Talk on why public places matters and the library as a significant part of communities social infrastructure at the yearly ASL Conference in Dublin March 29 2019. Programme: https://www.aslibraries.com/full-programme
Measures of Central Tendency: Mean, Median and Mode
A room is not just a room: The Library as place and why it matters
1. A room is not just a room:
The library as place and why it matters
Christian Lauersen
Director of Libraries and Citizen Services,
Roskilde Municipality
Mail: cula@roskilde.dk
Twitter: @clauersen
ASL Conference, Dublin, March 2019
3. Why do they always put academic
experts in the library?
4. What we are going to talk about today:
1) Why public places matter
2) How to work with public places
3) The Library as place and social infrastructure
[I will not be talking about library decor or design]
5. Some concepts we are gonna talk about
• Places: A building or area. Public
• Individuals: You and me
• Communities: A group of individuals
• Libraries: Public, academic, special
7. A place is not just a place:
We respond to our surrondings
Environmental psychology (late 1960’s)
- Interplay between people and their surroundings
- Environtments effects human behaviour
11. Social infrastructure are..
..spaces and organizations that shape the way people interact.
When it's robust, we are much more likely to engage one another
and build relationships. When it's degraded and neglected, we're
much more likely to hunker down and be on our own
Eric Klinenberg
12. The Library as social infrastructure:
Not only shared books but also shared spaces
13. First life, then spaces, then buildings
- Jan Gehl
Placemaking:
An approach to creating public places
14. Placemaking
Creating public spaces that promotes people’s health,
happiness and well being
[translated to academic library context]
Creating public spaces that promotes students and faculty’s
ability to learn, connect and belong
15. Placemaking principles
• The Community knows best
• Places, not designs
• Make and act on observation
• Requires a vision
• Placemaking is an ongoing process
16. Roskilde Main Library, rebuilding and placemaking 2019
New entrance: ”LIBRARY”
The smell of coffee and freshly
backed bread
Green open public area
with a stage
Transperancy
and light
Linkage to the city
Community
involvement
17. To sum it up
• A place is not just a place. It effects us on a practical and
emotional level and has the power to shape us, connect us and
empower communties
• Loneliness kills
• Don’t start with the building. Start with the community
• Public places as libraries are important parts of our social
infrastructure in civic life. But how about in academic life?
18. Why do they come?
Do we have that great tables and chairs?
Why don’t they sit at home?
Or at Starbucks?
25. Success in research and higher education is not
only about hard infrastructure
We need to belong to perform,
learn and connect. We need to thrive
The academic library as place is a cruzial part of
the social infrastruture in research and higher
education
27. The library as place and brand
are attached to great values
Let that place and your
actions foster social
infrastruture on campus
learning, knowledge, trust, inclusion, cultural experiences
36. Thanks for listening
Christian Lauersen
Director for Libraries
and Citizen Services
Roskilde Municipality
Mail: cula@roskilde.dk
Twitter: @clauersen
The Library Lab: christianlauersen.net
Library Planet: libraryplanet.net
Instagram: @librarylovestories