function of the
library and changes in academic learning. Te Group Study Carrels could bring additional
user technology into the existing library, while also providing the necessary collaborative
and individual workspace. Although designed and proposed for the existing arrangement
of the Loeb Design Library, the project could readily adapt to the context of any existing
library in transition.
CONTAINER MOBILITY
BOOTH CARREL
EXHIBITION CARREL
GROUP STUDY CARREL
GUND HALL & LOEB DESIGN LIBRARY FIRST FLOOR
LOEB DESIGN LIBRARY BASEMENT LEVEL STACKS
COLLABORATION
GROUP STUDY CARREL INTERIOR
GROUP STUDY CARREL ELEVATION
+ Te library needs to be
QUIET TO FACILITATE COM-
FORTABLE AND EFFECTIVE
STUDYING. Te smaller the
reading room (or study space), the
better.
+ NATURAL LIGHT is key.
It is great to have a studying space
when one is surrounded by books.
Libraries should have lots of win-
dows to be able to see greenery out-
side.
+ Seats need to have BET-
TER BACK AND SEAT SUPPORT.
Although, too much cushioning is
not unfavorable.
+ Need to ACCOUNT FOR
GROWTH in the library. Is the
depository the way to go? Students
wont need to come to the librar-
ies to look for books if there are no
books to BROWSE through. Te
library then could become just a
reading space or studying space
and a place to distribute something
that you have reserved. But it is
important to keep some books in
the library to be able to browse and
fnd something you might never
stumble upon otherwise.
+ If the search system is
limited to an online catalogue,
the need to come to the library is
reduced. LIBRARIANS JOB needs
to be emphasized. He/she needs to
INTERACT WITH RESEARCH-
ERS to guide them through ef-
cient way to do their research.
+ Te most comfortable areas
of the reading room are the nooks
where students are surrounded by
bookcases and are seated in com-
fortable chairs. Although the chairs
are cozy, they are not ideal. Te
scale of a smaller study area is more
comfortable than being in a large
open space.
+ Te reading room is too big
for comfortable studying.
+ A reading room is in need
of ROUND TABLES.
+ Te CHAIR is the most im-
portant item in the library. Students
spend time sitting in those chairs
for hours.
+ 40% of the good library is
SUFFICIENT LIGHTING, espe-
cially natural light.
+ Currently carrels act as
storage space but at the same time
the area for seating takes away
precious storage space. Most of
the students just take a book and
use the reading room. Although it
is nice to have your own personal
space, the carrels of Widener are
not doing the job. A suggestion is
to keep the CARRELS FOR PER-
SONAL STORAGE SPACE.
+ What is something that
Widener absolutely needs: LOCK-
ERS. Tey should be able to be re-
served by students for a set amount
of time. Lockers should be available
to not only store books that one
doesnt want to take home, but also
to store their personal items in-
cluding laptops.
+ Te great aspect of the li-
brary is that the space is broken up
into SMALLER STUDY SPACES.
Lower ceilings provide for a more
comfortable atmosphere.
+ A good library is compact.
+ Widener is good to see
when you are a tourist. But it is not
a good place to stay in for a pro-
longed period of time. Chairs are
not comfortable. Unlike in Lamont,
one has to cover large distances to
get from point A to point B.
+ A carrel is good for writ-
ing a paper but not to read a 300
page book. Te main problem with
a carrel is that it is inaccessible
afer certain hours. When one has
a working space, you want it to be
available to you at all times.
+ Some of the elevators only
work one way. It would be great if
one could use the elevator to access
the stacks directly from downstairs.
Multiple layers of security are frus-
trating.
+ Libraries need a WELL-
FUNCTIONING CAF.
+ Manual security check is
frustrating.
+ For someone who is a
scholar, they wouldnt come to a li-
brary without a purpose. It is there
to study and do research.
+ SOFAS AND ARMCHAIRS
ARE THE BEST ITEMS IN THE
LIBRARY.
Library As A Mini City
Differentiating Activity For Multiple Users
Vera Baranova
+ A scholars use of libraries
tends to change every semester.
NEW HABITS are established over
time. In Widener, if one has ac-
cess to a quiet study room that is
designated for a particular depart-
ment, it is a great place to study due
to the lack of distractions. It is the
wooden fur niture, globes, objects
in glass cases, etc. that makes a
reading room a comfortable study
space.
+ If one has a small computer
screen, it is useful to study in the
computer lab. Ten one DOESNT
NEED TO CARRY A LAPTOP to
the library with them.
