Category: Reflection Blogs

It’s difficult to summarize the myriad changes taking place in American public libraries, but one thing is certain. Libraries are no longer hushed repositories of books. Here at the Central branch in Memphis, ukulele flash mobs materialize and seniors dance the fox trot in upstairs rooms.

-Richard Grant

(I was going to cut off that quote at “Libraries are no longer hushed repositories of books,” but I loved the imagery of the last sentence about ukulele mobs and fox-trotting old folks too much to exclude it.)

“This is a library!”

For the CYOA module on Hyperlinked Environments, I chose the adventure: The Hyperlinked Public Library. One theme I noticed in many of the resources in that portion was the library being a space for innovation, inspiration, and…noises! The library can indeed be a place for loud noises—musical noises, expressive noises of excitement, enthusiastic children, let’s make some noise.

I recently began volunteering at my local library and most of my time there has been spent re-shelving books. This puts me in a great spot to overhear a lot of hilarious things said by children. My favorite was a little boy (probably three or four years old) and his mother who had been walking and browsing around the library for probably half an hour when all of a sudden, the little boy stopped in his tracks and very loudly exclaimed, as if it had finally dawned on him, “MOM! This is a library!”

Four Spaces Model

The Four Spaces Model from Dorte Skot-Hansen, LIS professor at University of Copenhagen, is particularly inspiring and supports this idea. Skot-Hansen describes a library model for the future that has four overlapping physical and digital spaces: the inspiration space (access to the arts), the learning space (access to educational resources), the meeting space (access to community engagement), and the performative space (access to creative tools and activities).

Music in the Library

Focusing on the last one, the performative space, I’ve loved seeing so many resources about the library being a space for people to explore recording and performing music. I was struck, in the best way, several years ago when I saw this punk rock band The Linda Lindas performing one of their songs at the LA Public Library.

Richard Grant’s article in the Smithsonian Magazine highlighted, among many, many other incredible things at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library in Memphis, TN, the unique opportunities teenage users have to create and perform music at their Cloud901 facility. As Grant writes, “it contains a state-of-the-art recording studio staffed by a professional audio engineer.” How amazing is that? In a similar vein, the Chattanooga Public Library has the Noise Closet, which is described on their website as a “rock instrument library for ages 10-17 with guitars, drum kits, keyboard, and amps you can check out for up to 1 month.”

Conclusion

As a lover of music and something of a musician (using that word very liberally) myself, I love seeing how libraries are democratizing access to top-of-the-line musical equipment. Those things can be insanely expensive, which can, of course, be a huge barrier for many children to access them. It makes me happy to think of the talent that is being unearthed and refined as a result of some of those barriers being broken down. More art and creativity in the world = a better world for everyone. More generally, I love to see libraries moving far away from the stereotype of a quiet, buttoned-up place to a place in which people can express themselves, even if that’s through some loud noises.

 

References

Chattanooga Public Library – Noise Closet. https://chattlibrary.org/noise-closet/

Grant, Richard – How Memphis Created the Nation’s Most Innovative Public Library. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/memphis-created-nations-innovative-public-library-180978844/?fbclid=IwAR1KhgGc_cXHfCduhqGtJ1Wi5Y2jRho1yW1Q62QjCNC5o2Qs9eLeGnzqqIM

The Linda Lindas – Racist, Sexist Boy (Live at LA Public Library). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5AhU5Q7vH0

Skot-Hansen, Dorte – Library Development: From Collection to Connection. https://287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/4-Spaces-Model-from-Univ-Copoenhagen.pdf

We all need a little (or a lot) more joy in our lives… People may not feel joyful in the workplace, the world, or even in their homes, but library programs can supplement a sense of joy and lightheartedness in everyday life.

-Jina DuVernay

We Need More Joy…Stat!

This quote from Jina DuVernay from her article about joyous library programming in Module 5 deeply resonated with me. It pairs well with Dr. Stephens’s writing about reaching all users in The Heart of Librarianship. As Dr. Stephens asks, “Are we reaching everyone we can? Are we giving them services they want to use? Are we giving them a reason to depend on us?”

How do we do that? I’d argue one incredibly effective way is to help people experience the joy of finding a community. Like DuVernay said, we all need a lot of joy in our lives, and discovering a community helps us do that. DuVernay adds that when new people come to programs she “especially enjoy[s] telling them they are among like-minded people and encouraging them to get to know one another.”

Community Through Common Interests

We all have something we’re passionate about, and I don’t know about you, but when I’m passionate about something I really, really want to talk about it with other people who share that passion (even if you don’t share that passion, I’ll probably still find a way to bring it up), whether that be through face-to-face or online interaction.

I loved this post from Goodnow Library in Sudbury, MA, about an event they held recently, and it all revolved around uniting people with similar interests. These people were able to shelter from the storm (the literal one and all the metaphorical ones currently raging in our lives) together and talk about what they love.

Link to post

A Final Word

Love’s in need of love today.

-Stevie Wonder

This year is the 50^th anniversary of Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life album (an all-time favorite of mine). These are the album’s opening words, and they feel so relevant in this moment. In order for feelings of love and joy to prevail in our communities, we have to have some intentionality in doing things that feed those feelings.

We in the library-verse have a massive opportunity to do that. When people show up to programs, we should take some time to ask them about their lives, to get to know them. We should celebrate them being there. We should have fun with them, laugh with them, and show them that there is joy in our work. Their day should be better because they came to the library.

I’ll leave with this question: How do we create and administer programs in such a way that more and more people feel like there is a place where they belong and are welcome in this world that is too often cruel and unforgiving to too many of us? I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts and ideas.

 

References

DuVernay, Jina – There is Joy for All: Tips for Joyous Library Programming. https://programminglibrarian.org/articles/there-joy-all-tips-joyous-library-programming

Stephens, Michael – The Heart of Librarianship: Attentive, Positive, and Purposeful Change, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1454-0.