The central branch of the Vancouver Public Library is a lot of things to the community it serves: a perfect spot for a last-minute study session; a monument to human intellect; a warm place to curl up with an addictive whodunit; a photo stop on a city tour; a pink building with a lot of books.
Next year, it will be all of this and something else: a digital media playground for creative Vancouverites.
The playground in question is the still-gestating Inspiration Lab which, when finished, will occupy 3,000 square feet of the central branch's third floor. Whether it's editing a film project, recording an oral history, digitizing family photos, or publishing an electronic book, the Inspiration Lab will help its users shape and create digital masterworks.
It's a concept that has its roots in how libraries have been used since time immemorial, says Sandra Singh, the VPLs city librarian. "We know that many creative things happen in libraries as a result of the collections and the inspiration that people find in them: books are researched; plays are written; music is composed; all sorts of ideas are generated here," says Singh.
Couple this with the fact that libraries are leaders in providing access to technology (the VPL began offering computer access in the early 1990s and internet access in the mid-1990s), and the need for the Inspiration Lab becomes crystal clear, she says. "When we look at all of the creative things that happen in libraries, and our role as a technology provider, what we start to think is, 'what's the next evolution of that?' And it really is the creative digital technologies."
While it might seem like a natural next step to Singh, no other library on the planet is building an Inspiration Lab. ("No library has ever put it together into a space like this, where you have that collision of ideas and creativity and technology.") The library foundation has been fundraising to translate its groundbreaking vision into reality, most recently with its October 5 TOUCH Gala.
It'll be a year before Vancouverites will be able to step into the Inspiration Lab — they're aiming for a late 2014 opening date — and get creative with digitization equipment, movie-making software, recording booths, and electronic publishing tools, or sign out a camcorder and then edit their footage in the lab — perhaps after taking a free moviemaking course facilitated by one of the library's community partners.
As a fee-free resource, the Inspiration Lab will bridge the gap between high-priced technology and citizens who might not otherwise be able to play with digital tools. "There are so many ideas to share in this city, but there are many people who don't have access to the creative technologies that would allow them to do that," says Singh.
This is especially true for children and youth. "We know that 24 per cent of the kids in British Columbia live in poverty, and poverty doesn't just extend to being hungry every day; it's impoverished in all areas of life," says Singh. "The academic realm isn't just about rote learning and report writing anymore. Within our children, we've got a digital divide as well, and the Inspiration Lab will provide access and equalize the playing field for many people in the community," she says.
Down the road, Singh hopes that some of the work created in the Inspiration Lab will become part of the library's collection. "Our collection is the collection of Vancouver, so what we're hoping is that we can build this out and have a really unique collection of diverse items that are created by Vancouver residents," she said. "We wouldn"t force that on them, but it would be great."
