Luis Herrera and San Francisco Public Library Awarded the 2016 Innovations in Networking Award for Educational Applications

The MIX at SFPL has been selected by the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) as a recipient of the 2016 Innovations in Networking Award for Experimental Applications

“The Mix at SFPL is a revolutionary approach to teen services,” said City Librarian Luis Herrera. “San Francisco Public Library embraces the challenge of the 21st-century library by providing equal access and learning opportunities to all patrons, including our city’s teens, in ways that are engaging and entertaining while expanding their horizons.”

The Mix at SFPL, a 4,770-square-foot teen digital media center and learning lab located within the San Francisco Main Library, provides 21st-century technology and teaching. The Mix at SFPL offers teens a state-of-the-art recording studio, a Hollywood-worthy video production space, a bank of high-end digital equipment, and a makerspace with many of today’s leading fabrication technologies. In addition to a physical location at the San Francisco Main Library, other youth-focused digital media programs take place throughout SFPL’s 27 branch libraries in a program called The Mix on the Move.

“Teenagers in San Francisco now have another safe, comfortable, and engaging space where they will have access to the latest technologies that can open their minds and unleash their creativity,” said San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee. “The Mix at SFPL provides San Francisco youth with digital literacy skills that will open up new career paths in multimedia fields and make sure they are well-prepared for college and beyond.”

To help deliver quality workshops and classes to teens using the new technologies, the Library has formed partnerships with many leading San Francisco program providers, including the Bay Area Video Coalition, which excels at training at-risk youth in emerging media technologies; Blue Bear School of Music, leaders in providing music education to underserved communities; Ninth Street Independent Film Center, which is transferring its youth media program, TILT (Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools) and digital media equipment, curricula, and youth media archive to The Mix; Girls Who Code, which is on a mission to enhance diversity in technology; KQED, a partner in digital education; and the landmark California Academy of Sciences, a pioneer in providing hands-on science education to the Bay Area.

“With SFPL’s path-breaking 10 gigabits per second connection to the CENIC Network, teens at the MIX at SFPL have opportunities to use digital media to collaborate with peers throughout California,” said CENIC President & CEO Louis Fox. "They can access remote resources, share rich multimedia objects in the forms in which they were created, engage with MIX at SFPL partners, and participate in real-time creative experiences.”

Innovations in Networking Awards are presented each year by CENIC to highlight the exemplary innovations that leverage ultra high-bandwidth networking, particularly where those innovations have the potential to transform the ways in which instruction and research are conducted or where they further the deployment of broadband in underserved areas.

©2024 Pacific Wave. The Pacific Wave International Research and Education Exchange is a project jointly operated by the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) & Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP).