Library as Place Discussion in Session 1 of Library Camp Kansas 2008

Library as Place – Session 1 – 11am

Introductions of Participants and their interests

• Architectural composition of libraries
• Library as an academic face for the university
• Making spaces more welcoming
• Meeting spaces as opposed to study spaces
• Virtual libraries
• Converting an older space for new uses
• Concerns about place being less important in libraries
• Social contexts for libraries

Three Questions

1. What is place?
2. What is library?
3. What do people do/want?

And the synergy between these 3 questions

Place

• Physical
• Virtual
• Meaning
• Emotional – idealization of what it means
• Communal space
• Safe place for ideas – diverse/issues

Library

• Expertise
• Information
• Knowledge
• Walls
• Content
• Location
• User definitions
• Finances

People do/want?

• How do we foster a sense of intellectual freedom?
• Old vs. New library conceptions
• Transparent library use – where users do not know when they are actually using library services (e.g. databases)
• Making non-fiction more bookstore
• Free market can react more quickly to changes than public libraries
• Technologically inclined users self-identify with libraries as wired community centers
• Learning library
• Different methods of decoding order within the library and schemes of spatial organization
• Library as a community of access
• Library as third-place
• Subtle space modifications and signage that encourage positive behaviors (e.g. plugs per seat, trashcans)
• Civic participation and the librarian’s responsibility to encourage that

What is the real synergy between these concepts and how might others who are not here respond to these questions?

Session Facilitator: Jeff Bullington, University of Kansas
Session Recorder: Wade Garrison, University of Kansas


Some external works referenced in conversation

"Pull the Plug on the Library" George Ellmore, The Gainesville Sun, March 02, 2008 http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080303/OPINION03/803030303 viewed March 19, 2008

The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community, Ray Oldenburg. Marlow & Co., 1999. Book on "Third Space" in life.

Not referenced in the conversation but ACRL/LAMA has a new wiki called "ACRL/LAMA Guide for Architects; Guide For Planning Higher Education Library Spaces" at http://wikis.ala.org/acrl/index.php/ACRL/LAMA_Guide_for_Architects