The LIbrary Lab @ NYU Libraries

Role: Founding Director

2019 - 2024

The Library Lab was a new and experimental initiative I built at NYU Libraries. As envisioned, it encompassed a curated series of pop-up spaces, events, workshops, trainings, projects, and initiatives aimed at preparing libraries and library staff for future unknowns. In other words, I worked as an experience designer building a culture of creativity.

Part test-kitchen, part R&D lab, this was an experimental “skunkworks”-style operation whose design was to infuse the library culture with more creativity, innovation, and agility. The Lab also contributed to greater initiatives in the larger library landscape that help spring the profession forward, bringing visibility and prominence to NYU Libraries as a future-forward model library.

***

Some the many programs and initiatives of the Library Lab include Failure Camp, a three-day in-person cohort experience designed to collectively build a culture where failure and risk-taking become an asset, not a liability. Each day’s four-hour workshop curriculum consisted of a unique blend of original Library Lab programming, supplemented by the expertise of professionals whose trainings draw on teachings in emotional intelligence, psychology, philosophy, and culture, including a guest instructor from the School of Life and ceramics lesson with a Japanese kintsugi master.