Open Password – Wednesday, October 27, 2021
#991
Paderborn City Library – German Library Association – Deutsche Telekom Foundation – Library of the Year – Frank Mentrup – Flight Simulator – Kathrin Stroth – Anja Paola Meyer – Sports and Health Library – Technology and IT Location – Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum – Learning Place Library, on the way to a digital future – Ministry of Culture and Science NRW – Library as inspiration – Digital Kids – Digital Tuesday – Smart Home – Participation with migrant backgrounds – Green Library – Learning cafe – Up-Cycling – Transition Town Initiative – Exchange exchange – Four-room concept – Open Library – House, nature and garden – Gaming – School and work – Digital legacy – Last aid course – Excellent library work – Performance criteria – BRAGI – Freedom in everyday life – Design thinking – Hannelore Rüger
- Awards: Paderborn City Library is Library of the Year
- Cover story:
Paderborn City Library: What is a flight simulator doing in the library? – Technology affinity and sustainability – By Katrin Stroth and Anja Paola Meyer
III. Library of the Year: Criteria for excellent library work
- BRAGI: Freedom in everyday life
Awards
Paderborn City Library is Library of the Year
The Paderborn City Library received the “Library of the Year” award. This was awarded to her by the jury of the German Library Association and the German Telekom Foundation.
Paderborn City Library
The jury cited the combination of future-oriented library work, digitality, sustainability, innovation and cooperation as reasons for this award. In order to offer the city’s citizens a place with a high quality of stay, they converted existing rooms and thus created an environment of inspiration, learning and exchange with comprehensive and contemporary services. The aim of the Paderborn City Library is to create a community library. In addition, especially in times of Vorona, the library has proven how quickly and flexibly it responds to the needs of users of all generations.
In addition, Dr. Frank Mentrup, chairman of the jury and president of the German Library Association: “The commitment of the Paderborn City Library is also representative of the many public libraries that have maintained continuous contact with their users, especially in times of Corona.” The prize is endowed with 20,000 euros.
Paderborn City Library
What is a flight simulator
doing in the library?
Technology affinity and sustainability
By Katrin Stroth and Anja Paola Meyer
Kathrin Stroth
Customers of the Paderborn City Library can immerse themselves in other worlds in the classic way by reading stories, but also by using the latest technology. A flight simulator has been moved into the new sports and health library. Every visitor is invited to master virtual flight maneuvers or catch fireballs from a dragon. This is about skillful steering, concentration and the ability to react. At the same time, the sense of balance and deep muscles are trained. All library customers can test the immediate benefits of such innovative offers.
There is a good reason why people in Paderborn are so tech-savvy. The city with over 150,000 inhabitants is considered a designated technology and IT location. The city of Paderborn is currently the lead municipality in the digital model region OWL (Ostwestfalen-Lippe). The city is leading the way and showing how digitalization can benefit all citizens. Other municipalities can also benefit from the knowledge gained in the model region thanks to an open transfer.
The university’s research focus is in the areas of computer science, economics, technology and mathematics. More than 20,000 students are enrolled in the campus university. Paderborn has developed into an important IT location through a variety of entrepreneurial activities in the IT sector and the increasing number of R&D jobs.
In 1990, Germany’s first computer library was founded in Paderborn. In 1996, the HNF (Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum), the largest computer museum in the world, followed. For thirty years, the Paderborn City Library – in addition to teaching media – has pursued the goal of conveying the importance and potential of technology and IT for society in general and specifically for training and further education in a practical manner.
The “Library learning location – on the way to a digital future” program run by the North Rhine-Westphalia Department of Public Libraries has given additional impetus to the development of technical knowledge and offerings in the library in Paderborn. Not that Paderborn didn’t have any digital offerings before. The computer library already existed. It was continually developed further. An e-reader consultation hour was also introduced in 2010. But what was special about the “Library Learning Place” project was the requirement that every library employee was involved and qualified. In this context, the Paderborn City Library implemented its first social media presence on Facebook – an undertaking that significantly shaped the library’s work. Training and further education in the digital and technical areas was then greatly expanded.
The motivation of the people of Paderborn is clear: digitalization is taking place in all areas of society. In order for everyone to participate, everyone must be able to access it. There is a digital pact for schools, which lays a foundation for the target group of students. But this does not reach more than 70% of the population.
In 2014, the Paderborn city library was redesigned as a learning space – also supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The “Library as Inspiration” project was added in 2017, and the “Digital Kids” project, also supported by the state, was added in 2018. All of these projects have led to the Paderborn library becoming the central contact point in the city for digital and technical questions in everyday life in a sustainable and future-oriented manner.
