That’s what Christopher Harris and his rural New York team did, using Drupal’s open source platform to create a very “un-OPAC” system they call Fish4Info.  It even includes a blog and a social bookmarking site.

You can read Michelle Boule’s interview with Chris on the ALA TechSource blog or visit the Fish4Info site here.  You can even download a version of their project.

Need a cake pan, augur, fishing pole, or a piece of artwork? All of these items are available for checkout at libraries around Michigan, according to an article in the Sunday, November 25, edition of the Detroit Free Press.

The Grosse Pointe Public Library, where you can borrow tools, started its collection during World War II, when men were off at war, so boys could help out around the house. User-centered? You bet, all the way back in the 1940s. There’s a similar collection in one of the small neighborhood libraries in a low-income neighborhood in Memphis, Tennessee, where I used to live.

Annette Lamb, in her presentation to the Michigan Association for Media in Education in March 2007, suggested that we acquire things like fancy-edged scrapbooking scissors for loan. She encouraged us to think about the practical but non-traditional things that teachers spend their own money on but would love not to. When I did my practicum in the Livonia Public Schools, they sold poster board for projects out of the library storeroom. Some college libraries have vending machines stocked with CDs or inexpensive flash drives.

Now, I love a challenge, so it got me thinking … if Library 2.0 is truly user-centered, what unusual but useful items should I be adding to my collection?

Join the Conversation

What unusual objects do you circulate?

What cool things could be be circulating that we currently aren’t?

I’m guest lecturing in Marcia Mardis’ class today on “The Technology Habits of Mind of Highly Effective Media Specialists.” I love having the chance to think reflectively about my work with others who are current or future practitioners. We’re talking about the experimental mindset that media specialists need towards technology, looking at several tools, and reflecting on the experience.

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