Read Learn Live Connecting People The Public Library as a Living Space

Transcription

1 Read Learn Live Connecting People The Public Library as a Living Space

2 Read Learn Live What do we intend, when we use the terms Read Learn Live in our library s logo? Read and Learn are self-explanatory, but Live? Those who come to us for reading and studying purposes have hopes and expectations towards a better life and towards social participation, We know, that society not only consists of classes or milieus; society is to a great deal just communication: face-to-face, by media, or, to put it in linguistic terms, by signs and symbols, Live as a synonym for meeting, getting together, communicate, And furthermore the role of the library within the civil society, the participation of the library in the society s various discourses, The library as a marketplace of ideas, the library as a public space like the agora in the European antique

3 Overview 1. The City of Bielefeld a Short Look 2. A Brief Historical Excursus and Some Topical Remarks 3. Situation Analysis 4. Public Library and Civil Society 5. Summing Up

4 1.1 Bielefeld Yesterday and Today First mentioned in a document in Well known during the 19th and 20th century for her mechanical and textile industry, today for her global acting enterprises e.g. Schüco or Dr.Oetker University of Bielefeld since 1969, large extensions now 4

5 1.2 A Portrait of Bielefeld

6 1.3 Some Information about Bielefeld Ca inhabitants, Covering an area of ca. 250km², Bielefeld is one oft the largest cities in the Federal Republic of Germany, University of Bielefeld, several universities of applied sciences for business or welfare work, Ca. 80 public and private schools for general education, Theatre incl. musical theatre and ballet; arts museum and others, animal park, Located near to the Teutoburg Forest, Bielefeld is a city in a green environment with agricultural surroundings; however good transport connections by railway or motorway, three airports within a 100km radius

7 2.1 Read Learn Live An Overcharging Commitment? J.P. Hasenclever, The Reading Room, 1843, City of Remscheid Reading Hall, Glogauer Straße, City of Berlin, 1900 Since the evolution of a public sphere within society reading, getting together, discussion and communication appear in a close nexus. Reading halls and public libraries during the beginning 20th century fulfil a welfare mandate: getting the workers off the streets, pubs and speakeasies. Reading halls are often combined with coffee houses for the lower classes, offering food at moderate prices and opened during the evening hours and on weekends

8 2.2 Do Readers Better Read at Home!? The Lending Library Past the 1950s And Later Stadtbibliothek Bielefeld After a phase of professionalising librarians and libraries and due to better housing conditions the public libraries tended to send their readers home. The system of the lending library became perfect; in Germany reading was regarded as something very private: comfort and consolation within a burdening everyday life. The Information Library of the 70s and 80s presented shelves of reference material

9 2.3 Today: A Uniform Information Library? Ocean City Library, USA Openbare Bibliotek Amsterdam, Netherlands Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt a.m., Germany

10 2.4 The Deserted Conventional Library And the Crowded Computer Cluster? Delaware Technical Community College, USA, images taken from the current website

11 3.1 A Complex Situation? The Public Library Amidst the Information Revolution, the Renewal of Inner Cities And Library Users Expectations 1. Digitization of information, ubiquity of information and the mostly designfree appearing information technique seems to verify the needlessness of prominent public places for information and reading: What do we need libraries for, when we have the Internet? 2. In western Europe the cities undergo two diametrical processes at nearly one moment: a revitalization of the inner cities and the processes of decentralization and suburbanization. 3. Conventional Public libraries do still have readers. Our thesis is, that libraries have to evolve new qualities as places free of commercial interests, and must be prepared for people, who come to the libraries not just and only for reading and studying

12 3.1.1 Atopic Or Placeless Communications Design Our experience is still shaped by the analogue world: For a long time larger and smaller libraries embodied the unity of place and information within their walls. Today we live in an information or knowledge society; new scientific findings are not subject to a long lasting and unhurried discussion and expertise within the scientific community and their peer review procedures; nowadays and under the circumstances of global economy and competition, any technical invention is rapidly implemented as an economically exploitable innovation. (Helmut WILLKE, Atopia, 2001) Today information is bodiless, infinite, ubiquitous disposable, timeless, without territoriality, embodied in any more or less intelligent device again, do we need places to go?

