Author Archives: richards

More to a library than ‘just books’ – Conference Report

PLS Member, Lo Claesson was one of the presenters at Check me out a one hour session at the WLIC 2017  developed by the Public Libraries Section together with Metropolitan Libraries and Acquisition and Collection Development. Here’s Lo’s report:

Lo and Anette talk about projects in Sweden

The session had four speakers from PLS : Jan Richards, incoming chair, who gave her top ten from a list of 113 things you could check art from the library, that wasn’t books.

Lo Claesson and Anette Mjöberg, new secretary, who presented some things you can  borrow at the library from a human right’s and environmental perspective.

Marian Morgan-Bindon, outgoing chair, showed different kinds of aids for children with special needs that parents could borrow from one library in Australia.

All presentations, not just ours from PLS, seemed to be appreciated as there were many questions. Especially about the electric bikes Hässleholm Public Library lent.

Conference Report: ‘Public Libraries as Place Makers in Today’s Cities’

PLS member Joe Siegrist  attended MetLib’s  ‘Public Libraries as Place Makers in Today’s Cities’. The session was one of the last on the WLIC 2017 program but as Joe wrote ‘leaving the best until last’.

Steve Dickson explained how he come to a building as a creator and how a library is become a place to meet – the third place.

 

Sujin Huggins than showed how the needs of persons with autism can be served by considering space, service, programs and advocacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saara Ihamäki from Helsinki concluded her experience to involve the people the beginning of building a library: “it is hard to hands over the power!”

 

Paulina Milewska learn more about what people really from libraries want because of the experience of mystery visitors in libraries.

 

In Philadelphia Joel Nichols and Christine Caputo designed an early Childhood library playspace and the climbing wall is now a real attraction.

 

In Copenhagen the library is everywhere – not only inside of the building.

 

All the examples showed libraries play an important part in the daily life and make live a little bit better!

 

Report from Wroclaw – Environmental Sustainability

Members of the Public Libraries Standing Committee are actively participating in the WLIC program in Wroclaw. Lo Claesson reports:

I was invited as a speaker at the session Libraries’ Commitment to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Environmental Sustainability and Libraries SIG. It was an offsite meeting at the Center for Scientific and Technical Information in Wroclaw.

My  presentation was about The Green Corner at Vaggeryd Public Library. I gave a background to why we started it and also some examples of activities we do in connection to the information on sustainable development.

Our Green Corner is connected to the municipality’s environmental strategy and we partner with different actors in the municipality, for example schools, the environmental department and the recycling plant. We make exhibitions, have lectures and every year we take part in Earth Hour.We try to integrate the work with the Green Corner in most library work and I tried to show you can do this at a very low cost.

About 50 people attended and I got some interesting questions.

Norway’s First Youth-Only Library for kids ages 10 to 15

 

 

 

 

Forget what you think about libraries!

Biblo Tøyen, one of Oslo Public Library’s (Deichmanske bibliotek) newest additions, is breaking and changing all the library rules! This is a unique and innovative space, created for young people ages 10 to 15. Adults are not allowed to visit the space.

A library to upgrade an entire district – is that even possible? Biblo Tøyen is located on the Tøyen Torg in a social deprived area of the city. The library and is the only one of its kind; A library that only caters to children aged 10 to 15 years. The Oslo Public Library (called Deichmanske Library ) wanted to create an atypical Culture House, “a third place”, reflecting the motto of the library: “Keep Your Awake!” They desire to enrich the children’s everyday life by inspiring them so they created the coolest place in the city where you can gather ,work and hang around. Architecture psychology was used as a tool to understand the needs of the target groups.

New concept
The design team went directly to the source to begin their mission to rethink and redesign the library space. They held focus groups with young people to find out their wants and needs. The youth said they wanted a place to hang out, relax, and escape parents and siblings. In addition, they needed a safe place to socialize and said it should be a space where they can create and do things together. The library has achieved these goals by creating a cool and comfortable ‘third’ space between school and home where youth can learn, explore, and be themselves.

Library design that let´s you float away into fascination
The answer to the children’s vision was to multiply the creative solutions in the design. A team of skilled craftsmen was employed to create a cool yet pleasant “third place”, a stopover heading home from school. The design boasts creativity and imagination, creating an exciting and inspiring experience for the young visitors. The library’s program extends far beyond just books and reading, and offers everything from cooking to 3D printing.

Biblo Tøyen is the youth library of the future with a drone flying around, scanning and locating media. The interior consists of many exciting elements – like a Vespa veteran car turned into a workshop, the Volvo Bamse car, which contains a multifunctional kitchen, old gondola lanes converted into a workroom, a traditional British phone booth that serves as an entrance to the backstage area and bookshelves made of old wooden shelves.

All major interior elements can be easily moved to make the room more universally available. By using movable and moving objects in the interior, you get a free and flexible floor plan that can be adapted to future needs.
And to put it simple: Biblo Tøyen changes the library paradigm !

I recommend a look at the architect Aat Vo´s creative guide and his own description about this project, with extraordinary pictures !

IFLA Statement on Digital Literacy now available

We’re just catching up with everything that’s happened over the past month or so, the IFLA WLIC tends to take the wind out of our sails as we go back to work enthused to find heaps of projects waiting for us!

One initiative we did want to bring to your attention was the launch of IFLA’s Statement on Digital Literacy which is now available. The project team included Pirkko Lindberg from the Public Libraries Standing Committee who presented the public library perspective along with colleagues from Metlib and other sections.

If you want to read about how libraries are making a difference in building a stronger information society from the Bottom up make sure you read this document.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the 1 June we welcome our Guest Blogger Hitomi Takeuchi from Japan.

In August 2016 the Japan Library Association conducted  a survey about  Public Library Policy in  local government around  1,361 public libraries in Japan. One of the question was ‘does the public library have the policy to improve and activate the local city planning’? 47% of respondents (497 people) answered yes.

Some examples of what this encompasses are:

  • cooperation with local government
  • problem solving , legal issues
  • health & medical issues
  • business support
  • town planning
  • building and space making
  • digital library
  • multicultural-communities services.

Those ranked most important included:

  • problem solving: legal issues  31%
  • health & medical issues 44%,
  • business support 42%.

The other question is what is needed to be able to implement the policy. The top three answers were human resource development, city planning and Creating new business.

(This news come from The Japanese Library Journal May 2017)

Advocacy for UK Public Libraries

Over the past few years many of us have watched the situation with the UK’s public libraries with great interest. CILIP’s Public and Mobile Libraries Group have constructed a presentation report on the advocacy for UK public libraries activities 2007-2017.

The report includes an overview of political, professional and public advocacy campaigns and initiatives of the period. The piece covers an insight into the activities of CILIP, SCL, British Library, Libraries Taskforce, and a number of proactive individuals, including Public Library News and was created primarily for international dissemination.

Worth a look!