As new media formats challenge the future of the book, government changes its funding priorities and the profile of the library user changes, educators across the country are asking themselves what the future holds for the library. In response, a number of trailblazing libraries have come up with innovative ways of engaging their communities and reimagining their spaces as collaborative and creative. The examples below are some of the most inventive experiments with public space to come out of the last couple of years.
Books aren’t the only thing the public can check out at Northern Onondaga Public Library in Cicero, NY. For an alternative library experience, Cicero residents go out back to the library’s community garden where they can check out a plot for free. The aim is to teach and learn food literacy as well as to ‘preserve knowledge our grandparents might have had but never passed down’. Those not able to commit to maintaining their own plot can work on the shared, public plot where organic produce is grown and donated to local food shelters. Green-fingered classes include composting, herb growing and canning fruit and vegetables.
Both Skokie Public Library, IL and Tacoma Public Library, WA are attracting the next generation of library users with their audio-visual suites, kitted out with Macbook Pros, iPads, flip cams, microphones and electronic instruments. These media labs are about software as well as hardware: creative packages such as Final Cut, iLife and Adobe Creative Suite allow library users to video edit, manipulate images and design web pages to showcase their work. Some of the most impressive projects are showcased on the Storylab blog which features stop motion animation, photo blogs and tracks recorded at the library.
Local homeless poet Mark Bell was featured in the Sacramento Bee after publishing his first collection of poems at his local library in downtown Sacramento. The library’s I Street Press is a community writing and publishing center. It supports would-be writers from their first lines right through to self-publication with classes, writer workshops and one-to-one advice sessions. While it’s not busy printing titles authored by library card holders, the library’s Espresso Book Machine prints books on demand from the ExpressNet database which readers order from the library via e-mail.
Community makerspaces are places where like-minded individuals come together to realize creative projects with professional tools. The maker phenomenon has recently made its way into libraries, with Fayetteville Free Library and Westport Public Library leading the charge. Funded through donations via crowdsourcing website Kickstarter, Fayetteville Free Library’s Fab Lab has opened its doors with 3D printers, digital cameras, microphones and a computer suite while Westport Public Library’s Maker-in-Residence Joseph Schott has trained library users in woodwork to help him make two giant model airplanes which now hang suspended from the library’s central hall.