world's most amazing libraries

These amazing pictures from the Huffington Post of the world's most amazing libraries (via Tash via @JensBookPage) made me wonder how books will be collected in future. We all know about on-demand printing and e-readers. But at some point it feels like people will be writing transmedia books (something like one of James's projects perhaps), in the same way they have been doing transmedia for broadcast for a long time. If books spill across the printed page, out onto the web and onto mobile to fit your media diet, how will they be brought together and stored? And what kind of librarian staffs the new kind of library?

this is your library card

Our local library has just opened after being closed for the last year or so. We went along to introduce Milo, our six-month-old, to the idea of libraries in general. And we each got new library cards. I just really like them. Not sure about the coloured balls. Maybe they are there to create a sense of fun for people who don't get excited by books. And I haven't had a library card for years, so maybe lots of them are like this, but I remember having a rubbish laminated thing when I was a kid. Whereas this one folds out. And gives you a little tear-off bookmark thingy with your library ID on it, so you can renew online without needing to have your card handy. I know it's just a library card and I probably shouldn't love it as much as this. But I can't think of many examples of your council giving you something that's both nicely designed and useful. Can you?