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Library - Lab - Research
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2017
Abstract
The Mediathek of the Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz Basel (FHNW) is a remarkable place. It's shaped, on the one hand, by the demands it must meet in functioning as the central information hub of the Faculty of Art and Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst - HGK). On the other hand its exposed location on the Campus der Künste (art campus) and its specific spatial plan determine the everyday work. Positioned between research and education, the Mediathek HGK functions as an intermediary, with the character of a laboratory: it provides access to important knowledge bases and makes content available in a way which enables experimental, creative and yet also systematic forms of research. Knowledge, in the sense of classified information, becomes a resource and raw material for the arts and design. New, digital contents must be made as available and accessible as archived (post-research) or historical material. A creative work cycle is enabled, which continually questions, implements, refines and forgets materials and resources.1
Both the dynamic agility of the university itself and the focus on always questioning the adequacy, timeliness, relevance, potential, etc. of the theme of information service, results in continuous developments at the Mediathek (bibliotheca semper reformanda est).
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- Copyright © ARLIS/UK&Ireland 2017
References
1. We cannot survive without forgetting and it is also a key feature for the arts, as it allows the new to rise and enables later re-discovery. Forgetting in the context of digital archives means that relevance decreases and thus becomes rarer/opaque/less understandable. Ignoring this topic tampers with reality.
2. McNeely, Ian F. and Wolverton, Lisa, Reinventing knowledge: From Alexandria to the internet (New York: W. W. Nor-ton, 2009), 3 Google Scholar.
3. E.g. Juristic Faculty of University Zürich (Santiago Calatrava: 2004), Library of University of Freiburg i. Br. (Büro De-gelo Architekten: 2015); New Constructions: Sendai Media Library (Tokyo Ito: 2001); Information, Communications and Media Center at Cottbus University (Herzog & de Meuron: 2005); Rolex Learning Center der EPFL Lausanne (SANAA: 2010); Library & Learning Center at the economic faculty at Vienna University (Zaha Hadid: 2013) or the Bibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale in Caen (Rem Koolhaas, OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture: 2016). See also tag ‘library’ on the following websites: https://www.dezeen.com; http://www.archdaily.com. Or. E.g. Phil Morehart, “2015 Library Design Showcase: From the Past, the Future.” American Libraries Magazin, September (2015). https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/09/01/2015-library-design-showcase/; Ibidem (2016). https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2016/09/01/2016-library-design-showcase/.
4. Ray Oldenburg defined the special quality of the third place as follows: ‘its capacity to serve the human need for communication does not much depend upon the capacity of a nation to comprehend its virtues’. The third place offers a place at which, in addition to the first (home) and second (work) places, communication and exchange with other people can take place. See: Oldenburg, Ray, The great good place: Cafés, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of a community (New York: Marlowe, 1999), 21 Google Scholar.
5. Supported media types are until now: (reference) metadata (MARC21, additional types of metadata including spreadsheets), layered images, videos, audio files (which are added with sonograms representing the sound structure), office and raw text, PDFs, GPX and 3D data.
6. Velios, Athanasios, “Archive as Event: Creative archiving for John Latham.” in All This Stuff: Archiving the Artist. Ed. Vaknin, Judy, Stuckey, Karyn and Lane, Victoria (Chicago: Libri Publishing, 2013), 109–21, 109Google Scholar.
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