New SLNSW project showcases real-time catalogue searches

Researchers at the State Library of NSW have debuted a new webpage that shows what items people are accessing from the collection at any given moment.

The library’s inaugural DX Lab fellows Elisa Lee and Adam Hinshaw developed the webpage Unstacked to reveal ‘the breadth and diversity’ of the library’s collection, and to show what ‘odd and interesting items’ pop up when people search the collection.

Unstacked can be viewed on desktop computers and mobile devices, with plans to display the webpage over a large space in the library. ‘We’ve found that when it is shown in a public space, it provokes conversation and this was one of our aims,’ Lee wrote in an article published in the Conversation.

Lee said they designed the site to ‘let the contents of the collection speak for themselves’. ‘In consultation with the library, we settled on a visualisation that balances communication and aesthetics,’ said Lee. ‘In other words, it looks good but is still easy for anyone to understand what they’re looking at.’

The DX Lab Fellowships aim to ‘build and support new ways of design thinking, experimentation and research with digital technologies’. 

Category: Library news