This is one of the most fantastic ideas to bring people to libraries and let them (silently) express excitement from being in such a wonderful place.
In July, the New York Public Library installed photo booths at two libraries. One booth is located at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in Astor Hall, and the other is at Mid-Manhattan Library.
Library patrons can use photo booths to show where they are from and what they are doing. There are several labels to choose from: borrowing, exploring, learning, reading, researching, studying, visiting, writing.
Stephen Fry once said: “An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them.” NYPL photo booths are an extra inspiration to be creative. I especially like the photo of Billy from Brooklyn, who is reading a book about… American photo booths, or the visual representation of what writing process is about, performed by Giovanni and his friend.
If you decide to share the photo, it will be added to a special photo stream on Flickr. Currently there are over 3,000 photos, and yours can be next! The photo will also be sent to the email address you provide.
NYPL’s post explains reasons to set up photo booths:
We all have great memories about our local library—old and new—the favorite book series we checked out when we were young, pictures we drew during a class, or how we used the quiet space for study and research. We thought, wouldn’t it be great to offer our patrons a unique way to capture a moment from their library visit? Will they tell us how they use the library? Could we make it easy for them to share the moment with others?
As you will see on the pictures below, besides reading, exploring, visiting, or writing, all the library patrons are enjoying the stay. All photos should be also captioned: @NYPL SMILING.
Via Laughing Squid.
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