I dropped into Barbican Library yesterday for an informative chat about the proposed community room, and on the way out spotted a pile of EC1 Echos.
I’m keen to see more free distribution of the Echo in the City … particularly since I’m fortunate to be favoured with space for three pieces in this edition.
I tweeted a photo and was pleased, and a little surprised, by a flurry of likes and retweets. Not that many, but certainly more than I get for references to BIDs, Culture Mile and a community forum.
Could it be that people subconsciously see some synergy between an engaging and positive paper and a wonderful library that has a welcoming information desk and boards as well as the collections of books, videos and music?
Alan Wylie replied with “We stock them in Finsbury Library too” which got another flurry of likes.
The Echo is doing more online these days, in between printed editions, and the library is engaged with the idea of an information hub in the Barbican Centre, through plans for the community room.
As well as some physical, spatial collaboration in displaying and distributing Echos (and City Matters), maybe there’s scope for sharing digitally the rich content on the information boards – not just through the Echo, or City Matters, but in other ways?
My ideas for the original community hub, developed for the Barbican Centre Communities and Neighbourhood’s team, suggested ways in which this might be done – see blog post and more detailed slides.
I’m not sure where this stream of thought is going … but I called this blog Connections as a home for What Ifs … so I’ve just nudged some ideas together and will toss them back onto Twitter to see if anything gels.