It is with a great deal of excitement that I offer at the bottom of this entry a database of 2D barcodes that describe all 60 Brooklyn Public Library locations and services.
A 2D barcode is an image that corresponds to a web address (the http://www.website.com is actually coded in the barcode image). Since each of the Brooklyn Public Library branches has a unique web address, I was able to use kaywa.com to generate barcodes for each of the branches web spaces.
How do you read this crazy looking barcode? With your cellphone of course. Many Nokia phones as well as the iPhone offer 2D barcode decoders. If your phone has a camera and is web-enabled you can probably do this, so don’t be intimidated. It is as easy as taking a picture! The decoder uses your phone’s camera to translate a picture of the barcode into the coded web address and then links you to that page on your mobile web browser.
I got interested in this idea after hearing that this technology is fully blown up in Japan and that CitySearch San Francisco has been using 2Dbarcodes to identify restaurants. Why not create stickers for library branches? Why not add these images to our print flyers, thus enriching an old-fashioned paper format with readily accessible web information? Update: check out this online zine promoting 2D barcode projects and all of the exciting possibilities.
Below you will find 4 different links for each of our Brooklyn Public Library buildings. I’ve presented the barcodes in 2 different formats, datamatrix and QR. The first two links are PNG image files that can be copied and pasted into Microsoft Word docs, Photoshop, or Illustrator. Just copy and paste the barcode and you add a web page and all that interactivity to your flyer! The second two links are to PDF files of label templates. Each sheet has 6 stickers, and can be printed on Avery matte white labels size 8254, available from Staples here. Stick information about your local library anywhere! In addition I’ve added a link to PDF files of “ex libris” bookplate stickers that offer a barcode image linking you to the Brooklyn Public Library homepage. That should keep you busy and make your books look cool.
In the future, with the success of the OpenLibrary project’s goal to give every book its own web page, 2D barcodes could prove useful in offering online information about any given book. The possibilities are endless. This, my friends, is our first easily accessible, consumer-driven attempt at linking the physical world to the digital world. Well, actually that’s debatable, but I’m pretty damn psyched about this particular step. PLEASE people, USE the barcodes I’ve generated and made easy for you to distribute and stick anywhere and everywhere appropriate for the dispersal of the encoded information. You can always generate your own stickers for any site at blank.com, but I’ve made it particularly easy for you to spread hype about your local library. You’ll note that these stickers still promote the library without a fancypants barcode reader: they still say the name of your local branch on them. Promote your library yourself! Go to town with it!
Please report any errors you may find in the database below.
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Arlington
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Bay Ridge
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Bedford
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Borough Park
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Brighton Beach
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Brooklyn Heights
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Brower Park
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Brownsville
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Bushwick
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Business Library
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Canarsie
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Carroll Gardens
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Central Library
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Clarendon
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Clinton Hill
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Coney Island
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Cortelyou image
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Crown Heights
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Cypress Hills
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Dekalb
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Dyker
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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East Flatbush
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Eastern Parkway
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Flatbush
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Flatlands
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Fort Hamilton
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Gerritsen Beach
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Gravesend
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Greenpoint
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Highlawn
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Homecrest
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Jamaica Bay
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Kensington
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Kings Bay
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Kings Highway
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Leonard
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Macon
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Mapleton
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Marcy
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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McKinley Park
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Midwood
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Mill Basin
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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New Lots
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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New Utrecht
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Pacific
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Paerdegat
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Park Slope
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Red Hook
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Rugby
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Ryder
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Saratoga
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Sheepshead Bay
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Spring Creek
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Stone Avenue
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Sunset Park
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Ulmer Park
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Walt Whitman
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Washington Irving
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Williamsburgh
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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Windsor Terrace
image for flyer (DM) image for flyer (QR) 6 stickers (DM) 6 stickers (QR)
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I’m not sure that I can offer a one-word mission for the library, and I don’t know that I feel terribly guilty about that. There’s nothing wrong with being a complicated institution with many facets and goals, as long as we can still clearly market and advertise all of those facets and goals. McDonald’s (admittedly a repulsive example) is to hamburgers as the library is to books. Still, you can get an awful lot of stuff other than just hamburgers at McDonalds, and plenty of people do.
