I thought I would give a quick shout out to a Harvard Library Lab project (which I am not at all directly involved with) that I think is particularly awesome, called the Awesome Box.
Developed by Annie Cain and Matt Phillips at the Harvard Library Innovation Library at the Law School, the premise of the Awesome Box is remarkably simple, yet truly original and “out of the box.”
“Interact with an amazing or useful item from the library and return it to the Awesome Box instead of the normal drop box. That item gets recorded as Awesome so the community can see what others have found helpful, entertaining, or mind-blowing.”
The “minimal” technical infrastructure includes an interface for library staff to scan Awesome items into a database, and a Twitter stream and RSS feed of Recently Awesomed items. The project is currently in a pilot phase as certain details are ironed out – signage, staff workflows, etc. I will be paying close attention as the project continues to develop – I think it would be great to see it rolled out throughout Harvard or perhaps even more broadly. Well done Annie and Matt!
Thanks for the shout-out Hank! We definitely have plans to roll out to the rest of Harvard and maybe even some public libraries in the area. And then, you know, the world.
Anytime! Yay for Awesome Box world domination!