Category: Construction

Your Voice, Your Library!

By Library Building Consultant Rosemary Waltos

Massachusetts’ web of automated networks, robust delivery service, and state aid funds to public libraries make it easy and convenient for people to use not only their own city/town library but to freely use any public library in the state. And they do!

The perennial question in library circles is why? Why do some folks in Massachusetts cross city/town borders for their library fix? As is true with many questions, the answers don’t come easy or fast. To help figure it out, the MBLC is launching a study of cooperative borrowing and use patterns of Massachusetts public libraries, especially in-person visits by people that live in other cities and towns.

In addition to gathering statistical information from our networks and ARIS reports, between July and September we are seeking input from library users and library staff members through our Your Voice, Your Library survey.

For some people, surveys are at worse The Plague and at best a nuisance, so we are sweetening the deal for even the most reluctant survey taker. During the month of August, patrons completing the Your Voice, Your Library survey get a chance to enter to win one of three Apple iPad Pros. Not bad, right?

As the patron survey closes, we launch a separate survey of library staff in September. As an incentive to complete it, staff members get a chance to win a “seat on the bus” on our exclusive Your Voice, Your Library tour. We will take a small group of library staffers to as many new library buildings that we can cram into one day (dates and libraries TBD). There will be two different tours offered on two different days for up to ten people on each tour. We’ll talk about what’s great about the designs, and what the librarians would do differently next time, and lunch will be provided.

Of course, we can’t do this without your help. We simply ask that you to put the Your Voice, Your Library survey button on your home page and encourage library patrons and staff members to take the survey. It takes about five minutes to complete. We will be sending information and the survey to you in advance through van delivery and on the PubDir and AllRegions listservs.

The Your Voice, Your Library survey is open to the public until September 8.  For more information about the survey or how you can be involved in this important effort, contact MBLC’s Library Building Specialists at 1-800-952-7403

Lauren Stara, x245, lauren.stara@state.ma.us

Rosemary Waltos, x246, rosemary.waltos@state.ma.us

And THANKS!

2016-17 Construction Grant Round-Up

By Library Building Consultant Rosemary Waltos

Congratulations to all the applicants in the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program (MPLCP) 2016-17 Construction Grant Round. On July 13, the MBLC approved a total of $66,905,603 for provisional construction grant awards to nine libraries in the grant round. At the same time a new construction waiting list was established of libraries slated to receive provisional construction grant awards as funds become available through the program’s annual capital budget. For a list of libraries approved for provisional awards and placement on the waiting list, visit our website via the link at the end of this post.

It often takes years, or sometimes decades, to plan, design, fund and construct a new library building or complete an addition/renovation on an existing one. We know from experience that it is never too early to start the process.

If you are in a library that wants to explore the possibility of initiating a state-funded major capital improvement project, we are here to help. MBLC’s Library Building Specialists are happy to meet with you to see your library building, and talk about your current and future space needs and how MPLCP may be able to help.  To schedule a meeting contact:

  • Lauren Stara, 1-800-952-7403 x245

lauren.stara@state.ma.us

  • Rosemary Waltos, 1-800-952-7403 x246

rosemary.waltos@state.ma.us

For more information about the program, please visit the MBLC’s website: http://mblc.state.ma.us/programs-and-support/construction.

Design Thinking Across the Nation

By Lauren Stara, Library Building Specialist at the MBLC

For the last few weeks I have been spending part of my time with OCLC and WebJunction, helping with a IMLS-funded course. Small Libraries Create Smart Spaces is a program that is supporting 15 small and rural public libraries from across the country as they reimagine and reconfigure their libraries into smart spaces. Most are looking at creating “active learning” spaces from underused or newly reclaimed space (from weeding collections, for example) in their existing libraries.

My particular role has been as a champion of Design Thinking – I was brought on board to help with the Ideation and Prototyping modules. These concepts are two of the components outlined in the Design Thinking for Libraries toolkit by IDEO. It’s an approach I’ve been teaching and using in my work for a couple of years.

The course is completely online, so talking about physical space and especially building prototypes was a bit of a challenge! However, with lots of help from the amazing Betha Gutsche and Brianna Hoffman of OCLC and some pretty amazing tech tools, we made it work. We even had real-time sessions for brainstorming ideas and creating personas.

