The document discusses the importance of libraries as public places that promote social interaction and community. It argues that libraries are crucial social infrastructure that can reduce loneliness and support mental health. The rebuilding of Roskilde Library is presented as a case study of placemaking to create a welcoming space that strengthens community connections. The value of libraries lies not just in resources but in providing places for people to belong, learn together and feel less alone.

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
The European Business School Librarians’ Group AGM 2021

2. What makes a
great place?

3. What we are going to talk about today:
1) Why public places matter
2) Placemaking: A way to work with public places
3) The Library as place and social infrastructure
[I will not be talking about library decor or design]

4. 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

5. Places and people: The 1995 Chicago heat wave

6. 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

7. The Library as social infrastructure:
Not only shared books but also shared spaces

8. I am human and I need to be loved just like anybody else does
How Soon Is Now, The Smiths 1985

9. The impact of libraries as places goes beyond walls and shelves
Working with places is working with people

10. Students and mental health
64% said they felt ”very lonely”
- American College Health Association
70% percent felt ‘very lonely’ and ‘so depressed that
It was difficult to function’
- National College Health Assessement
The importance of
social infrastructure in academia?

11. Denmark (5.5 million inhabitants)
Yearly casualties among citizens who are lonely:
770 extra deads
19.000 extra somatic admissions
3.800 extra psychiatric admissions
27 million Euros for care and treatments
Source: ”The burden of disease
in Denmark” by the National Board of Health
Weak social infrastructure and loneliness
– the invisible disease of 21st societies

12. First life, then spaces, then buildings
- Jan Gehl
Placemaking:
An approach to creating public places

13. 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

14. Placemaking principles
• The Community knows best
• Places, not designs
• Make and act on observation
• Requires a vision
• Placemaking is an ongoing process

15. Placemaking case story:
The rebuilding of Roskilde Library: An investment in social
Infrastructure and places for connection and community

16. Roskilde Main Library, rebuilding and placemaking 2019 - 2020
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

18. The Library Garden and Roskilde Library after the rebuilding

22. Public places and libraries are about people connecting with stuff:
The better the place, the stronger the connections

24. Why do they come?
Do we have that great tables and chairs?
Why don’t they sit at home?
Or at Starbucks?

25. Case story: Trashed campus, neat library

26. TRUST
and
COMMUNITY

28. Community
The public library is a place where citizens
experience togetherness – alone, or with
others – and were they experience that
materials and facilities are a common
property without financial barriers

29. Trust
The public library is a place where
can you trust what you see and hear

30. Vienna Universty Library of Economics and Business

31. 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

32. 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 and mental health issues is also a factor in academia
• Don’t start with the building. Start with the community
• Public places as libraries are important parts of our social
infrastructure in both civic life and academia
• We need a new language to talk about the value and impact of public
places and libraries

33. Final notes

34. The librarian
Final notes #1: The most valuable asset of a library
as place is the employess and the community

35. Final notes #2: Be like the anthropologist

36. Final notes #3: Great places are
a pinata of inter-related factors

37. Final notes #4: Functionality, functionality, functionality

38. Final notes #5: Embrace failures

39. Final notes #6: Never ever change
the library name to something else

40. Final notes #7: Be proud

41. 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