Virtual Library

Let’s be honest when you think of ICT and reading what comes to your mind? Ipad/tablet?

True enough reading habits have changed in general. E-readers now seem to be the norm on public transport and in waiting rooms across countries, and they’re increasingly being used in educational contexts. E-readers are now considered a requirement for some university courses, and many students report that they prefer e-ink or pixels to paper (Institute of Learning Innovation, 2013).

Kindle @ Digital Trends

But wait! Before you click on Amazon to purchase the latest Kindle. Let me show you (in this case…Discovery News) the ingenious concept of virtual library! Students from Miami Ad School had proposed an idea to that would turn NYC’s metro cars into virtual libraries as a way of encouraging the public to visit the physical branches of the New York Public Library.

The Underground Library from Keri Tan on Vimeo.

Their proposed “Underground Library” project would let subway passengers peruse virtual stacks on the walls of the metro car. Using near-field communication (NFC) technology found in smartphones, commuters could scan book titles that appear on advertisements inside the car. The first ten pages of the book would be free of charge, then a map would pop up to direct users to the nearest library branch so they could finish what they started and check out the book.

Of course this proposed idea is meant for NYC Subway and not in Malaysia. But hey, we are catching up in means of public transport! MRT( rail based public transport) will be completed on 2016/2017.