One of the things I love about my job is the opportunity to share my passion about library design and new ways of thinking and working. It’s especially fun to expand the reach of the agency beyond the borders of Massachusetts and share these ideas with a larger audience. None of this would have been possible even ten years ago. Online collaboration tools are way beyond what they were, and they make it fun.

If you want to know more, take a look at this LibGuide that I wrote for the participating libraries:

A Little History Lesson

By Lauren Stara, MBLC Library Building Specialist

The Library: a World History came out a few years ago and I did a blog post to the short-lived MBLC Construction Blog in January of 2014. I wanted to share it here because it was such a great read.

The book was written by James W.P. Campbell, with photographs by Will Pryce. I saw the review and it sounded interesting, but to be honest I thought I’d ooh and aah over the photos and put it on the shelf.

Au contraire. I started reading the introduction and I realized that this was not just a doorstop with pretty pictures. I’m about half-way through and I have learned about form and design in the library building type from ancient Sumer to the late nineteenth century. I’ve gleaned some great cocktail party conversation starters. For example, did you know that most of the knowledge we have about the earliest libraries is because of fire? Clay tablets, usually just baked in the sun, were “fired” when their building burned. These hardened tablets are the ones that have survived, in contrast to the total destruction of papyrus, vellum and paper in fires. Later libraries were entirely lit by daylight until the advent of electricity, since the potential destruction by lamps or torches was so great.

As the format and production of books evolved, so did the spaces and shelving styles that house them: from lecterns to alcoves to perimeter shelving; from chained books to grillwork cabinets to open shelves. We think we have it bad now, with collections growing out of the available space – imagine the poor librarians right after the printing press was invented! Collections, literacy rates and the services required grew exponentially.

The 21st century is the first time since Gutenberg that the shape of libraries has been determined by something other than printed books. People are using public libraries in unprecedented numbers. They want access to collections, sure, but they also want internet via library stations and wi-fi, programs and activities, and just a place to hang out. Libraries have become the de facto community center in many places, and people take up more space than books do.

We’re in a period of great flux now, and it’s harder than ever to answer the question “what will libraries be like in 20 years?” Over the last several decades, librarians have proven to be masters of resilience and flexibility; our buildings must reflect that flexibility. Mobile technology, furniture and shelving with a welcoming atmosphere and a philosophy of service is the model that seems to be working. We have to be ready for anything.

Postscript: this fabulous quote from the book shows that some things never change:

“The results of Beaux-Arts planning were all too often libraries in which librarians worked in increasingly impractical layouts, designed to look good on plan rather than function well in reality. This was the tyranny of the symmetrical plan.” –p. 225

We have this book in the MBLC professional collection, available through NOBLE or the Commonwealth Catalog.

 

Construction Resources Available through the MBLC

One of the great little-known resources for librarians in the commonwealth is the MBLC’s professional collection. We have hundreds of books on just about every conceivable library-related topic. All these items are available via the NOBLE network.

Because of our current construction grant round, we have put together a resource guide with a list of some of the newest books in our collection in the area of library design, construction and maintenance. Each item on the list links directly to the record in NOBLE, to make requesting easy.

Keen Eye for Detail Sets Shrewsbury Apart

Shrewsbury’s revamped library held its grand opening on September 21. This renovation and expansion project made room for more computers, a new community meeting space, group meeting areas, and a courtyard adjoining the children’s room.

The new space configuration and furniture setup pays homage to the design details and charm of the historic 1903 building while also accommodating the needs of present-day patrons. Self-checkout machines, plentiful power outlets, and many options for seating – whether visitors want to read for hours, charge their devices, study, or just relax in front of the window for a moment – allow for customizable, user-centered experiences in the library.

Got UX?

Lauren Stara, Library Building Specialist at the MBLC, has begun writing a monthly article on UX in libraries for Public Libraries Online. The first two are available now, with a third coming soon!

Improving Your Library’s UX
Go on a Service Safari
Design Thinking and how it Shakes Things Up (later this month)

simba-ux

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