Cafe Librarianship

I attended a session on "Marketing Your College Library: The Centre of Your Community" on Thursday, June 15, 2006. Several speakers talked about the concept of "social spaces" in academic libraries, but if you had to condense the meaning into two points, then social spaces seem to mean: (1) students in front of computer hubs in the library; and (2) permission to eat and drink in the library. Although a simple interpretation, I think that these two points sum up "social spaces." And why not? Students network while working in front of computers, and the best conversations are had over coffee.

Actually, another session that I attended briefly touched upon how to market your library, and a common theme was how users enjoy being able to read a book with a coffee in one hand, and a sandwich in the other. The "Idea Stores: A New Model of Service Provision" on Friday, June 16, 2006 by Heather Wills, Idea Store Programme Director was able to show how offering a place to eat and drink led to more people coming to the library. Here is my interpretation of her presentation. There are many other factors explaining the success of Idea Stores in the UK, such as new locations near shopping malls, matching opening hours with rival businesses, staff uniforms and a push to have staff approach clients instead of waiting at desks, architecture using windows to invite people in to the library, etc. An Idea Store combines library services with a commitment to adult learning (and a business-like operation). By "business-like," one could take the URL for Idea Stores as an example, since it ends in .co.uk, rather than .org. Also, Idea Stores define their competitors as cinemas, malls, etc., not other libraries. Idea Stores are being built to replace libraries after surveys found that people were not using libraries, but felt that libraries were important. A major finding was that people wanted libraries to be located where they could combine a trip to the library with other activities, such as shopping. While Idea Stores are still being planned and constructed, some of them have been operating for approximately five years. Borough-wide (in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England), circulation has increased 141% since 2001, so Idea Stores seem to have a brand that is appealing to consumers. For a recent article that touches on the debate of Idea Stores and corporate-involvement in public libraries, see "Branching out" in The Boston Globe (April 30, 2006).

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Photograph: Statue of Lester Bowles Pearson on Parliament Hill.