Providing quality community gathering space remains one of the most important services that the library offers to its communities moving forward. Almost any meeting at the library has some sort of important electronic presentation component — from musical performances to sporting events, investment clubs, civic meetings — that people want to see and hear. If your meeting space is configured with a top quality, built-in projection system, then you are in luck. If not, wouldn't it be great to have a self-contained unit with a simple interface that offers great visual clarity and high audio fidelity to support your experience?

This isn't as easy as it may sound, and we all know the frustrations of trying to assemble various loose projector, speaker and laptop components to try to support a presentation. After seeing some great contemporary components at the Consumer Electronics Show, the library designed and assembled a unit containing a big white board with a high quality projector attached to the top that was calibrated to provide optimal clarity. The library attached a sound column and created a customized lockbox on the back to hold an on-board computer, DVD drive, etc. The projector boards are fully labeled, documented and configured to offer a very simple interface.

The library recently finished the pilot board and took it out for a test spin to support a "Live at Lincoln Center" Latin Jazz performance screening at the Skyway library. It worked great for the size of the meeting room. Then this weekend it was brought to the Kent Library to support a guest speaker and community panel discussing the development and impact of the Zika virus. Again, it worked great, and the library had very positive feedback from the patrons, the presenter, and the library staff. If reception remains positive, the tool will be deployed throughout the system.