+ Tere should be DEPART-
MENTAL LIBRARIES.
+ CHAIRS SHOULD BE
CONDUCIVE TO GOOD POS-
TURE.
+ One should never sleep
in the library. Chairs should not
be comfortable they encourage
sleep.
+ Libraries make one focus
on their work because the environ-
ment encourages it: at least STU-
DENTS LOOK LIKE THEY ARE
STUDYING.
+ Bag check is frustrating.
Suggestion: It would be best if there
were ZONES IN THE LIBRARY
that contained precious books that
require strict security.
+ Carrels. Although it was
available, it was never used because
it was too depressing, cold and
dark. Te only good use of cur-
rent CARRELS IS FOR STORAGE
PURPOSES, when the books get
checked out to those carrels.
+ USE THE CARREL LIKE
A REFERENCE DESK OR A
RESERVES SHELF. Tose books
would never be taken home.
+ STORAGE so that books
can be stored under students name.
In the case of this research I have
been working with properties
inherent to an academic library
at Harvard. I started my research
with a goal of improving the
undergoing changes occurring
in academic libraries at Harvard,
especially from the user and
performative side of the library
space. I interviewed a few difer-
ent students who use Harvard
libraries extensively and many of
the students, as avid users of the
library, had very particular ideas
about what the library should and
be and how to improve it. Many
of the qualities that were shared
amongst those interviewed are
well known library features
great lighting and comfortable
seating. But each student had very
particular habits that infuenced
the way they wished the library to
operate. Below are a few notes I
made from the interviews. Please
go to http://simmeringideas.tum-
blr.com/ to fnd more comments.
An extension of public urban space into a built form is rather inherent to
a library. Utilizing the resources of the Library Test Kitchen, I have been
working with an idea that reimagines the library as a mini city. A mul-
titude of functions necessary in a changing twenty-frst century library
transforms the typical typology into one with zones of varying program-
matic activity. A library, containing all of those spaces, transforms into
an enclosed public space. Within, one is able to fnd the space that suits
them for research, study or browsing a particular book.
Tere were students who were
favoring departmental and zoned
libraries. Tese could potentially
be zones of diferent securities,
departments, uses, types of items
stored. Te fact just reinforced the
idea of the fact that the library is a
city in itself that becomes an area
full of diverse activity and being
able to adapt to changing environ-
ment even with items that were
considered permanent overtime.
Te libraries are already undergo-
ing constant re-planning. Every
semester they are adapting to new
confgurations.
While someone else says that chairs
should not be comfortable at all
but make you want to study rather
than relax and sleep in them. But
inevitably no matter which seat
they are seating in, endless hours of
studying will result in heads com-
ing down to the book surface and
the students are found taking naps.
In academia it happens inevitably
and every student accounts for it
in their studying regime and the
librarians constantly encounter it.
I further developed a Neo-Carrel as
one of librarys urban nodes. I have
been looking into the idea of reus-
ing carrel surfaces for enhanced
activities.
Te neo-carrel is a chair pod that
attaches to an existing carrel table
top surface. It is a chair that has
been designed with an elevated
surface for a few reasons. One is
to use the elevated surface to prop
up a laptop to an eye-level height.
Openings in the surface allow for
ventilation. Te second purpose
comes from observing a multitude
of students napping in a library.
Spending hours of studying in the
library, it is inevitable for me to
put my head down at some point.
Having a chair accommodate for
a short term nap would enhance
my studying experience. It is open
enough for the circulation crew to
observe the behavior and to main-
tain fair share of its use.
If the library has to adapt, why not
think of it as an open area that can
be replanned over time. It could
be an adaptable urban grid that
contains functions, activities and
spaces, old and new.
Tat way I began to think of the
library foor area as a land use
diagram. Tere are three main us-
ers of the library patrons, books
and librarians. We have been seeing
the library slowly changing from a
formal space to an informal one, so
I have proposed diferent zones in
the library that can be designed for
conservative, liberal and neo-liber-
al library functions. Tese are the
series of spaces that are adapting to
informal uses.
Seating alone is the most important
and at the same time controversial
subject that I have encountered
speaking with patrons. No matter
how one uses the library, they are
always sitting. How they are sitting,
on what they are sitting, where they
are sitting Every patron has an
ideal seat where they would pre-
fer to sit. And the idea of the city
reinforces the fact that every patron
can fnd the nook they are comfort-
able with.
I have spent some time researching
optimal seating patterns. One stu-
dent says that the most comfortable
seat is the armchair or the couch.
