A Library: Lowering the cost of exploration

What does a library look like when its goal is to optimize for moments of playful exploration?

The libraries I visited during my early elementary school days held an intrigue for me: being able to get up close and personal with a desktop computer. These were pieces of technology that were, more or less, inaccessible to the general public. From figuring out how to type to spending hours in MS Paint and even embarking on my first ever Yahoo search, learning how to use a computer was a form of play. And visiting the library felt like an entering an explorative playground.

When a few of the blocky Compaq computers were replaced with playfully colorful, bulbous iMacs, they were the awe of the entire classroom. The playground’s possibilities for exploration began to expand.

I’ve been pondering how libraries enabled me to explore this emergent tech. My family would never have been able to purchase a computer at the time. To shell out almost a thousand dollars for a tool with an unproven value was absurd; even if we had the means to purchase one, there would have been this pressure to make a “return on investment”. It makes little sense to buy an expensive toy, and the role of a computer would have shifted from facilitating ‘joyful exploration’ to being a tool that needs to serve a function.

Libraries in those early days thus served a core function: bringing these revolutionary pieces of technology to the public and creating space for exploration: to make exploration feel like play, to spark boundless curiosity, and to plant the precursor seeds for how this technology could be harnessed in the computer revolution.

Maybe it’s time to reconsider what we define to be a library

The earliest libraries served a similar function by bringing books - a technology that was inaccessible - to the people. Libraries catalyzed revolutions in knowledge, research, and technological advancement because more people could get their hands on these tools for learning and exploration.

But today, books and information are just a click away, and the potentials of modern day exploration are quite different. Have we outgrown our definition of a library? What might a library look like when it is reoriented towards optimizing for exploration in new emergent fields?

Let’s take a trip back to about five years ago. My passion for physical making was reaching a point where the simple tools I was using weren’t sufficient for the types of projects and ideas I wanted to explore. I began gravitating towards the makerspace at my college and spent a lot of time dancing between tool to tool. I think of my makerspace as the next evolution of that childhood library.

Building my own workshop, although a fascinating dream, was literally impossible. It would have cost tens of thousands of dollars to buy 3D printers and CNC mills and other vast repositories of complex tooling. This pursuit would have been even more impractical given that the technology was evolving so rapidly that the thousand dollar 3D printers of four years ago are now rendered obsolete by more advanced technology you can find in the low hundreds today. And there would have been a tremendous guilt had I invested in a tool and not found my groove or creative flow. It would be a shame to weigh down exploration with that pressure.

The makerspace uses simple economics to alter this equation: distribute the cost of expensive, emergent equipment across many users to reduce the price per user.

My question for you

Today, we’re on the cusp of some fascinating new paradigms in technology, art, philosophy, etc., and I’m wondering what the role of a library can be. What does a library look like today when using this framework of optimizing playful exploration? What are some emergent technologies that a library could house and make more accessible to the public? And what new innovations could be catalyzed therein?

My friend Avery @ Wombo was trying to teach me how to use an open-source AI generation tool that was just released, but apparently my computer’s GPU is too weak. A quick Google search reveals that the entry-level GPUs able to get the job done would cost at the minimum over $3k, which makes no sense for someone who is intrigued or maybe an enthusiast at best.

Could a library for AI be the place where you find the most advanced GPU farm for miles? What happens at a library that holds a computer like no other?

Could a library for musical exploration be a shelf full of instruments and inaccessible production software?

Could a library for health and wellness be a space with the most advanced testing, fitness tracking, and emergent healthcare technologies?

Could a library for exploration simply be a gathering space that facilitates conversations between the smartest minds of a city - a feeling that is somewhat scarce and inaccessible today?

How might a library be the watering hole that attracts the inquisitive minds and visionaries of today?

Play makes the experimentation journey fun and helps learning flow. Experimentation incites modalities of exciting, creative exploration. Exploration catalyzes a spark of an idea, research, or passion… If we start by imagining libraries as a space of play, that can change the world.

DM me on twitter @anantvasudevan or email anant@verci.com with any responses/reactions to these questions :)