Even kindergarten children learn about programming in a playful way in the city library with Dash and Dot, Cubetto & Co. You work as a team and have a lot of fun. Students experiment with a thermal imaging camera. The saved images can be printed out using a mobile photo printer as a souvenir for home. From the fifth grade onwards, children in Paderborn receive research training in the library. You will learn how to deal with digital databases. It starts with a digital library rally. At the end, all participants can use the offers in the inspiration room and get to know the virtual world with the help of VR glasses, HTC Vive and Occulus Go.
During “Digital Tuesday,” students can actively try out the digital world. From Ozobot to 3D pens to Quiver coloring pages, the range is extremely diverse. This isn’t just about learning; it also conveys a current image of libraries: not backwards and “dusty”, but exciting and innovative.
The children’s library’s Experimentarium offers many incentives to gain insightful experiences. Through independent experimentation, playful learning, wonder and understanding, children find access to the laws of nature. Since the experiments are spread around the library, the children come across them by chance and get excited about working with them. You can find topic-related media in the immediate vicinity.
The Paderborn library offers all target groups a touch table, a 3D printer and 3D scanner, GPS devices, virtual reality offerings, a high-quality graphics tablet, an all-in-one PC, various consoles and much more. Workshops provide library customers with the necessary know-how. The target group cannot always be calculated. Surprisingly, the first 3D printer workshops were predominantly attended by people aged 65 and over. Basically, there is great interest in technical and digital skills across all age groups.
All workshops and offers relating to technology and digital offer social added value at the same time. This is how the touch table has developed into a communication table. Because it is located right next to the learning cafe, customers from the cafe often observe what is happening at the table and, once their interest has been piqued, join in, so that lively conversations develop. The situation is similar for the participants in the workshops on the topic of “Smart Home”. With its offerings, the library merely forms a platform and provides the impetus for mutual exchange.
When it comes to offerings for people with a migrant background, the Paderborn library has placed the emphasis on participation with innovative offerings. A drone temporarily provided an incentive for young people to come to the library and discover the city together from different perspectives.
In the Sports & Health Library, it’s not just the flight simulator that provides action. Fitness equipment makes it possible to combine learning with health-promoting exercise. Cycling and reading are not mutually exclusive here. In addition, the possibilities and benefits of medical apps are conveyed. Of course, there is also current literature.
Anja Paola Meyer
The aim of the Paderborn City Library is to provide digital and technical offerings in all socially relevant areas and to impart the necessary know-how – a concept that citizens appreciate.
The basic requirements for implementing this claim are good, solid equipment and an intensive training concept for employees. Only with many cooperation partners, a good network infrastructure, high-performance WiFi and up-to-date technical equipment can a library support society on the digital path into the future.
Technology also plays a major role in the implementation of the goals of a “Green Library” in Paderborn. Since its opening in 1977, the central library has been heated and cooled with Paderwasser (Pader, the river that gave Paderborn its name). Thanks to the specific hydrogeological situation in the core of the East Westphalian city, the Pader’s abundant spring and river water has been used intensively in a variety of ways since the Middle Ages – from the mill operation back then to today’s optimal indoor temperature control. The use of water to generate cold and heat is an outstanding example of how natural resources and suitable framework conditions can be happily combined for a sustainable, ecological energy supply.
The central library’s learning cafe also shows how sustainability works in library practice. For years, only fair-trade coffee has been offered here and sugar and milk are no longer served in portioned packages, but in refill containers at the counter. Fair trade chocolate pampers the sweet tooth.
Workshops on up-cycling take place at all library locations. A sewing machine is available to library customers to repair textiles. The Foodsavers offer rescued food in the “Culinary” section, and a refill station allows you to fill up bottles you bring with you.
There are planter boxes on the outside of the library, which are designed and maintained by the local “Transition Town Initiative”. In addition to library customers, all interested Paderborn citizens are allowed to participate and access the harvest. The Paderthek was built in the city center in 2014, initiated by the university and supported by sponsors, the city library and the “Friends of the Paderborn City Library” support association. The sharing principle plays an even greater role here. Giving, taking, exchanging and sharing are everyday life around this bookcase-sized exchange, which is maintained by volunteers. In the middle of the busy pedestrian zone, people of all ages and all income groups use it without inhibitions and without a library card.
