Potentials and challenges for user-generated video content in public libraries

The role of libraries are rapidly shifting, in large part as a consequence of digitization. In addition to providing access to collections of books and other physical media, public libraries today are embracing a new role of becoming urban hubs, in which a wide range of activities take place. In these activities, local knowledge is developed, exchanged, and disseminated. However, there are still very few digital services that support this new role. Here, we explore how to develop digital services for supporting and leveraging user-generated video content in library activities. Based on interviews and design scenarios as probes, we describe the potentials and challenges for designing such services, as seen from the perspective of library staff. Our insights will inform the design of a new digital service for publics to participate in collaborative production of videos to document, exchange, and disseminate local knowledge generated in library activities

Codestrate Packages : An Alternative to "One-Size-Fits-All" Software

We present Codestrate Packages, a package-based system to create extensible software within Codestrates. Codestrate Packages turns content creation from an application-centric model into a document-centric model. Codestrate Packages no longer restrict users to the feature set of the application. Instead packages allow users to add new features to their documents while already working on them. They can match the features to their current task at hand. Supporting the reprogrammable nature of Codestrates, new features can also be implemented by users themselves and shared with other people without having to leave the document. We illustrate the application of Codestrate Packages in an example scenario and present its technical concepts. We plan to conduct multiple user studies to investigate the benefits and barriers of Codestrate Packages' document-centric approach.publishe

Is Two Enough?! : Studying Benefits, Barriers, and Biases of Multi-Tablet Use for Collaborative Visualization

A sizable part of HCI research on cross-device interaction is driven by the vision of users conducting complex knowledge work seamlessly across multiple mobile devices. This is based on the Weiserian assumption that people will be inclined to distribute their work across multiple ``pads' if such are available. We observed that this is not the reality today, even when devices were in abundance. We present a study with 24 participants in 12 dyads completing a collaborative visualization task with up to six tablets. They could choose between three different visualization types to answer questions about economic data. Tasks were designed to afford simultaneous use of tablets, either with linked or independent views. We found that users typically utilized only one tablet per user. A quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed a ``legacy bias' that introduced barriers for using more tablets and reduced the overall benefit of multi-device visualization.publishe

PolarTrack : Optical Outside-In Device Tracking that Exploits Display Polarization

PolarTrack is a novel camera-based approach to detecting and tracking mobile devices inside the capture volume. In PolarTrack, a polarization filter continuously rotates in front of an off-the-shelf color camera, which causes the displays of observed devices to periodically blink in the camera feed. The periodic blinking results from the physical characteristics of current displays, which shine polarized light either through an LC overlay to produce images or through a polarizer to reduce light reflections on OLED displays. PolarTrack runs a simple detection algorithm on the camera feed to segment displays and track their locations and orientations, which makes PolarTrack particularly suitable as a tracking system for cross-device interaction with mobile devices. Our evaluation of PolarTrack's tracking quality and comparison with state-of-the-art camera-based multi-device tracking showed a better tracking accuracy and precision with similar tracking reliability. PolarTrack works as standalone multi-device tracking but is also compatible with existing camera-based tracking systems and can complement them to compensate for their limitations.publishe

PARTICIPATE: Capturing knowledge in public library activities

We present PARTICIPATE, a technology probe exploring how to strengthen the connection between activities taking place at public libraries and their collections, both in the digital realm and in the physical space. Based on ethnographic studies and participatory design activities, we derive three core implications for place- and activity centric library services. These implications led us to design PARTICIPATE in collaboration with library staff from three European countries. The probe is a mean to investigate how place- and activity-centric digital services in the library space can engage participants in co-creating knowledge, and enable libraries to integrate activities with library collections