This project, a collaboration of Information Renaissance, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and the Manchester community, has its origins in the successful "Bridging the Urban Landscape" project which produced the Community Access Network in the Hill District.
Currently, Information Renaissance is exploring the concept of a "wired neighborhood" in conjunction with new housing now under development in Manchester.
In the "Bridging" project--a collaboration with Hill House and the Pittsburgh Public Schools--the Pennsylvania Department of Carnegie Library created an "exhibit" of over 600 historic images combined with text describing several Pittsburgh neighborhoods. While in the spirit of that earlier project the Manchester Electronic Branch Library represents both a narrowing and yet a deepening of focus. It also represents a furthering of community participation-- one of the chief aims of Information Renaissance.
While models of "digital" libraries do exist, no one has yet created the definitive "online electronic branch library," or even the definitive "electronic library." In many ways, the challenge is to capture a living and evolving community like Manchester, present its past and make that past useful in the present. To make such a site a pleasure to browse, peruse, visit and surf (more than once)--that is a substantial challenge.
One hundred years ago the Arts and Crafts Movement in America arose in reaction to the sterility of mechanization and industrialization in everyday life. In the same way today, there needs be more to the presentation of information than mechanical databases. An insurmountable volume of words, pictures and numbers raises the questions: is information an end in itself? how will information serve human needs and yet remain human in doing so? In effect, will going to the "well of information" mean simply quenching one's "information thirst" or will there be pleasure at the design of the well even after the thirst is quenched?
In this age of information overload, when we chase facts and figures and data, must information be created, stored, presented and retrieved without joy?
Information, even seemingly dull and dry information, can be presented richly--interwoven within the fabric of the people and the community that are the source of that information.
The Manchester Electronic Branch Library is quite open-ended-- meaning that it can be shaped in almost any way that meets the demands of the materials or the needs of the users.
Some features however seem basic. These include:
- Enlisting the cooperation and enthusiasm of organizations and individuals in the Manchester community for such a project and fostering their willingness to involve themselves by sharing electronically those historic/current resources that they feel comfortable sharing.
- Identifying, gathering and evaluating information/resources.
- Organizing the information.
- When necessary, creating the information--such as oral histories, solicited from members of the community by volunteers. Oral histories--tape-recorded or videotaped, transcribed and put online would wonderfully supplement photographs and the "official" written record.
- Putting the information/resources online. Design is secondary to content: that is, "glitz, whistles and bells" are secondary to the successful and usable presentation of "information." This means more than creating what we know as "traditional" webpages although (initially) straitforward, STATIC webpages may be the primary means of implementing this project. Eventually, a more comprehensive, unified and DYNAMIC electronic structure for portraying Manchester, its past, present and future can be constructed. This may be based around a geographic information system (GIS), that is, an electronic map which would permit Manchester to be explored spatially (street by street, building by building), thematically (by business, church, style of architecture) and temporally (by year, i.e., as those streets, houses, businesses may have appeared in 1920 or 1968). Information in a GIS is organized through databases. An interface designed to accommodate such a system could, when queried online, search these databases and then create a webpage "on-the-fly" in response to the specific query. This is part of what makes such a system "dynamic." It responds to a specific user's needs. It would obviate having to create endless numbers of static webpages to answer specific questions. The interface would thus "customize" a webpage for the patron. Furthermore, individuals or organizations could load their information on the server of their choice--the distributed model. Not all information would of necessity have to be on one organization's server, but all information could be linked/orchestrated, by "latitude and longitude," as it were, to a map of Manchester.
Scattered historic community resources, oftentimes neglected and gathering dust, represent pieces of a puzzle. The Electronic Branch Library seeks to put those pieces together so that an online picture of the community emerges. An illustration of this lies in the work of Manchester Craftsman's Guild's staff member, Lisa Link, who, with fellow artist, Carolyn Speranza, constructed a community-focused website, "End of the Line."
Using the facilities of several Carnegie branch libraries, the two artists invited residents to bring in their personal photographs and share their stories of life in their communities. These personal photographs were digitized--the originals returned to their owners--and put online.
Among its ideas for the support of the Branch Library project, Information Renaissance has discussed acquiring both a digital camera and also disposable cameras for individuals to take photographs of Manchester streets, houses, landmarks, and people. These images, once digitized, would then be put online.
Such ideas are only the tip of a creative iceberg that is implicit in this project. The framing of historical records such as diaries, sermons, annual reports, letters, news releases, etc. by thoughtful use of the technology and by intuitive application of principles of librarianship could make this project a touchstone for all manner of similar enterprises in the future.
RESULTS
- Developing unique and useful, contemporary electronic skills for all residents.
- Developing skills of information organization for all residents.
- Educating residents to the importance and value of information in today's world.
- Increasing community involvement/cooperation across generations and across institutions.
- Creating positive local and national publicity for all constituencies of Manchester.
- Creating a useful, usable and practical product which can continue to grow, expand and be modified; a model for other neighborhoods around Pittsburgh and around the country.