13 3.1.2 Our Longing for Unique Places Masterpiece of an Idealstadt, a planned city, - Zamosc, Poland City Library of Stuttgart (Yi Architects) within an urban development zone The European tradition the unique, designed and clear city. Public buildings revitalise the inner cities. Urban space does need architecturally shaped buildings and ensembles; despite the virtuality of information people need places as an orientation. Libraries have to be inspiring places, not just storages for books

14 3.1.3 Contemporary Examples: Public Libraries Revitalise Urban Space Contemporary challenges and contemporary city planning: Revitalisation of inner city centres, of neighbourhoods with a precarious social structure and a need for modernization: E.g. Dortmund, Germany, or Amsterdam, Netherlands: upgrading the setting around the main station by new libraries E.g. Stuttgart, Germany: Melioration of the former freight yard E.g. Bielefeld, Germany: Using vacant business premises, improving an urban area Improve urban space: Implementing areas with public business like markets Establishing attractive and inviting buildings and locations, Public libraries are (still) much-frequented places and may constitute a public cultural anchor institution within a precarious borough or urban space

15 3.2 A Place To Read, Learn And Live? What do customers expect in academic and public libraries? An insight in academic libraries: Jonas FANSA, Bibliotheksflirt, 2008: The library as a place that helps to concentrate on one s own studies, Seeing other students doing the same motivates, The library serves as a covered walk or foyer during breaks, Cafés, lounges, small talks provide a proper, substantial change, see and be seen alone with your study, but not lonesome public privacy Flirting with the (architecturally) shaped ambience The collaborative use of the place, of the ambience, of the library is crucial, the feeling of being together in a non obliging manner; crucial is the chance of an authentic face-to-face-communication. So the question comes up: Are libraries so called third places?

16 3.3 A Methodical Approach To Characterize Third Places Ray OLDENBURG, The Great Good Place, 1989f: informal social life, community-building-functions, answering the need for communication Family and/or home form the first place, Workplace, or place of education is second, Third places obey unwritten rules: This place is neutral, there is no compulsory attendance, Anybody is treated in the same way, anybody is equal, Main purpose to come there is conversation and regeneration, Style of conversation is not problem-oriented but witty, The mood is tempered, A third place is A Home Away From Home. Third places may be cafés, coffeehouses, civic centres, bookstores, bars, hair salons, in former times tobacco stores

17 3.4 The Public Library As a Community Territory In contrast to these third place criteria, fun and witty conversation or recreation are not primarily in the focus of public libraries, To read and to learn by media whatever they may be or the lending of media is in the focus, but Public Libraries offer a mixture between regulated situations and a more open scenery; it is similar to the semi-public situation in a shopping mall there are rules to obey, but one may do different things: different media, different use of media, different zones inside - the silence in reading rooms or the chat in the café our a lounge, Public Libraries offer an extract of essential third place - qualities, not the whole range; they offer a positively perceived community territory. Special library services can strengthen this effect. (Richard SENNETT, The Fall of Public Man, 1974ff.: building or preservation of community territory in the city as a social goal. ) Opening hours!

18 4.1 March 2012 a New House for People, Media, Information

19 4.2 City Library of Bielefeld, Municipal Archives & Regional Historical Library under One Roof One organization two departments: City Library: Central Library + 8 neighbourhood and school libraries Municipal Archives & Regional Historical Library Quality of Information. The Central Library, the Municipal Archives and the State Historical Library make up the new information center, which opened in March 2012, 10,000 m², approximately items of printed material, av-media etc. (some collated in repositories), approximately 5.1 km files, about 1 million loans, more than physical 330,000 visits in 2011, more than 220 seats, 70 Internet computers, print services, WiFi, rooms for collaborative work, computer training room, seminar room, reading room, meeting areas, café (still under construction), free internet use for registered readers

