Active Learning

Delighted to see my local library (Ann Arbor) and a few of our alums (Larry Neal, Josie Parker) featured in yesterday’s New York Times! Excerpts below.

Libraries aren’t just for books, or even e-books, anymore. They are for checking out cake pans (North Haven, Conn.), snowshoes (Biddeford, Me.), telescopes and microscopes (Ann Arbor, Mich.), American Girl dolls (Lewiston, Me.), fishing rods (Grand Rapids, Minn.), Frisbees and Wiffle balls (Mesa, Ariz.) and mobile hot spot devices (New York and Chicago).

“The move toward electronic content has given us an opportunity to re-evaluate our physical spaces and enhance our role as a community hub,” said Larry Neal, the president of the Public Library Association … “The web is swell,” he added, “but it can feel impersonal.”

Libraries, arguably the original sharing economy, have long circulated art prints, music and movies, and more recently have added tools. But services like the Library of Things and the “Stuff-brary” in Mesa, outside Phoenix, are part of a broad cultural shift in which libraries increasingly view themselves as hands-on creative hubs, places where people can learn new crafts and experiment with technology like 3-D printers …

The economic downturn forced many public libraries, especially in urban areas, to close branches, curtail hours and cut staff even as demand for their services by job seekers increased … at the same time, “the crunch pushed libraries to look locally to prove their value,” said R. David Lankes, a professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University …

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Last year, the Free Library of Philadelphia pulled together city, state and private funds to open a teaching kitchen, which is meant to teach math and literacy through recipes and to address childhood obesity. It has a 36-seat classroom and a flat-screen TV for close-ups of chefs preparing healthy dishes …

The Ann Arbor District Library has been adding to its voluminous collection of circulating science equipment. It offers telescopes, portable digital microscopes and backyard bird cameras, among other things — items that many patrons cannot afford to buy. Dave Menzo, a 28-year-old musician, created a whole album by borrowing electronic music equipment, including a photocell-controlled synthesizer called a Thingamagoop.

Online experiences only go so far, said Josie Parker, Ann Arbor’s library director. “You can’t download a telescope to take on a family picnic in the country and watch the stars come up,” she said …

For Shereema Ibrahim … the discovery that sewing machines were suddenly available at her branch library meant returning to a favorite hobby… “It’s not so much the dollar amount,” she said of the borrowed sewing machine. “It’s about the value of opportunity” …

In Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, … where fishing rods and tackle can be borrowed and used at the library’s own fishing dock on the Mississippi River, emergency assistance is provided during the summer months by a Rotary Club volunteer adept at untangling wind knots.

In Berkeley, Calif., the Tool Lending Library, a forerunner of the maker movement that was established in 1979, now houses some 3,000 tools, including weed whackers, drain snakes, demolition hammers and saws….

“We’re a pretty personal library,” said Adam Broner, a librarian who is also a carpenter. “When the toilet is clogged, people come here.”

I really love libraries.