The design of the library rooms as a third location is particularly important. In 2014, the city library adopted the Danish four-room concept. Three rooms have already been created: learning space, meeting place and inspiration. These spaces are not understood and implemented as concrete, physical spaces. Therefore, there is no specially designated maker space in the Paderborn library. Rather, the content of the rooms is reflected in the entire library with all its offerings. Library customers come across the new offerings in passing. The 3D printer stands between library shelves and attracts curious customers. It is important that employees are also available as contact persons. The fourth room of the Danish library concept, the stage, has not yet been possible due to spatial limitations. In 2021, however, a new library location is scheduled to take on this role – implemented as an open library.
Creating atmosphere played a prominent role in the redesign of the central library. Individual areas are visually based on the media content – similar to a well-known furniture department store. The “Creative” area was therefore equipped with a resilient floor. A workshop table is a central meeting point and working basis for creative design. E-piano, 3D printer, all-in-one PC, photo box and other stimulating offers are concentrated here. But there is also plenty of free space for creative work.
The “House, Nature and Garden” area is demarcated with a reindeer moss wall. Natural furniture reflects the themes. The adjacent IT & technology area takes up the trend towards smart homes and shows current possibilities. New developments in the area of “digitalization” will be presented. The digitization of old photos, slides and films is possible for every customer. Current travel information can be accessed via a digital wall in the tourism area. New findings from the area of “nutrition” are presented digitally, with a cozy dining room table inviting you to linger. The gaming area is visually and technically inviting for young gamers. Analogue gaming also gets its platform here. In the “School and Work” area, learning cabins ensure undisturbed learning.
The meeting point with its events will be implemented according to the central library’s new spatial concept. An international literary children’s group meets monthly in the children’s library. Parents and grandparents get to know the first offers for the little ones and calmly discuss everyday questions.
In the central library, customers regularly receive inspiration for new activities. At the same time, groups that deal with creative or social issues find their space here. For example, a knitting group meets to work together for a good cause. Boule is offered on the forecourt of the central library. An independent boules group has already developed from this. Workshops on the topic of “digital inheritance” or a last aid course always ultimately aim to inform and bring interested people together.
The goals of the Danish four-room model are implemented sustainably in Paderborn in a highly committed manner: The library supports every visitor, provides them with the information they need and enables the exchange they are looking for. This gives everyone the opportunity to develop further through the diverse offerings and finds an inviting space in the library where they are warmly welcomed.
Library of the Year
Criteria for excellent library work
Criteria for being chosen as Library of the Year are:
- the quality and innovation of library work
- their creative use of digital possibilities
- their future orientation
- their lasting impact
- their attractive services
- their media-effective public relations work
- their supra-regional/international commitment
- their (local, regional, international) networking
- the quality of the application documents.
BRAGI
Freedom in everyday life
Topic: “FREISPACE IN EVERYDAY LIFE” – the results of the design thinking process of the Am Stern branch library / SLB Potsdam
Date: Thursday, November 25th, 2021
from 4:00 p.m. to around 5:30 p.m.
Event note: In March 2020, a renewal process was initiated in the Am Stern branch library together with the state capital of Potsdam and the development officer Stadtkontor. Under the guidance of a trainer, the needs of the residents in the district were precisely determined using the design thinking method. In the course of this, interviews were carried out with predetermined target groups on various topics and observations were evaluated. The results of the process formed the basis for a joint workshop with the Dutch architectural team led by Aat Vos on the spatial design of the library.
As part of the BRAGI/BIB event, those involved in the process will present the current results of the process and show initial design ideas for the new library.
Host: Joint event of the Brandenburg Information Working Group (BRAGI) and the Information Library Professional Association (BIB), Brandenburg State Group in cooperation with the Potsdam Library Society.
Speakers: Julia Ernst (Coordinator Am Stern Branch Library / SLB Potsdam) – Anne Knappe (Public Relations/Social Media / SLB Potsdam)
The event will take place on Thursday, November 25, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. as an online event via Zoom. Participation in the event is free. Registration is requested. Please register using the form on the BRAGI homepage at: http://fabdax.fh-potsdam.de/wp_bragi/veranstaltungen/freiraum-im-alltag-die-projekte-des-design-thinking-processes-der-zweigbibliothek -am-stern-slb-potsdam/ or please send an email to: rueger@bibliothek.potsdam.de
The link to the Zoom meeting will be sent to you one day before the event. We use the Potsdam Library Society’s Zoom access room. To dial into the event you only need a current internet browser. We recommend using Chrome as your browser.
We hope you are interested and look forward to your participation.
Kind regards on behalf of the BRAGI board Hannelore Rüger
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