ALA Conference 2009: Panel Focuses on Creating "Zones with Heart"

ALA Annual Conference: Michael Stephens, Alan Kirk Gray, and Robert Fox reflect on designing buildings with 2.0 principles in mind

Bill Goodwyn -- Library Journal, 7/12/2009

• 2.0 can be applied to new or existing buildings
• Darien Library emphasizes developing trends in planning
• Georgia Institute of Technology studied student hangouts to design commons

The foreboding library fortresses of the past are slowly making way to inviting, dynamic gathering places where creativity is encouraged and users have a say in the way their spaces are used. At a presentation at the American Library Association’s annual conference yesterday titled “Library 2.0 Buildings: Creating Zones with Heart,” panelists described how to design and implement Library 2.0 principles in libraries existing, newly built, and currently under renovation.

Involving users
At the session, sponsored by the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA; formerly LAMA), Michael Stephens, assistant professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, River Forest, IL, and co-writer of Library Journal's Transparent Library column, observed that while some managers resist letting users be part of the planning in the development of new library spaces, doing so helps bond the user and the library. He has long championed the introduction of new social networking technologies into libraries, and he believes that there is a need for users to connect with library staff. He also believes that some library policies (such as restricting cell phone use in libraries) limit a patron’s ability to connect with the outside world and only help to promote an oppressive, dehumanizing atmosphere. 

Monitoring trends
Alan Kirk Gray, assistant director of operations at Darien Library, CT, is well-acquainted with the idea of designing library space to best serve its users, finding ways of improving the user experience by making staff members more accessible, and by focusing on user-centered services. Darien stresses the need to anticipate upcoming trends in libraries when it plans future services, funding, and staffing needs, as described in LJ's Library By Design.

Studying users' needs
In renovations, the project’s scope is often limited by the existing space, but the creation of the Commons at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, benefited from heavy input by its users. For the project, which began in 2002, planners studied student needs in order to create zones for individual study, student collaboration, and flexible space, according to Robert Fox, associate director for public and administrative services. Library staff looked around campus to find where students were studying outside the library to incorporate elements of those spaces in the Commons. Fox and his colleagues also drew on a student advisory board and various focus groups during renovations. Audience members were interested in the logistics of supplying extra power sources and dedicated data cable connections to areas that had previously been lacking those amenities.

Attendees seemed to genuinely appreciate the words and the work of Stephens, Gray, and Fox. Although Darien Library is fortunate to be located in an affluent area, many libraries have more limited budgets and are not able to make all of the changes to their facilities as they would like. However, many of the ideas put forth during the presentation have more to do more with the staff’s willingness to engage the patron, and less to do with the physical space. One attendee remarked during the question and answer session that he had been in libraries for 35 years and was happy to hear such positive and uplifting ideas being proposed and implemented, and that customer service ranked so highly in Library 2.0’s mission.

Bill Goodwyn, LJ Guest Contributor, is a graphic designer and MLIS student at Dominican University in River Forest, IL