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In an era dominated by artificial intelligence and smartphones, one of the most overlooked engines of economic growth sits quietly at the heart of every neighborhood: the public library. Gone are the days when libraries were sanctuaries reserved for only reading and research. Today, they are being reimagined as dynamic hubs for workforce development, creative sector support, and cultural exchange. Across the country, these reservoirs of knowledge are evolving into digital and physical beacons of community resilience. Local access, global reach: A case study in artist empowerment In Huntsville, where I serve as the citys first music officer, weve partnered with our public library system to develop a multifunctional creative hubwith music at its core. A primary pillar of our collaboration is Blast Music, a digital streaming platform designed to showcase local talent. Its a model other cities can and should replicate. Through the Blast program, artists are paid, promoted, and added to a curated library collectionoffering not only exposure, but bona fide industry credentials. Over 100 local artists are currently featured on the platform, and we will welcome up to 50 additional artists into the program annually. The ripple effect of Blast is real. The free service empowers local listeners to discover homegrown talent while giving musicians tools to grow their fan base and attract industry attention. Perhaps most importantly, Blast provides emerging artists with resume-worthy recognitionessential for building sustainable careers in a tough industry. But Blast isnt just about digital reachits embedded in Huntsvilles cultural DNA. From artist showcases like the Ladies of Blast event at the Orion Amphitheater, to community events like Hear to Be Seen (a portrait exhibition of Blast musicians), to stages designated exclusively for Blast artist performances at Camp to Amp, PorchFest, and more, Blast is bringing music into public spaces and cultivating civic pride. Thats the kind of community infrastructure that libraries are uniquely equipped to deliver. Theres no such thing as too much visibility, and even artists with international acclaim see value in the platform. Huntsville native Kim Tibbs, a vocalist, songwriter, Alabama Music Hall of Fame honoree and UK chart-topper, submitted her album The Science of Completion Volume I to Blastnot only for more exposure, but to mentor and support the next generation of artists in her hometown. Libraries as talent incubators Huntsville is part of a broader national trend. In cities like Chicago, Nashville, and Austin, libraries are integrating creative labs, media production studios, and music education into their core servicesfunctioning as public-sector incubators for the creative economy. As technology continues to reshape traditional jobs, libraries are well-positioned to bridge skill gaps and fuel the rise of creative economies, including the vital but often overlooked non-performance roles in the music industry. Huntsville is doubling down on this approach. Were investing millions into programs that bring interactive music technology workshops to teens at the local libraryfocusing on hands-on training in production, recording, and audio engineering. With professional equipment, studio spaces, and expert instruction, were preparing the next generation for careers both onstage and behind the scenes. Local industry is stepping up too. Hear Technologies, a global leader in sound and AV production, has been designing cutting-edge audio devices for years. Theyre now part of a dynamic team collaborating with city leaders to help develop the librarys music maker space, nurture new talent and accelerate our regions creative growth. This matters now, more than ever Libraries have always been entry points for education, employment, and exploration. But today, theyre more than just information access pointsthey are gateways to opportunity and launchpads for industries that define the future. By utilizing public space and collaborating with local talent, libraries can become platforms for economic mobility and cultural innovation. This investment isnt a feel-good gesture. Its a smart, strategic move for any city building a future that worksfor everyone. The playlist is simple: Invest in creative ecosystems, embed them in trusted community institutions like public libraries, and treat music as critical infrastructure. Matt Mandrella is music officer for the City of Huntsville, Alabama.
