Service Response Discussion: Commons
August 29th, 2006 by Andrea MercadoThis post is part of a series designed to further discussion of the PLA Results service responses, designed in 1998 to describe “what a library does for, or offers to, the public in an effort to meet a set of well-defined community needs.”
The bulleted comments below were gathered in conference sessions by the PLA Results team, in an effort to update the current service responses, which were originally written almost ten years ago. The PLA Results group is looking to the community for feedback on how to update these service responses to better reflect current public library methods and standards.
“A library that provides a Commons environment helps address the need of people to meet and interact with others in their community and to participate in public discourse about community issues.” (definition care of the PLA Results site). The current version of the Commons service response, is available for review on the PLA Results web site (the file is an Adobe .pdf file, and requires Adobe Reader to view).
Share your feedback on the current Commons service response, as well as the starter comments listed below, by leaving a comment on this post page. You can help PLA Results bring public library service responses into the 21st century!
Commons Discussion Group Comments
Should this service response be renamed?
- Public Spaces is a better name.
- Community Center is clearer for some people.
- Village Square is another possibility.
What should be included in the Commons service response?
- Public discourse
- The role of programming is confusing. Does this include all library programming or just programming offered by others?
- We should emphasize the library as a virtual commons.
- This should include both physical and virtual spaces.
- This focuses on the library as a destination.
Go back to the Service Response Discussion Index.
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September 7th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
“Commons” has a collegiate connotation that doesn’t appeal to the general public. “Community center” seems to make more sense to citizens involved in planning processes. Library buildings are important public spaces and vital to community landscapes. Yet the virtual aspect of this service response is becoming increasingly important. A term that can incorporate the physical and virtual would be useful.
October 4th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Commons is fine if it includes peace and quiet, where the public may read undisturbed.
October 11th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
“Commons” is a more developed (and expanded) version of the original Library Role of “Community Activities Center,” in which “The library is a central focus for community activities, meetings, and services. It works closely with other community agencies and organizations to provide a coordinated program of social, cultural, and recreational services.”
I prefer the name “Community Center” for this particular Service Response, because the connotation (by which I mean the most widely understood associated meanings) of “Commons” is something quite different from the definition of this Service Response.
Perhaps the most commonly understood meaning of “Commons” is “a building or hall for dining, typically at a university or college,” when in fact the name of the Service Response is intended to imply a village commons (”a tract of land, usually in a centrally located spot, belonging to or used by a community as a whole”), albeit in a library building.
While I appreciate the idea of a “Commons,” I believe that the name “Community Center” will speak to more library customers (patrons, users, guests, clients).
Finally, the meaning of “Community Center” certainly can encompass the virtual community as well as the physical community.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:14 am
I’m not sure that commons or community center connotes the idea of the library as a place for civil discourse and a safe place to exchange ideas. There needs to be an active or programming element - not just spacial connotation. I like the Chicago Public Library’s idea of the library as a bridge to and for the community - providing for exchange of ideas and information between community members and organizations. This could be both within and outside our buildings and virtual as well.
October 14th, 2006 at 11:19 am
I encourage the use of the term “Community Center” as the contemporary view of the public library. My experience is that this is coming from the public library customers. It articulates the sense in my view that people see (or would like to see) the library as a comfortable place to visit fairly frequently and run into their friends and neighbors.
What should be included in this service response?
A combination of programmatic services will respond to this view of the library. Permanent and rotating art displays, including quality products of the local art community; music in concert and as background; programming for all ages; loosen restrictions against coffee and snacks in the library; community read programs.
Providing e-mail accounts may have lost its relevancey with the wide availability of internet service providers and many quality free e-mail account availability.
October 17th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Community Center is easy to understand and conceptualize and open-ended enough to incorporate activities that relate to this role, including informal use of the library as a destination, formal programming, outside meeting room use, and electronic community-building. We don’t want to be too fuzzy in any service response but it seems valid that any activity that results in the gathering of like-minded people for interaction would fit. I am not sure that our role as a place for solo quiet study fits here (but also not sure where else it would fit.) Most conversations I’ve had with both library professionals and community members about the term “Commons” have been to define the meaning of the term as an end goal and by the time we’ve defined it there’s not enough time left to figure out what it means as a library service (i.e. a means to an end).
October 20th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
[...] Commons (6 comments) [...]
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 am
To play devil’s advocate, if “Commons” can be interpreted as a dining room or campus square, then “Community Center” has connotations of ping pong tables and pool tables. I actually liked the word “Commons,” but it may not have meaning in all parts of the country and in bigger communities. (In New England, a town commons does evoke the idea of people coming together.) “Village” anything — no. “Public Spaces” is better, but connotes outdoor areas (though libraries do have them) and areas without purpose. I like the word “community.” How about “Community Place?”
While I’m quibbling about semantics, the general public doesn’t seem to get what we mean by “virtual.”
November 5th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
There is a concept known as “The Third Place” that was described by Ray Oldenburg in his monograph, The Great, Good Place. In my opinion, this is a very close description of the sort of community libraries wish to develop. The third place is the place, other than home and work where people congregate and feel at home.