Yesterday, we're talking about time. And I even quoted Saint Augustine. Which leads to a question: where shall you go to read Saint Augustine works?
Of course, you would use a search engine to find them on the Web. But what about going to the Millennium Library which opened last March in Cerritos, California?
Imagine a library where you can walk in with your laptop, plug in to an unobtrusive network jack, and access both the library's resources and the Internet through a common portal.
If the network doesn't yield what you're looking for, a librarian wearing a headset and carrying a personal digital assistant can find a particular book or get the answer in seconds. In the brief time you have to wait, you can interact via streaming video with staff members tending a 15,000-gallon saltwater tank or dial in from the office to a library videoconference that lets you watch your child at story time.
This library of the future, dubbed the Millennium Library, provides patrons in the city of Cerritos, Calif., with networked access to a variety of applications integrated through a portal that patrons say makes information access itself a fun learning experience.
The idea -- to create an e-learning experience for kids and adults -- went beyond just providing Internet access to patrons through library kiosks. "We wanted to create a library everyone would enjoy as a gathering place for the community for a shared learning experience," said Fred Ying, MIS manager for city of Cerritos.
You can visit the Cerritos Library online here.
Source: Paula Musich, eWEEK, September 2, 2002
5:40:29 PM
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