Discovery Wall

On vacation, I had the opportunity to visit a BEAUTIFUL library -- the Tūranga library in Christchurch. Christchurch's Central Library in Gloucester Street closed after the earthquake on 22 February 2011, and the Christchurch City Libraries operated a couple of temporary town libraries from 2011 to 2018. The Tūranga library in Christchurch opened Friday 12 October 2018, and is home to some very impressive technology and spaces.

In addition to 4 stories of your usual library goodness combined with absolutely beautiful design, the library has:

• artworks
• a Foundation Cafe on the ground level (which "serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner from a menu as well as coffee and cabinet food") and an Espresso Bar on level 1
• a Green Connection Pod for "nourishing your connections"
• public computers, computer labs, and an Audio Video Studio
• a Production Studio (makerspace) for "making, creating, and getting crafty" with an embroidery machine, laser cutter, sewing machines, vacuum former, vinyl/craft cutter, and other equipment
• virtual reality headsets and gaming (complete with a giant screen)
• a huge Imagination Station for creative Lego and Duplo activities
• a fun play area for kids with a slide
• timed lockers
• roof gardens

and... my favorite feature: the Discovery Wall.

The Discovery Wall has 3 huge touch-screen panels and displays images and stories of the people and places of Christchurch. It "showcases images and videos curated from the Christchurch City Libraries Digital Heritage collection and appropriate material from other institutions." Just walk up to one of the screens and swipe to move the images on the screen around and tap on an image to select it and pull up more information. Choose from the resulting menus to see more detail or explore other images in the collection.

Here is a link to an album of my photos of the library (...which really don't do it justice! We stopped in on a very overcast and rainy day around 7pm). At the end of the album are a few videos showing the Discovery Wall in action.

What an absolutely wonderful way to bring a collection of digitized images to life!!

More about Tūranga and the Discovery Wall:

• https://www.gibson.co.nz/discovery-wall
• http://spaceandtime.dk/touch-walls
• https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/10/29/293600/tranga-the-digital-era-of-libraries
• (video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx_kih8-pSo
• (video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_StHBGrcO40

Interested in how the Discovery Wall was planned and built? This 25-min video has the details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR1AW24Sa1E

Wondering how to pronounce the Māori names of building spaces, features, and artworks at Tūranga? https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/turanga/turanga-artworks-and-cultural-narrative/turanga-maori-name-sound-files/

Comments

[Tim Drexler]

Neat! Thanks for sharing, Kerri!