Myself being a champion of public libraries promoting and providing not just traditional “book literacy” but new media literacy as well, I do feel like I can address your final paragraph “creating the library story” with some thoughts.
Just to be clear, I don’t believe that media literacy is peripheral to the public library’s mission, I believe it is at its core. The whole point of reading and writing is to be able to communicate complex thoughts and ideas specifically and effectively with other humans. Reading and writing text is not sufficient in this capacity any more; media that leverages text, audio, video, and participatory literacies is so culturally embedded at this point that we need to incorporate that into public library programming through and through. A simple example: I spent some time not too long ago working the reference desk at the Education and Job Information Center at Brooklyn Public Library. The librarian’s job in that context is not just to help that person find a job using the appropriate resources; it is to teach that person how to help themselves to find a job using the appropriate resources. In 1975, that would have involved teaching the patron how to use the NY Times classifieds and a typewriter (for their resume). In 2008 it involves software, websites, databases. There are new skills involved, but they all build on some familiar skills.
Different media literacies build upon themselves; they sort of “compost” their predecessors and mimic them until they find their own stride and identity. Think of the way that early television programming mimicked radio programming, or look at the way that an Amazon Kindle imitates a physical book. I pretty much use my computer as my home media center now, but that doesn’t mean I threw my television, radio, or shelves of books out the window. If it weren’t for my love affair with books, radio, and television I wonder how much sense my computer would make to me? The internet is a lot more fun if you know how to read, wouldn’t you agree? It is for this reason that Lukehart is absolutely right about the library being a place where children need to “experience the wonder and delight- and therefore the motivation to read- elicited by fabulous books, ones that are professionally designed and printed in living color on gorgeous paper. If the library is to champion new media literacy, books are the first place to start, especially in a developmental context, for children. Let’s be proud of that particular facet of our mission at public libraries, especially if the general public impression of libraries is that we are about books. Books can be our hamburgers, but maybe when people arrive they will select chicken sandwiches, pizza, whatever….
All that said, I think we need to keep finding ways to leverage technologies to make books work harder and better for us. I like Lukehart’s examples of Aaron Swartz’s Open Library Project and the Espresso Book Machine as attempts at just that. I think you could add Sofie, a project at Institute for the Future of the Book to that list, and many others as well. There is a tremendous love of the book worldwide. Everyone and their brother and their brother’s cousin would like to aid the book’s transition into the digital era. I just picked up on another potential project that I’m particularly fond of because it preserves the book’s physical nature while augmenting it with digital information.
Bob Logan of the Beal Institute of Strategic Creativity released his paper proposing the SmartBook on the Media Ecology Association listserv a few days ago. He is “proposing a book that has been “smart tagged” and as a result is readable, searchable and smart.” Basically, the idea is to “embed a “smart tag” into a standard printed codex or folio… that has the text of the book in a searchable format”.
You can access the entire paper at www.natehill.net/stuff/Smartbook7.pdf, and you should.
At the public library in the 21st century, we will have to work harder to inspire in children the wonder and delight Lukehart describes in the presentation of the pop-up Wizard of OZ book. Innovations like the one Logan proposes can help. The other day I left the Central Library at Brooklyn Public Library via the youth wing, and when I stepped out onto the sidewalk a mother was about to enter the building with her two young children. The eyes of one of those children lit up with excitement and he started jumping up and down. “I LOVE the computers! I LOVE the computers!”, he cried. No lie: I’m not making this up. Its going to be a tough job selling the Wizard of OZ pop-up to this kid, with other media formats as seductive and accessible as they are. Should that child learn to read on the computer? I don’t know- maybe- he was awfully jazzed about the interface…. perhaps we should respect that. Difficult questions like that keep me happy with the complexity of the public library mission and vision, but if I were forced to distill everything we do down into a few words I think I’d say:
Cultural/Media Literacy is to Libraries as Education is to Schools.