Another one prefers a hard, slightly
cushioned surface with arm rests.
Neo-Carrel
An Additive Piece to the
Transforming Library Carrel
Vera Baranova
I further developed a Neo-Carrel as one of
librarys urban nodes. I have been looking
into the idea of reusing carrel surfaces for
enhanced activities.
spatial Googling
Breaking the Boundaries
Stacy Morton (Bibliotheca I)
Browsing was once only achieved by the
physical search of books following the advice
of a friend or reference librarian. Looking for a
book was a social experience and required us
to participate in the culture of the library by
going to the physical institution and tapping
into its network.
However, in the digital age of our current
society, browsing has been dominated by
the proliferation of cyber spatial tools. Cy-
berspace provides an individual to browse
from the comfort of their home by searching
keywords, authors, or book titles with results
in less than half a second.
This mitigation of the search query along
with the attempt to digitize all books and de-
nounce their physical counterpart has led this
line of inquiry; what if the physical book we
are looking for was able to nd us?
Spatial Googling is a concept that allows li-
braries, composed of individual books, to
break from its boundaries and become em-
bedded within the urban fabric to enhance
ones browsing. It combines the idea of ur-
ban aneur, digital search query, and seren-
dipity into one.
This concept couples RFID technology and
the growing abundance of smartphones to
create an ambient urban computing ecology.
As cell phones become smartphones, a vir-
tual layer to our cities has begun to emerge.
Spatial Googling seeks to engage this new
information ecology and leverage the bottom
up logic that our smartphones provide. By
coupling RFID with smartphones, we begin to
create an atmospheric technological platform
within our urban fabric and library infrastruc-
ture.
Te discussions were enlightening for both sides: I
learned frst-hand how we can be responsive to student
library users and I think our LTK students also learned a lot
about the library. What I like is the free-ing way in which
the students are thinking about what a library is and can be.
And its pushed me and other library staf to re-think collec-
tions, how we make collections accessible, and services. We
have this opportunity to create a new vision of the library
because the LTK .
LTK allows me to put into practice those ideas Ive been
thinking about how curation is changing and is a col-
laborative process between library users and librarians;
how collections can be in places outside library walls and
the library loses nothing. Te library has traditionally been
about collection and managing, or curating, content, and
making it accessible, or keeping it safe and sometimes
locked up. When I watch library users, they are looking
for content that libraries and archives hold, but then they
want to make their own collections from the multiple
collections we ofer; making new collections is part of the
re-use of our content. Te diference is that we are putting
these new collections together in tools that go far beyond
the OPAC or image database. Tey are in diferent physical
environments, and also in virtual environments in which
search and retrieval are combined with tools for making
presentations, slides shows, and digital publishing.
Wisdom builds her house, but folly
with her own hands tears it down reads
the lead verse of Proverbs 14.
Te verse may serve as a doubly apt epigraph for a
seminar devoted to the past, present, and future of the
library as an institution. Apt because the frst half has
ornamented many a faade of a European library over
the course of the past fve centuries. Apt also because
we live in an age in which digital forms of communica-
tion and media are quite literally exploding the prior
culture of memory, with the demise of the printed
book and the traditional library now a frequent topic of
discussion.
What form should the library of the 21st century
assume? Should it simply vanish into virtual desk-
tops and merge into a timeless and placeless universal
database? Should it adopt a double identity, bridging
the worlds of print and digital documents, of physical
presence and telepresence? Should it alter its identity
and become a workshop, a laboratory, an innovation in-
cubator where emerging and future forms interact and
dialogue with the relics of the past? Or should it simply
merge with the university itself as a place of knowledge
production and reproduction? If so, where then should
books go in the 21st century? And how about all the
other old media that make up the record of human
civilizations?
Informed answers to such questions require an un-
derstanding of libraries themselves, the practices that
have shaped them, their systems of access, retrieval, and
storage. For libraries are not just collections of docu-
ments and books, but also physical structures and, for
that matter, infrastructures. Indeed, libraries are among
the most venerable of building types, dating back to the
ancient Near East. Teir history is also that of catalogu-
ing systems, vault and case designs, carrels and desks,
viewing devices, lecterns, and the like.
Bibliotheca combines exploration of the history of the
library as an institution of knowledge storage, retrieval
and production with a design studio concerned with
Ben Brady
problem sets involving libraries on the Harvard campus
as well as questions the future shape and functions of
the library as an institution. Te seminar is divided
into three sections: the frst is devoted to the history
of libraries and library infrastructures; the second to
case studies of major contemporary library projects;
the third to brainstorming about design answers to
the hard questions being confronted by the Harvard
libraries.
