Library in a Box

[Woody Evans]

Hexayurts, walls printed with information, is dropped in pallets with building instructions and tape. The shelter is constructed, and the final product has aprox. equiv. of 600 pages worth of text on the walls.

What would you want to be printed on those walls, and why?

[Derek]

Some survival info would definitely be useful, since many city folk are probably like me and clueless about outdoor living. I have learned a few tips from the Man vs. Wild tv series, although even the host, Bear, might have trouble surviving a disaster area.

I think children books would be the best to print on the walls. They would accommodate most reading levels and cheer people up. The art would be enjoyable to non-readers, or entertaining if you happen to be stuck in a disaster zone in a country where you don't read the language. A great book that requires collaboration, Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, by Paul Fleischman would be good for passing the time with other people.

I think people in a disaster situation probably aren't in the mood for serious fiction. Religious texts, although possibly encouraging for some, might depress other survivors even more. Have there been any studies about what disaster survivors read or do for entertainment to pass the time? Disaster anthropology?

Derek

[Woody Evans]

This seems to me to be a case for utilitarianism -- what's it that can do the most good for the most people in the context of the culture that the 'library box' falls into.
survival stuff -- absolutely. even some of the improvement of quality of life stuff -- like Vinay has talked about (link) that saves lives: leaving transparent water bottles in the sun for a day, washing hands after the toilet, etc. but we get into danger of a "Big Mother" type of situation, where the monied Western box falls into the Sudan and gives the globals a chance to the locals what to do. how to 'live better'. so the info in the box needs to be really informed by the locals, by local need (how to avoid rape and murder on the way to collect firewood).

then, yes, there is the question of entertainment, cheer, and cultural collaboration -- i quite like the idea of 'whiteboarded' walls, erasables, where folks can write and re-write, leave notes & poems and drawings.

this is a case for many many many MANY answers, depending on whether the library box is dropped into urban American cities or rural Guatemala.

the tension that pains me, and needs lots of work, is how to create standard "ready to roll" templates of librarybox, that can go out quickly, at need, to any given region, any given cultural situation...
too ambitious?

what about a beginning --
here's a thought experiment -- a librarybox for tornado alley.

Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Southern Plains, east of Rockies, west of Ozarks and MS river... the spots that get hit most often by bad bad storms. towns ripped apart. folks made homeless, crowding into churches and school gyms.
questions:
how many libraryboxes per population? 1 to 500 people?
purpose -- for use by parents and teachers as a way to keep kids busy, keep kids out of dangerous debris, and give some kind of educational activities to pass the day by -- a shelter, a little library.
but why not use a corner of the church sanctuary? you know? if population is greater than available shelter space, then hexayurt style libraryboxes can give post-disaster populations a third space.... but is 'third space' even applicable in such situations?
in this particular situation,
what goes on the walls? quick to print? (legally -- CC, open, fair use stuff -- wikipedia articles?).

what is best material for this? the hexayurt crew have been expressing worry about Tuff-R and R-max insulation sheets for off-gassing chems, and also flammability.

why ship in or drop in a shelter kit when debris all around needs removal and rebuilding?

just brainstorming.
input very welcome

Derek, re: disaster anthro -- this here article is awesome
d. henry, anthro contributions to study of disasters, FEMA 06.
and
http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/ddemtextbook.asp

Derek said:

Some survival info would definitely be useful, since many city folk are probably like me and clueless about outdoor living. I have learned a few tips from the Man vs. Wild tv series, although even the host, Bear, might have trouble surviving a disaster area.

I think children books would be the best to print on the walls. They would accommodate most reading levels and cheer people up. The art would be enjoyable to non-readers, or entertaining if you happen to be stuck in a disaster zone in a country where you don't read the language. A great book that requires collaboration, Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, by Paul Fleischman would be good for passing the time with other people.

I think people in a disaster situation probably aren't in the mood for serious fiction. Religious texts, although possibly encouraging for some, might depress other survivors even more. Have there been any studies about what disaster survivors read or do for entertainment to pass the time? Disaster anthropology?

