Of library catalogs, multi-touch screens and J.K. Rowling’s beeps

So could that big multl-touch display help you wend your way through a library catalog–with visual images of shelved books, grouped by subject and responsive to hand gestures as well as touch? And in other respects, could the screens help justify a trip to a physical library, compared to just searching from your home PC or Mac? TechnoBiblio, without mentioning the home angle, serves up some insightful and imaginative speculation about the catalog potential and other possibilities. Of course, what happens in the distant future when most books are e-books and such displays have already made it into homes? Come to think of it, vapor displays already are getting into this territory–they, too, can pick up gestures and do much more. See below.

But back to TechnoBiblio’s speculation. While I love the idea of libraries adapting to the preferences of users, might the book-shelf routine count less with children born into the digital age? They’re already being weaned on Google, and as an interface philosophy, I could see a mix of that and pictures. But wait. TechnoBiblio has another angle in regard to young users:

…you could have pictures of things for kids – they would touch the picture, say of a pirate, and it would take them to another level of display that would show them covers of books or pictures of pirate ships, pirates, parrots, and treasure. Basically it would allow browsing of subjects in a different manner than walking along the shelves and would engage kids at another level.

In fact, even without all the wrinkles of the multi-touch display, Harry Potter author’s J.K. Rowling’s site offers a preview of sorts–see screenshot below. Roll over the objects there with your mouse and you’ll hear tinkles. Click the button of the phone and you’ll hear a beep. Double-click on a newspaper and you’ll get–the news. So in the future are we indeed headed a more video-games-like Web? For better or worse, we probably are. I just hope that long texts can come along for the ride, that those book images will not be the equivalent of buggy whips at a NASCAR race. Libraries have an role to play in promoting books, online and off; and in keeping with TeleRead’s traditions, I’ll say more about that in a future post.

Related: A child-flexible search interface at the Children’s Digital Library.