The Utah State Library sponsored the most useful, most fun class in September, at both the Provo Library and the State Library. Traci Lesneski of Meyer, Scherer, and Rockcastle Ltd. came and presented on “Placemaking at your Library.” She was so great! She has tons of insight into what makes the interior of libraries more patron friendly. Here are the slides she presented.

Here’s what she talked about:

• Changing expectations of library users and its impact on library design
• Principles of Placemaking and how it relates to a library user’s experience
• 10 Steps to a better library interior
• Recent library projects and what people are doing now

Attendees brought photos and floor plans of their libraries to re-design their own library spaces. They came away with ideas for what to do. I even came up with a way to redesign our library space here!

Some of the things that really made me think:

• There has been a decrease in print materials per person in the community in the past few years
• There has been an even steeper decrease in reference materials
• Audio and video materials are on the rise, and e-books are skyrocketing
• The public can’t get enough computers or technology

The shift is from:

Housing resources –> connecting to resources

Print centric –> user centric

Solitary –> solitary/collaborative (some solitary space is still needed, but so is collaborative space)

Mono-task –> multitask

Introverted –> extroverted

Fixed –> adaptable

And, finally, I really liked her 10 steps (make that 12 ??)

My very best takeaway seems to be: embrace color.

Thanks, Traci Lesneski, for the enlightening discussion. See you soon, I hope!

Colleen