The document discusses the significance of libraries as public spaces and social infrastructure that foster community engagement and connection. It emphasizes the interplay between physical environments and human behavior, advocating for placemaking principles that prioritize community involvement and an ongoing process of development. The author highlights the importance of libraries in supporting both academic success and social well-being.

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
ASL Conference, Dublin, March 2019

2. What makes a
great place?

3. Why do they always put academic
experts in the library?

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

5. 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

6. To understand the impact of places
we need to understand people

7. A place is not just a place:
We respond to our surrondings
Environmental psychology (late 1960’s)
- Interplay between people and their surroundings
- Environtments effects human behaviour

8. We respond to instutions

9. Places and people: Why I love Berlin

10. Chicago heat wave
Places and people: The 1995 Chicago heat wave

11. 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

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

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

14. 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

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

16. Roskilde Main Library, rebuilding and placemaking 2019
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

17. 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 kills
• Don’t start with the building. Start with the community
• Public places as libraries are important parts of our social
infrastructure in civic life. But how about in academic life?

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

19. Case story: Trashed campus, neat library

20. Why do they come?
Two approachs:
• The library as place (and brand)
• Social infrastructure and the life of the user

21. The Library as brand: Trustworthy since 2600 BC

22. The life of the user goes beyond tables and chairs
Social infrastructure is at least as important as hard infrastructure

23. The story about Knut,
the lonely student

24. The story about Knut,
the lonely student

25. 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

26. Library Candle Light Dinners:
Fostering social infrastructure on campus

27. The library as place and brand
are attached to great values
Let that place and your
actions foster social
infrastruture on campus
learning, knowledge, trust, inclusion, cultural experiences

28. Final notes!
[Hey Laura, how much time do I have left?]

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

30. Final notes #2: Be like the anthropologist

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

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

33. Embrace failures
Final notes #5: Embrace failures

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

35. Final notes #7: Be proud

36. 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