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COPYRIGHT 2005 Information Today, Inc.
Have you heard of Delicious Library? If not, it's worth checking it out. Delicious Library is a social software solution that transforms an iMac and FireWire digital video camera into a multimedia cataloging system. You can simply scan the barcode on any book, movie, music, or video game, and the item's cover magically appears on your digital shelves along with tons of metadata from the Web. Even better, this sexy, location-aware, peer-to-peer, multimedia personal lending library lets you share your collection with friends and neighbors. It's billed as an industrial strength library system, to go.
But is this really a library? That's a tricky question. We're a long way, semantically speaking, from the archetypal Library of Alexandria, but have we left the category? The trouble, of course, is that we keep pushing the envelope. Not so long ago, a library was a room or building with a physical collection. Then came the Internet, and we started talking about digital libraries. Now, having accepted the rather odd concept of an Internet Public Library, we're looking down the barrel of a few billion Delicious Personal Libraries. Keep in mind I'm not just talking about books and DVDs.
I envision a future of ambient findability in which we can find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime. At the heart of this brave new world is a library, or rather a multitude of libraries, that help us find what we need, whether the objects sought (and the libraries themselves) are physical, digital, or in between.
FROM INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE TO FINDABILITY
As some readers may know, I've been pounding on the boundaries of librarianship for quite some time. After graduating from the University of Michigan's School of Information and Library Studies in 1993, I embarked on a mission (with Louis Rosenfeld and Joseph Janes) to prove the value of librarianship in the Internet age. In the ensuing years, we helped create the field of information architecture, and spread the principles and practices of librarianship throughout the realms of user experience and Web design.
Our belief that librarianship can be practiced successfully in the nontraditional environments of Web sites and intranets has been validated in countless businesses, universities, and government agencies around the world, where information architects are now employed. Consequently, many library schools have developed information architecture courses and curricula. We are also blessed with a growing international IA community, which holds an annual summit meeting [http://iasummit.org/], and a dedicated professional association [http://iainstitute.org/]. During the past decade, information architecture has become a well-established discipline--which is probably why I've been feeling...
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