The following is a selection of the various initiatives implemented this week.

User-Centered Design
It was very interesting to learn about the approach to use personas at the Siebel Center for Design (SCD). This is based on human-centered design (HCD), which SCD promotes. And it is rooted in design thinking. Although this was a short workshop, it was a great learning experience for me to create personas and to think about the information-seeking behavior of these personas and the emotional transitions that occur in them during this process. There are not many examples of such a study of services based on human-centered design in Japanese libraries, so I would definitely like to consider using it.

Oak Street Facillity / Conservation Lab
We were able to tour the facilities and efforts of the Illinois State University at Urbana-Champaign for the preservation of materials. The library materials are stored in what could be called a huge warehouse, and the stacks are the tallest I have ever seen. The scale of the stacks was very different from those in Japan. The temperature in the room is kept at 10 degrees Celsius and the humidity at 30%, which is quite low by Japanese standards. The stacks at the University of Chicago Library (not mentioned here in detail) also maintain a temperature and humidity close to these values, which seem to be average for libraries in the United States.
We were also given a tour of the preservation and repair floor of the materials. There was well-equipped equipment for digitization, space for repairs, and people working there with various specialties, which was a fulfilling environment only possible at a large facility like the Illinois State University Library.

Libraries for Sustainable Development
I was able to spend some time thinking about the SDGs, which are being actively addressed by society as a whole in Japan, and the efforts being made by libraries. I had never thought about it on a global level before, so it was very refreshing.It was also very good to hear associates member. The session to think about what libraries can do for each of the 17 goals was a great reminder that libraries are institutions that can impact people in many ways through information.

YOUMEDIA
This is a space for a variety of activities for teenagers provided by the Chicago Public Library.
In addition to reading, the facility offers a wide variety of activities from making things such as laser cutters, 3D printers, and sewing machines to musical activities and games. The Chicago Public Library’s website has videos of teenagers using YOUMEDIA, along with information on various events. https://www.chipublib.org/youmedia-teens/
Also, the story of Chance the Rapper, who used this YOUMEDIA to become a world-renowned artist, was a very promising library.Libraries should not only be a place to provide information, but also a base for creating various media.
I asked the person in charge who showed me around the facility the typical question that many Japanese ask: why would such a facility become a library?They said that teenagers can not only use the games and other equipment, but they can also use it as a gateway to access books and other information, and they can connect with adults who work at YOUMEDIA and gain new information from them.Through face-to-face communication, librarians can learn what teenagers need and provide them with new sources of interest.This is a great way to learn what teenagers need and provide them with new sources of interest.For me personally, this is exactly what I wanted to hear, and I could feel that this is one of the directions libraries will take in the future.