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E-Commerce
After spending forever floundering for a solution to a problem, an Aha moment can feel like magic. But a new study by researchers from Duke University and the University of Berlin has found that the Aha moment gives us more than temporary elation. If you have an aha! moment while learning something, it almost doubles your memory, says Roberto Cabeza, lead author of the new study, in a statement. There are few memory effects that are as powerful as this. The research was published this month in Nature Communications. What is an aha moment? The study defines an Aha experience as a moment where the solution comes to you in a sudden manner, with a strong sense of certainty and a strong positive emotion. Suddenness, certainty, and internal reward are all important parts of the process. When we have a flash of insight, our brains go through a process called representational change where our internal representations of the insight undergoes rapid reorganization and integration, helping encode it into our memory. During these moments of insight, the brain reorganizes how it sees the image, noted first author Maxi Becker. In particular, the researchers found that insights that with high certainty and positive emotion boosted activity in the amygdala and hippocampus brain structures. The more powerful the insights the more activity in the hippocampus, causing more memory retention. How was the study conducted? To test what was happening in peoples brains when they have an Aha moment, the researchers used fMRI technology to scan participants’ brains while they tried to identify a series of Moony images,images of common objects reduced to minimally detailed, two-tone black and white images. The high contrast of the images made them difficult to identify immediately, improving the odds of participants having Aha moments. After they identified each object, the participants were asked to rate how suddenly they found the solution, how positive they felt, and how certain they felt that their answer was correct. Five days later, the researchers tested the group of participants again to determine how well they remembered the Moony images that they’d previously identified. Strikingly, they found that participants remembered solutions that came to them in a burst of insight around twice as well as solutions worked out more methodically. Additionally, the researchers observed that Aha moments cause a chain reaction in our brains enhancing representative change in the brains ventral occipito-temporal cortex (a region responsible for visual processing), activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, and engaging other solution-processing brain regions. Stronger insights cause the different regions [to] communicate with each other more efficiently, says Cabeza. The data suggests that the brain has its own neural mechanism for insight, leading to improved memory.
Category:
E-Commerce
Rather than clocking in at a Saturday job or selling old clothes for quick cash, Gen Z has another side hustle up their sleeve: selling their personal data. To take advantage of the nearly seven hours a day Gen Z spend on their phones, a new app called Verb.AI, launched by youth polling company Generation Lab, is now offering to pay young people for their scrolling time. By installing a tracker which monitors what they browse, buy, and stream, Verb creates a digital twin of each user that lives in a central database. From there, companies and businesses can query the data in a ChatGPT-like interface, and get a more accurate picture of consumer preferences than they would get even from a room full of Gen Zers. For decades, market research has been the equivalent of a doctor asking a patient to describe their symptoms. Verb is an MRI machine, the companys pitch deck says. And Verb is willing to pay. We think corporations have extracted user data without fairly compensating people for their own data, Cyrus Beschloss, CEO of Generation Lab, said per Axios. We think users should know exactly what data theyre giving us and should feel good about what theyre receiving in return. Verb’s maker, Generation Lab, was founded in 2016 and is based in Washington, D.C., according to the company’s LinkedIn page. It currently has 6 employees listed on the company’s official website. The broader global data broker market, meanwhile, is expected to grow in the next few years, reaching a projected $561.538 billion by 2029, up from $389.765 billion in 2024. In return for their personal data, Verb pays $50 or more per month to the user, depending on activity. For Gen Zers, its a fair enough deal for something they are likely doing anyway. About 88% of Gen Zers report being willing to share some personal data with a social media company, compared to just 67% of older adults. That is provided they are fairly compensated either with cash or a personalized social media algorithm, a 2022 Euromonitor International study found. A generation filled with contradictions, Gen Z is at the same time still taking protective measures with their data. They are clearing cookies, using anonymous browsers, and encrypting their communications twice as often as other generations. However, they also are more likely to agree with the statement, I dont mind being tracked by websites or apps, compared to older generations, according to a 2023 survey from the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes. The extent of Gen Zs willingness to share personal data was apparent during the still-ongoing regulatory scrutiny of TikTok over data privacy concerns in China. Case in point: the “Goodbye to My Chinese Spy” trend that took off as the possibility of TikTok being banned in the U.S. loomed earlier this year. Sending Xi Jinping a data care package because hes taken better care of me than the US government ever has, read the text over a TikTok video of an envelope addressed to the president of China. To my (alleged) Chinese spy – nobody knows me like you, babe, another TikTok user posted. Given these laissez-faire attitudes towards data privacy, it’s no surprise then, as Axios puts it, selling data is becoming the new selling plasma.
Category:
E-Commerce
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