July 8, 2019

Happy birthday, Mom! Here in the Netherlands we visited the Koninklijke, the national library of the Netherlands and met with Erik Boekesteijn, a senior advisor at the national library who travels to libraries around the world for consulting purposes. One detail which was mentioned off-handedly by our guide during our tour of the library was that seating areas among the historical books were designed to match the time period of the books displayed on the nearby shelves. My first instinct was to wonder, "what does that add to anything?" But then I reflected back on our recent presentations about the set designer and experience architect as faces of innovation, and realized that perhaps these seemingly innocuous seating areas serve a much larger function. Particularly because these seating areas are designed for patrons rather than employees, it seems likely that they were the creative work of an experience architect, who was looking to inject something special into the library experience. When considering what this adds for a patron, it may be different for each person. For example, for some it may help them get into the right headspace to understand the context of the literature they are reading, while for others it may go unnoticed consciously. But regardless of whether the patron realizes it or not, the different seating in each space creates a different experience for the user, which will undoubtedly alter their interpretation of the experience. The attention to detail in each seating area stuck out to me, because to the eye it may appear a bit frivolous or unnecessary, but it does in fact serve a purpose. This also speaks to the necessity of each individual face of innovation, because while some would never consider such details, others would not want them, and still others fight for them. Each of these perspectives needs to come together in order to create effective innovation.

Later, in the talk from Erik, I was again reminded of the importance of the set designers and experience architects, as he was showing us an image of a library which had been designed to fit into the town square. The library had a glass portion, which allows passers by to glance in at the library, lighting panels lined the sidewalk which allowed the library to integrate into the aura of the area, and they had designed for a projection of sporting events to be displayed on the side of the library. Before coming on this trip, I would have told you that all three of these features served no purpose to the library, but rather that they were just flashy. But now I realize how all three serve the library's position in a society, and further their integration into a community. A glass portion invites people to see what the library is like on the inside, and if they like what they see, they might just come in and become a member. Even if this attracts only a few people, these are still people who may not have ever become members of the library otherwise. The lighting and sporting projections help the library become part of the fabric of the area it is in. Particularly the sporting events would attract people to the area just for the viewing, but then they may enter the library as well. Or even if they don't, they will still be interacting with library services and using it as a meeting place, which advances many libraries' mission statements. I see these three features as attributable to both set design and experience architect interests because they relate to both the space itself and the user participation. Being able to identify the driving force behind architectural or decorative decisions in public spaces has been very interesting for me, because I tend to overlook these aspects in my day-to-day life, but noticing their utility increases my appreciation for the importance of details beyond the big picture. Even a seemingly underwhelming innovation can become incredibly useful and enriching to an experience if you give it the appropriate attention to detail. This also aligns with my belief about competitive baking shows; the cakes which design the most attainable cake, but pay the most attention to detail, will almost always win the show because the end product is more impressive in its successes than a cake which is more evident in its failures.

One final note on what really stuck out to me from Erik's talk was his mention that a librarian's job is to pass on information and get people acquainted with that information in some way, regardless of whether or not they do so through the traditional means. This reminded me of our time at the NISV with Greg and his presentation about how the music that is produced using soundbites from the archives sometimes doesn't even resemble the original audio, you just have to know that all of the sounds were pulled from one archival source. At first when I heard this I was confused about the intention of the project--why even make the effort to use exclusively archival soundbites if you won't be able to hear them? But after meeting with Erik, I think I can finally understand why these projects are still important to produce; integrating and using soundbites from the archives, regardless of whether or not they are immediately identifiable within the song, is important because it keeps the sounds in use and spreads them to more populations. Obviously the hope is that people will do the research and learn more about the archives, but even if they don't the "librarians" (in this sense, Greg) are doing their jobs by getting the auditory information out to the people and exposing them to what the archives have to offer.

I got a lot out of Erik's talk, and I was particularly interested in his personal anecdotes about his career path. Just as a general observation, it seemed like a lot of his success came out of his willingness to work on projects that were just designed to get his name out there, and weren't necessarily large projects with a monumental outcome (i.e. his video projects about his tours), and also due to his confidence in his ideas and willingness to take risks. As an undergraduate going into my senior year, it's always nice to get the chance to meet with successful adults and see what went right for them. After our visit to the national library, we went to the book museum and got a private tour, which was very cool. Today was very long but I got a lot out of it!