Hi Kiana,
Thanks for your post. I thought your mention about sensory rooms being beneficial for folks with brain injuries or dementia in addition to neurodivergent folks was interesting. It always strikes me how accessibility for one group can turn out to benefit many others outside that group too. Thanks for your insight!

Kiana,

These sensory spaces look so cool, and they look different from other ones I’ve seen! I particularly like the use of light in a couple that you shared. They look stimulating and relaxing at the same time.

Kiana – I so appreciate all these amazing examples!

Hi Kiana,

Great post, thanks for sharing! I really like your point regarding how face-to-face settings are instrumental to strengthening connections between people. Sometimes I wonder when I see hate comments online…would these people say the same in real life? Personal accountability is key, as you said.

Kiana – I am so glad the human library concept resonated with you. Also, I have followed Peter the YouTuber for a long time and some of his videos were so moving and challenging to watch an interesting. I kind of fell out of watching him recently and I need to get back to. It might be really helpful for my frame of mind.

Great Innovation Strategy & Roadmap! Really enjoyed reading about your plan, and I thought you named solid users that may benefit from being a citizen scientist. Really great examples of other libraries that have successfully implemented citizen science. As a patron of the Newport Beach Public Library myself, it would be neat to see it become a reality.

Hi Kiana,
What a cool idea! I love that citizen scientists can be ordinary people who just have a strong interests in something, and that they can use that interest in a tangible way to help their community. I struggled in science classes when I was younger, but this sounds like something even I could do since many of the materials are provided. Thanks for sharing!

@kianapouya You highlight the potential and pitfalls of the Open library model. Michael Casey will be joining us in early November and will talk about his library’s use of the model. It has been a very positive experience overall. The video you shared above seems to be working very hard to make the case against. That library system seemed to be struggling with issues eight years ago. I hope things are better now!

@kianapouya I am so glad you focused on museums. I’ve been all about the museums. We visited last week in Edinburgh and Glasgow. You highlight a really interesting thing from Amsterdam about discouraging photographs in the museum. I actually had a very different experience and I’ve been mowing this over since: I realized, as I was going through the national Gallery of Scotland, that for the artworks that really resonated with me I snapped a photo with my phone and then snapped a photo of the descriptive plaque next to it. I have a whole gallery of these because I may want to follow up and learn more about them last year. I actually ordered a printed canvas last year of my favorite painting in the gallery.

@kianapouya your thoughts and you reminded me of another key thing from my time in Scotland. We took the bus out to the town of Roslyn and went to Roslyn Chapel. They do not allow any photography inside of the chapel itself, which is filled with beautiful carvings and stone, but they give you a guide so you can look for some of the key carvings and super interesting details so there were no phones in the air and people waving about clicking their camera shutters. It was just so much fun. Like talking to people you didn’t know did you find this one or did you find that one? so fun!

@kianapouya Wow, everything in this post is so cool, but I am especially drawn to the conversation around social media use within the org. This “problem” (if we can call it that) presents an interesting dichotomy– we want people to enter these spaces, but also want to control the experience they have and the way they appreciate the experience. It’s difficult to effectively control the experience of another person, and I find myself having a hard time falling on one side or the other on this argument. BUT, that being said, I love this #startdrawing campaign and think it’s truly innovative and just…. well, cool. Thanks for sharing!

Kiana, I really enjoyed reading your post and I agree with you on so many levels. We all want to expand our services and provide programs to help our patrons expand their knowledge, but it’s also important to focus on basic needs as well. We can do this by supplying food pantries or free clothing. We can also provide pamphlets and information about local free health care and offices. The library should be a place where our patrons feel safe and taken care of, in any way we can possibly help.

@kianapouya That quote is EVERYTHING! So glad you highlighted it and reminded me why I added that reading. Such great thoughts on why libraries should seek to take care of the whole person!