“In the absence of informal public life, living becomes more expensive. Where the means and facilities for relaxation and leisure are not publicly shared, they become the objects of private ownership and consumption.” – Ray Oldenburg

As we enter the home stretch for the Storefront Library at 640 Washington St, Boston Street Lab is running evaluation interviews with staff and patrons. A frequent theme emerging from these discussions is the unique role of the Storefront Library as a safe, engaging social space where patrons can linger.

For example, we’re hearing that the Storefront Library is a preferred meeting location for friends going out, because you can read a book, visit the Drawing Lab, or join a program underway while waiting for your companions to show up. Alternatively, some patrons simply drop in after work or school before heading home for dinner, usually for newspapers or internet access. Others of you have discovered that we’re open late on Thursday and that we have a collection of donated board games. And everyone knows that you can sit and read anytime, without have to buy a cup of coffee, or shop, (or pretend to shop).

Third places is a term used by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg referring to a type of social space lying between home and work—the two places where we generally spend most of our time. Importantly, third places can provide an opportunity for creative interaction and civic engagement on a level playing field. Here are a few links exploring the concept in relation to libraries (and coffee shops) from bloggers in Boston (MA) and Maricopa County (AZ).

We’re inspired by the concept of third places, but, as any librarian, cafe owner , or postmaster will tell you: the devil is in the details. Right now, Boston Street Lab is analyzing quantitative and qualitative data about how people use the Storefront Library. Our goal: uncover and document how to lower costs, reduce risk, remove operational impediments while simultaneously improving guest experience, raising program attendance, and increasing positive community impacts. We think a rigorous evaluation of this temporary project can inform and inspire advocacy for a permanent library branch in the neighborhood. We also think it will help Boston Street Lab and other producers seeking to develop other street-level cultural and civic uses of space in urban neighborhoods.

Do you have thoughts about the Storefront Library? Here’s how you can contribute:

• Feedback online
• Leave a message for us at the Storefront Library Hotline (617) 466-9171
• Drop in and feedback in person

While the shift to digital media will cause library organizations to become larger through mergers, it will also allow branches to be effective at smaller sizes. Without the need to store a critical mass of books, tiny, storefront branches will become more practical and cost efficient. Guys in vans carrying books will become more important. When people go to their local branch, they’ll be able to use the free Google Books terminal (libraries are to get one free for every building) or other computers, check out some books, then have a coffee and socialize for an hour or so until the van makes its hourly delivery. Or they’ll do their shopping rounds and come back to pick up the bag of books waiting for them. Establishing branches in shopping areas is not only a smart thing for libraries to do, it’s also very cost-efficient.

In my own town, it seems that almost every year there’s talk of closing the branch to save money. If you look at it, you can see why—the building is massive and has to be very expensive to operate. Eventually it will be shuttered and sold, but a storefront branch down the block could deliver the same services and cost much less to run. Does it make sense for the town high school to run its own library? Not really, but that could be another branch. We’ll have fewer libraries, but more locations.

Read Eric Hellman’s full post here.

Interested in more?  Check out some of the threads we’ve been following about libraries and small-scale, street-level cultural use of urban space.

The goal is to lay the groundwork for a future, larger scale branch in the neighborhood.

Southeast Mesa will have its first city library by May after the idea won enthusiastic endorsement Thursday from the City Council.

“This is a ‘Wow!’ moment for me,” Councilman Alex Finter told library director Heather Wolf after she outlined how her thin, money-starved staff has found a way to stretch services to the growing area.It won’t be a full library for at least several years, but it’s a start similar to the one that launched the Red Mountain branch library in 1987.
…
Staffers would be rotated into the new library from other facilities. Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh joined others in praising Wolf and her staff. “It’s ironic,” he said. “I was part of the council in 2002 that approved the library master plan that called for five additional libraries. At that time I had no idea that it would take eight years to get one of the five additional libraries.”

We appreciate how the planners created a timeline describing the steps they took in developing this project, including a list and cost analysis of considered sites. For more information about the storefront library in Buffalo visit the branch home page, blog, or facebook page.

Inauguration day of “T-Sture”, the new Metro Library at Stureplan, Stockholm from Åke Nygren.

Here’s a glimpse of what appears to be the opening of a new library in a Metro Station in Stockholm. (Note the fresh flowers, cafe area, and acrobats.)

We’ve been exploring the concept of “library outposts,” a term which we trace to Nate Hill, Head Librarian of the Greenpoint Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and advisor to the Storefront Library Project. In Sweden, the library outpost idea seems to be well underway in the form of mini-branch libraries in Metro stations, and also in the form of “Bookomatics,” which are ATM-like devices which distribute books to library card holders. A version of these machines has arrived in California, under the catchy name “Library-a-Go-Go.”

As we think about how a public library program can be adapted to a vacant storefront in Boston, we’re keeping an eye on other adaptations already underway. In the case of the Stockholm’s Metro Libraries, we’re intrigued by the emphasis on the traditional core of the library program—the circulation of books. More on Sweden’s “underground” libraries from intelligentnaivety.com and monocle.com.

Boston Street Lab toured the open-air Reading Room at Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan and met with Paul Romero, Project Director.

The original Reading Room began in 1935 as a public response to job losses in New York, and it ran until the start of WWII. The current Reading Room draws on that precedent by offering carts with periodicals and books, which can be used by visitors without charge. Since 2004, the Reading Room has also offered a robust program of readings at lunch-time, after work, and for kids. Books are donated by publishers. Periodicals are donated by a newspaper delivery service. The Reading Room is staffed, and stickers on the books help prevent materials from “walking.” Patrons enjoy free WIFI which is an amenity of Bryant Park generally.

The program is overseen by three managers (two focused on programming, one on operations). An additional staff person is on-site from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Carts are covered and locked after hours, and newspapers re-stocked each morning. Most authors who participate in readings do not take an honorarium. Although the Bryant Park is directly adjacent to the Mid-Manhattan Branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL), the Reading Room is not affiliated with the NYPL.

We’re looking closely at the operation of The Reading Room. Despite being open-air, the Reading Room is quite similar, operationally, to the Storefront Library.

Thanks to Reading Room staff for sharing their experience with us.

Today we journeyed to Greenpoint to meet Nate, tour his Greenpoint branch, and gather his advice about developing the Storefront Library program. Nate’s enthusiasm for our project was deeply appreciated—it was great to connect with an experienced librarian who clearly has an appetite for the idea of putting a library in a storefront.