Topics will include: libraries in the cultural imagi-
nation, library infrastructures from registers to card
catalogues to digital catalogues, the history of shelving
systems and lecterns, library architectures from the
Library of Alexandria to the Digital Public Library of
America.
Porosities
Bibliotheca is intended as a porous seminar that
will interact with various ongoing conversations at
Harvard and elsewhere. In the frst instance, it will dia-
logue with the ongoing reorganization of the Harvard
Libraries themselves, and in particular with a series of
public events that are planned for the fall and spring
semester related to this reorganization. Secondly, it will
interact with Luis Rojos fall architectural studio Urban
Superimpositions\Historical Archive: Negotiating
Public roles in Piazzale Roma (GSD 1304), devoted
to developing projects for the Archive of the city of
Venice. Tirdly, it will track alongside the next stage
development of the Digital Public Library of America:
a visionary project that seeks to create a single unifed
digital library structure for the entire United States. Last
but not least, members of the Harvard librarian and
archivist community will participate in the brainstorm-
ing/problem-solving hours of the course (indicated in
the syllabus), as well as in the project reviews.
Visitors
Individual seminar sessions will include the participa-
tion of cultural historians and architects. Among the
experts who we expect to participate are: Gregory Nagy,
Robert Darnton, Katherine Park, Alex Csiszar, and
William Rawn.
DES-034985 | Bibliotheca: The Library Past/Present/Future Syllabus Excerpts
Wednesdays, 8:30am - 11:30am, Visual + Material Resources Room, Loeb Library
John Palfrey, Jeffrey Schnapp, Ann Whiteside, Jeff Goldenson
Selected Readings
Matthew Battles, Te Library: An Unquiet
History (New York: Norton, 2003)
Jose Luis Borges, Te Library of Babel, Te
Total Library
Henry Petroski, Te Book on the Bookshelf
(New York: Knopf, 1999)
Cornelia Vismann, Files (Palo Alto: Stanford,
2008)
Ian F. McNeely, Reinventing Knowledge:
From Alexandria to the Internet (New York:
Norton, 2010)
David Weinberger, Everything is Miscella-
neous: Te Power of the New Digital Disorder
(New York: Times Books, 2007)
Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1977)

Whole Earth Catalog, (Menlo Park: Portola
Institute, 1969)
W. Brian Arthur, Te Nature of Technology:
what it is and how it evolves (London: Allen
Lane, 2009)
Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What
Happens Afer Teyre Built (New York: Pen-
guin, 1995)
Berg, http://berglondon.com/blog/ (London:
dive into their archives)
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Tis begged the question: how can we bring students into
this larger institutional discussion in a more sustained and
meaningful way? How can we communicate the amazing
opportunity to reinvent the Harvard Library? Expecting
extracurricular involvement was impractical. And then
we realized with a bit of institutional jujitsu we could make
reinventing the library the academic work itself. We could
create our own mirror to Deloitte, an internal design con-
sultancy comprised of students.
We wanted to build real things and have an impact just
like any real frm, and that meant money. We pitched the
idea to the Harvard Library Lab, the granting entity within
the library, and Robert Darnton, Pforzheimer Professor
and Director of the Harvard University Library. Everyone
agreed it was a worthy experiment and they signed on as
our funders.
Budget in hand; we had the makings of an ofce. We just
needed to staf it. Under the umbrella of Advanced Seminar
09115, we tapped Graduate School of Design students to
lend fresh eyes to the problems, challenges and opportuni-
ties of the Harvard Library.
While a useful thought experiment, we didnt see
ourselves as a real frm or a normal seminar along the lines
of Bibliotheca, for that matter. We didnt see ourselves as
a lab either, we wanted to start fresh with a name that
freed us to do something new. Ten Annie Cain, the ever-
innovative co-worker of mine in the Library Innovation
Lab, weighed in, What about calling it the Library Test
Kitchen? She captured the homebrew vibe perfectly; the
name stuck.
Tis broadside contains the outtakes from the frst go
around. Our funders are pleased, and theyve committed
to another cycle of fnancial support for the Library Test
Kitchen. Stay tuned.
LTK for the Librarian (continued from cover) Beginnings (continued from cover)
Logo, Jessica Yurkofsky
Where we sit in the University
Harvard Library
Laboratory
in the
Ofce for Scholarly
Communication
Graduate School of Design
Harvard University