Digital Media Labs in Libraries

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Library Technology Reports, August/September 2014 (50:6)

Families share stories with each other and veterans reconnect with their comrades, while teens edit music videos and then upload them to the web: all this and more can happen in the digital media lab (DML), a gathering of equipment with which people create digital content or convert content that is in analog formats. Enabling community members to create digital content was identified by The Edge Initiative, a national coalition of leading library and local government organizations, as a library technology benchmark. Surveying academic and public libraries in a variety of settings and sharing a range of approaches to creating DMLs, this issue of Library Technology Reports points the way towards meeting that benchmark, showing

• Funding sources and amounts for 16 DML projects in a range of libraries
• Links to sample policies and liability forms
• Information on hardware, software, and websites for sound production, videography, graphic design, and animation
• How to design a DML, addressing considerations such as power, noise prevention, ventilation, lighting, furniture, and more
• Configuration and equipment lists for 8 DMLs, ranging from portable to large libraries
• In-depth profiles of 5 digital media labs compiled from an 11-question survey