Libraries for the Future was a research project initiated by Nottinghamshire County Council Arts Services in partnership with Near Now to explore how Nottinghamshire Libraries might creatively use technology to engage library service users in a growing cultural offer.
The project embedded a research team at Mansfield Central, one of Nottinghamshire's flagship Libraries, between March and September 2014 to design, prototype and pilot new digital services for library users.
Outcomes
MILO
MILO (Mega Intelligent Learning Organism), was an installation taking the form of an alien creature that interacts with the public.
Library staff were able to program MILO to interact with customers and record their responses.
During the summer of 2014, film production and digital arts company Polymath were commissioned by Near Now to work in collaboration with Mansfield Central Library to develop concepts for digital artworks that would engage the public.
These concepts were shared at the library and received feedback from both staff and customers. The responses helped to shape prototypes which were then shared at the library to a very positive response. A final prototype was then modified following those responses and MILO was the final result.
A short film (above) about the project was produced by Dimension Two.
Summer School Workshops
We hosted a Summer School series of activities for young people and library staff to engage with digital techonologies, coding and creativity.
Codasign joined us to host a series of their Superpowers Creative Technology Workshops, including demonstrating the use of conductive paint for creating interactive light up drawings, and making platform games using Scratch, Python and Processing.
Codasign's Light Up Drawing Workshop at Mansfield Central Library. Photo by Gaelle Berton.
David Severn: Our Library, Our Space
The project was documented by photographer David Severn, who spent time in Mansfield Central Library capturing the different ways the library is used by many different people. David's photographs were exhibited in a touring exhibition in Mansfield, West Bridgford and Worksop Libraries in 2015.
Libraries for the Future was a research project initiated by Nottinghamshire County Council, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Libraries for the Future is led in partnership between Nottinghamshire County Council through Library Services, Arts and Sports Development Service, Broadway and Near Now.
