This session discussed community spaces created in certain libraries, and how the vision of spaces in the library has changed over the past several years. This manifests itself not only in interior spaces but the exterior of the library as well. This program really suffered from the lack of handouts since the first 2 speakers had some really good comments that I’m not sure I can quote accurately, nor do I know how to spell their names. (Yes, they might be listed in the program guide, but really, why should I have to look it up? They should have had their names listed on the PowerPoint presentation or on a paper handout. The whole issue of handouts is for another post!)

The first speaker was Jeffrey Shearer, and he commented that library buildings have moved from being “an artifact of grandness” to more flexible structures. He spoke of the trend toward creating warm and inviting libraries and that communities want to create a sense of place in their libraries, and they want to have an emotional connection to them. Shearer noted some of the ways in which libraries can create a sense of place are to:

• Understand the nature of your community
• Understand adjacency to places where people want to be
• Create distinct areas in your building but make sure they flow into other areas and fit in with the building as a whole
• Learn social distinctions and the use of space in your community

The next speaker was Jeffrey Hoover who spoke about what draws people to libraries. He noted that, in the past, people were drawn primarily by quality collections and secondarily by interesting events or compelling spaces. Now however, these three are much more equal at drawing people into the library. He stated that ‘spaces need to support meaningful, delightful, repeatable experiences’, and “businesses must organize memorable events for their customers.” When planning spaces, they need to support different types of activities, from an isolated, individual activity to participatory activities.

We also need to consider the shape of the space and types of enclosure since a “difference in shape denotes special spaces.” A large space implies an area for impersonal interaction while a small space implies an interpersonal exchange. A low ceiling gives the space an intimate feel while high ceilings feel more formal. Hoover also spoke about the importance of light (natural, artificial, task appropriate) and some contrasting darker areas and having various types of chairs that patrons can move. It was very interesting that none of the presenters or panel speakers thought that signage was really necessary since your space should be intuitive.

The rest of the program was devoted to interactive voting on our part. We were shown pictures of various spaces in libraries designed/built by the panelists or their library systems. We were given about 4 usage choices for each space and had to vote on our first impression about the usage of the space. The voting was a neat way for us to be involved. However, instead of the presenters having a dialogue with the audience about the results of the voting, they primarily talked to each other about whether the results fit their perception of the spaces or not. In fact, when I made a comment that in many cases, the use choices we made (we could only choose one) didn’t mean that we didn’t think the space wasn’t also appropriate for the other choices, one of the speakers got on my case. Some of us were left wondering whether the session was for the presenters or for the audience! And I never did figure out what the subtitle of this session meant.