Spaces such as the Chicago and Miami YOUmedia centers are great examples of digital media labs. Focused on providing technology and services that allow teens to explore their passions in an unstructured creative process, these labs provide technology that encourages the self-expression and creation of ideas in almost any digital format, such as…

During at least one afternoon each month, Wilmette (Illinois) Public Library (WPL) hosts a local group of computer programmers, designers, and artists, who meet to discuss digital projects and resources, technical challenges, and successful design or programming strategies. WPL's Game Design Club, now in its third year, owes its existence to a…

Second Life is a virtual world that's entirely built and owned by its residents. This vast digital continent is teeming with people, entertainment, and opportunities. It offers museums, concerts, immersive learning environments, a 19th-century world, and more. The Alliance Library System is one of the nine regional multitype library systems in…

In this article, the authors relate how they developed a software that provides solutions to their library system needs. The authors work at the Galter Health Sciences Library of the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, located in downtown Chicago. The library serves the medical school's faculty, staff, residents, students, and…

OpenURL resolvers and federated search engines are important new services in the library field. For some librarians, these services may seem "old hat" by now, but for the majority these services are still in the early stages of implementation or planning. In many cases, these two services are offered as a seamlessly integrated whole.…

Since its humble beginning, Digital Past, a centralized local history digitization initiative at the North Suburban Library System (NSLS), a multitype consortium in Wheeling, Illinois, has now grown into a large centralized collaboration that consists of 32 libraries and a museum as its primary contributors. With Digital Past, there are various…

Describes the integration of personal digital assistants into a medical center library's services in Illinois. Discusses training for users; hardware selection; software selection and content; technical support; the role of libraries, including the creation of policies and procedures; and future challenges. (LRW)