Imagine a Digital Library in Every Bus or Train

There's never a wasted moment when you have a smartphone, for better or for worse. Even underground users can patronize the "virtual supermarket," billboards that helps you make a shopping list later delivered to your door.

A group of students at the Miami Ad School envision putting that technology to decidedly more pleasurable use. "Underground Library," designed by Max Pilwat, Keri Tan and Ferdi Rodriguez, proposes a series of advertisements for the New York Public Library where a quick swipe could send the first ten pages of a book right to your phone.

After you've finished your sample, upon emerging from the subway, a map points the way to the nearest library location. The system would use near field communication (NFC), a technology capable of wireless data transmission over short distances, so that it works in non-wired tunnels.

It is, sadly, a fictional campaign. But surely the NYPL could spare some of its renovation budget to put a few of these in circulation.

The Underground Library by Keri Tan, Max Pilwat and Ferdi Rodriguez from Dezeen on Vimeo.