Digital Media Labs in Libraries (Library Technology Reports Expert Guides to Library Systems and Services)

Families share stories with each other and veterans reconnect with their comrades, while teens edit music videos and then upload them to the web: all this and more can happen in the digital media lab (DML), a gathering of equipment with which people create digital content or convert content that is in analog formats. Enabling community members to create digital content was identified by The Edge Initiative, a national coalition of leading library and local government organizations, as a library technology benchmark. Surveying academic and public libraries in a variety of settings and sharing a range of approaches to creating DMLs, this issue of Library Technology Reports points the way towards meeting that benchmark, showing

• Funding sources and amounts for 16 DML projects in a range of libraries
• Links to sample policies and liability forms
• Information on hardware, software, and websites for sound production, videography, graphic design, and animation
• How to design a DML, addressing considerations such as power, noise prevention, ventilation, lighting, furniture, and more
• Configuration and equipment lists for 8 DMLs, ranging from portable to large libraries
• In-depth profiles of 5 digital media labs compiled from an 11-question survey