Derek

[Spencer]

I think the need for basic life skills should be included also. Perhaps some recipes for nutrient rich, easy meals to spread the food out (though I have a feeling if this was dropped in an impovrished area they would probably already know how to do this). Also, I think it would be important to convey the messages pictorally if you are looking for something that can be used universally, which does take a lot of fiction out of the equation. Think IKEA catalog.
Quite possibly a comic book would go over well. Some universal adventure story like Tin Tin. To relieve bordom, perhaps some sort of game (either instructions for the game or the game itself) could be included. Something like you'd find in the sunday paper, like a spot the difference game.
Contact information to international charities/ relief organizations.
Farmer's Almanac.

Personally, I'd like to think that people in Tornado alley wouldn't need too much educational information, but would need entertainment. All I can think of for this at the moment is comic books. Perhaps short stories, like a Mark Twain collection.

[Woody Evans]

we don't totally alleviate cultural mis-cues and (sometimes dangerous) faux pas by using an iconic or 'comic book' format, but you do solve a lot of it, because you don't have to try and translate an item into multiple languages... text re-interpreted seems to leave more room for error than the instant apprehension of an image.

on that 'hwall1.pdf' above, the image where the one guy is helping the lady by dragging her from danger (i know that its really fuzzy and hard to make out what's going on), that image right there alone could cause a riot in some places, based on the 'immodest' display of the female. so image won't cut through all problems, but they do seem lots easier to manage for cultural fallout than text.

iconographic. like the airline safety sheets.

the other thing, is that text and digit DO communicate far MORE information more precisely than images do -- i guess that this point is debatble (picture is worth 1k wrds?), but for info on how to treat a snake bite or grow a garden, text is more information-dense than image... but ONLY for the few fortunate folks who can read it.

. survival
. edu-tainment
. space for creative work
. space for group communication (message boards)
??

Spencer said:

I think the need for basic life skills should be included also. Perhaps some recipes for nutrient rich, easy meals to spread the food out (though I have a feeling if this was dropped in an impovrished area they would probably already know how to do this). Also, I think it would be important to convey the messages pictorally if you are looking for something that can be used universally, which does take a lot of fiction out of the equation. Think IKEA catalog.
Quite possibly a comic book would go over well. Some universal adventure story like Tin Tin. To relieve bordom, perhaps some sort of game (either instructions for the game or the game itself) could be included. Something like you'd find in the sunday paper, like a spot the difference game.
Contact information to international charities/ relief organizations.
Farmer's Almanac.

Personally, I'd like to think that people in Tornado alley wouldn't need too much educational information, but would need entertainment. All I can think of for this at the moment is comic books. Perhaps short stories, like a Mark Twain collection.

[Spencer]

I think open message centers lead to a problem with graffiti. I know this only because a small part of me would be tempted to do it.

What would be interesting would be some sort of communication system set up amongst the different Hexayurts. Perhaps some type of manual (crank) powered Morse Code transmitters. Maybe even with some sort of solar film.

What would be great is some sort of manual powered e-mail machine that can download news and information via satellite connection. This, of course, would increase costs exponentially. So would a video display that was similarly powered (either solar or crank) that was on one of the walls and only played a series of preloaded videos. These could include cartoons, informative/educational programming all performed with minimal language. How awesome would that be! Unfortunately, these are ideas that technology has not yet seen to make cost effective.

[Vinay Gupta]

Yeah, I think some kind of small machine that did email only and cost a few dollars would be a fantastic innovation, particularly if it interoperated properly with SMS from cellphones.

[Spencer]

Maybe there are thousands of THESE sitting around in a warehouse waiting to be put to good use!

[Woody Evans]

http://woodyevans.com/public_html/?page_id=144

Practical matters:
printing -- separate sheets, then attaching to walls and laminating? Or printing a 5 single 4' sheets?
content -- oh yeah. content. where deployed? 5 usable walls, 5 different themes? Letters, numbers primers, then safety / hygeine info? or do we just go with verses from the Holy Koran (or Bible as case may be) to give the folks a text they may already know how to teach from? then is it going to be a sacreligious presentation?.
draw/write space -- whiteboard laminate like at office supply stores, or go with attachable sheets of paper, which may later be re-used, or shared? expense vs. utility. and if whiteboard, then markers. etc.