collaboration and co-creation - key issues for public library development. reflections from a...

Collaboration and co-creation - key issues for (public) library development.

Reflections from a Swedish perspective

Key Issues for library space: international perspectivesMaynooth University Library 2016-03-03

[email protected]

Where is Umeå?On the north east coast

• 700 km from Stockholm • 1 hour flight

One of Sweden’s fastest growing cities:• 117 000 inhabitants • Average age: 38

2 universities: • 29 000 students• Areas of excellence:

Cancer research Biological chemistry Plant and forest

biotechnology One of the world’s best

Institute of Design

European Capital of Culture 2014

11 Public libraries, 1 bookmobile: • Several international awards• New City Library 2014

Reflexions

“I keep six honest serving men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who”

/Rudyard Kipling

• What basic needs do we want to meet?

• Why is collaboration and co-creation important?

• How do people experience a library?

• Why change a winning concept?• When do we relocate a library?• How attract new visitors?• Who is the library designed for?

Are The Times A Changin’?

Libraries contribution to our democratic rights is as important today as it was for 100 years ago.

1891: • “a public library for all classes, with reading and

writing room and a lecture-hall”• “ a combined library and swimming pool where

“boys could be lured into reading and bookworms to the swimming pool”

Why collaboration and co-creation?

1. Tight budget – important how we spend the money we have and to share costs

2. Children's reading decreases – new methods to support reading and information skills

3. Increased gap between those who have access to information and those who have not – Important to attract people who doesn’t use the libraries today

Photo: Henrik Sikström

More than co-operation and co-location

Kaospiloterna, Aarhus, Denmark. Photo: Inger Edebro Sikström

“Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”

Collaboration and co-creation are built on:• common values• shared costs• joint competencies• the wishes and the needs of the users – and the non-users• the library as an active part in the society they serve

”If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere!”

/Lydia Namugera, Makarere University Library, Uganda

IFLA Library Buildings and Equipment’s Satellite Meeting, Singapore 2013

Photo: Jeff Scherer

How do people experience a library?

“The library has everything you need - but it is impossible to

find anything” / Petter, age 15

Idea Store, Whitechapel, London. Photo: Inger Edebro Sikström

Cross Border Collaboration

Illustration: White Architects, Umeå

General buildings for flexible usage

Illustration: Stig Bergqvist

Why change a winning concept?• “Everything is great• “The library is the city’s most

important place”• “Please, do not move the library”• “Great location as it is”

The wish-list:• Longer opening hours • Quiet study areas• Clean toilets that you can pay

with text messages• …

The “life-cycle” of Umeå City Library

1926-1935

1936-1954

1954-1985

1985-2014

2014- ?

Part of strategic city development

Meeting places. Cultural activities. Experiences. Small-scale business. Eating-places “Other establishments that contribute to making the area

inhabited, safe and full of life all year around”.


Wish list for innovative design• Support to individual/informal

learning:– Offering open collaborative learning

spaces and quiet individual spaces• Support to curiosity and creativity:

– Offering “labs” equipped for trying new ways of expressions and an arena for performances

• Support to understand the society we live in– Offering space and information

about the city’s modern history• Be a place “to meet up and tweet

up”, for people and different kinds of activities Photo: Inger Edebro Sikström

”Most of our problems can be solved. Some of them will take brains, some of them will take patience.

And some of them will have to be wrestled with like an alligator in a swamp”.

Wallpainting Chicago Public Library. Quote: Harold Washington, Mayor Chicago 1983-1987. Photo: Inger Edebro Sikström

collaboration and co-creation - key issues for public library development. reflections from a...

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