20 4.3 Live - The Attempt To Realize General Public Expectations in a Library Quality of Place : many seats and workplace groups distributed in the space in between the bookshelves functioning as a shield: Young people want to study and work in groups, Rooms for collaborative work with doors to close ( Learning Boxes ), seminar room, rooms for smaller groups, Children s Room for reading purposes, Computer zones. Young people use computers together, talk about, download, they need space! Allow web-games! Children play and wait for the bus to take them home, Lounges, where talking and discussing is allowed, Café, inside plus outdoor area, Stage for public reading, children s theatre or lectures, Multi-purpose zone in front of the stage: just tables and chairs, Children s library and parents library with educational and health information, Exhibition zone, auditorium

21 4.4 Live in an Attractive And Communicative Ambience: The Public Library As a Meeting Place A Library is a regulated place: The readers do know the rules, customers have a right to stay here unmolested. Parents expect a safe area for their children. Customers expect an aesthetic ambience with a proper technical equipment in good order. Young people in particular expect a place where they can work collaboratively; periods of working are embedded in periods of chatting or conversely; often these periods may not be distinguished. So talking aloud is still not convenient with libraries, but the basic noise at a moderate level in an open access library should nowadays be accepted, if you want to establish third-place-qualities in your library. Public Libraries have an invaluable quality: young people meet on neutral ground with no parents sitting aside. Very important for young migrants

22 4.5 Live Public Library And Civil Society The public library is definitely a place for information and learning. The public library furthermore features a community-building function, this is her function for the civil society. What is civil society? The idea of civil society is based on the idea of selfdetermined social activity beyond government, business and large organizations

23 4.6 Live Library and Civil Society Social Networking The Bielefeld library has constant partners: The City s volunteer agency: Office hours, cooperation in various fields Literary Society: Event cooperation Gamers Club: Lending of conventional board games to families Art Club: Collection and circulation of pictures Club of female artists: Event cooperation and presentation The Library constantly arranges e.g. public readings with writers and other events. In the effect two emotional things are important for our marketing: having met congenial people in a pleasant place and having spent a nice evening at the library. Library and citizens involvement, e.g.: Connecting to local charity clubs, such as ROTARY, LIONS and others Friends of the library: Reading promotion and enhancement of reading skills, club character events (talking about books )

24 4.7 Live Library and Civil Society Citizens Involvement 4 branch libraries ( Family or neighbourhood libraries ) with a total of approximately 120 volunteers Induced past 2003 by vast budget cuttings, meanwhile the model has stabilized: volunteers do regular library services, Of interest is the socio-political aspect: Services are provided for the local community, Regular Services are only made possible because of strong local cohesion, which is reinforced by additional cooperative activities a contribution to local community building. Activities, e.g. reading and playing with children, esp. from migrant families. Media messenger services for house-bound people. Taking over responsibility : Local library s commitment in neighbourhood work

25 4.8 Live Library and Civil Society Citizens Involvement Motives: Meaningful leisure activities, a favour for books and the promotion of reading skills, even the small library is experienced as an inspiring place, An invaluable benefit for the library: volunteers as the library s good souls and ambassadors within their community, Self-reinforcing processes in the community

26 5. Summing Up. Public Library and Civil Society Connecting People Libraries Will Change The public library is a place for studying, for the promotion of reading and the joy of reading, The library is a public space open to everyone - and meeting space as well, Usually there still is no chance for autonomous sociality, joyful meeting just for fun ; a library may have qualities of a third place, but this has to be inspired by archicture and library organization; this still often has to ripen, A library is organized like a shopping mall - a semi-public space (compared to streets and squares), with clear rules and protection from molestation, The Public Library is a community territory of the relevant community, The public library may function as a cultural anchor institution in a precarious borough, The public library integrates people of different ages and backgrounds through a variety of activities one of her most important features, By citizens involvement and taking over social responsibility, librarians again contribute to the library as a living space and public place, to community building and community reinforcement

27 Thank You Very Much for Listening!