Hi folks, I wanted to join your conversation after seeing the DPLA Beta Sprint proposal SJ submitted. My name is Nate Hill, I'm a 'Web Librarian' at the San Jose Public Library. Before working here, I spent 10 years at the Brooklyn Public Library in NYC.
I worked on a flexible, storefront library project in the DUMBO neighborhood in Brooklyn NY some years ago, and have been writing/preaching about the idea ever since. Here's an old blog post about the Outpost work- http://natehill.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/library-outposts-a-new-service-mode... http://natehill.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/library-outposts-a-new-service-model-for-urban-public-libraries/and here's a more recent piece about it in the context of both the DPLA and the IMLS/MacArthur Learning Labs projects. http://plablog.org/2011/06/two-more-reasons-for-library-outposts-the-dpla-an...
The FabLab co-creative approach is absolutely a logical extension of what the Outpost was/is supposed to be. I'll add some more descriptive stuff to the wiki, but for now I really wanted to say hello and offer to be a part of your crew (though I'm not 100% sure what that even means).
Cheers!
Nate