The Library Stool
It's common to define a modern library as more than just books. It's not a great answer. Alvar Aalto's Stool 60 can provide inspiration for a more inspiring answer.
This week more than 400 library professionals gather in Barcelona for an international conference. The conference is also the in-person convening for an international library leaders’ networking program I am facilitating now for the second year.
Over the last years I have attended dozens of library conferences. There is something I have learned to expect. There has not been a library conference where someone - usually several - on stage has not defined the present and future of libraries by stating that libraries are more than books, or even more than just books. Just on the first day in Barcelona, it was mentioned at least four times.
I have great empathy and understanding for this argument. Having overseen Helsinki’s library system for five years and done international research and consultancy on libraries for the last couple of years, it is evident that people outside the library field don’t often know or understand the broader service portfolio and impact of these civic institutions.
But defining the library as ‘more than just books’ is a highly problematic description of this incredible institution.
As someone with one leg in the library world and another in general public policy, I say this for four reasons.:
You send an (hopefully unintentional) message undervaluing reading at a time when we see steep decline in reading skills and motivation.
You send a message undervaluing the assets that you are most known for and which a lot of people love.
You do not tell people what that ‘more’ is so the statement falls empty.
You come across as highly defensive.
As a response, I have tried to craft a more empowering answers as part of my research. My goal has been to formulate something that is tangible, easy to remember and something that communicates openness and collaboration. I have landed on a metaphor of a three-legged stool.
Stool 60
As a Finn, I have decided to use the most iconic Finnish design object, Alvar Aalto’s Stool 60 designed in 1933, as my demonstration object.
There are a two main reasons for this.
First, the stool looks simple but is far more complex than you might think - just like a library. The simple way that the three birch legs are bent in order to install them with simple screws to the bottom of the seat has required innovation, which has then been copies by many others. The legs are made from layers of long strips of wood, which makes them strong. The seat is hollow, which makes the stool lighter to carry. (read more)
Second, the stool is approachable and sturdy yet beautiful. It still looks beautiful, even more beautiful, after decades. It is very common in public libraries around the world as it functions for all ages and lasts a lifetime. And it was first showcased in a public space in a library in Finland. (Note: The region of Finland Carelia, was since lost to the Soviet Union during the Second World War.)
The Library Stool
I have tried to keep the stool as simple as Alvar Aalto’s physical object.
I suggest that the three legs are:
Place: The library needs to be a public space, which is open to everyone and where people do not need to justify their presence. A great library has high levels of thereness, meaning that it needs to be connected to its physical location and the communities it serves. There a masterful examples of this in architecture and public art and landscaping and interior design. To be a place, the people living close to it need to feel a sense of ownership for the space. For these reasons, you cannot copy-paste a library from one community to another but you need to develop it with people, ideally through experimentation.
A mix of services: The library needs to have a combination of services that meets two objectives: the service offering needs to meet the needs and wants of the communities that the library is serving and the mix that brings people with different needs and wants into the same space. As in Aalto’s stool, a strong service leg requires layers connected to each other. To build the right mix, the library needs to listen carefully to the communities it serves and work with partners on the services.
Content: The library needs to provide access to in-person, physical and digital experiences and insights, which inform, entertain, console, challenge and inspire people and make them feel seen. This means everything from art, music and events to, yes, books. The library also needs to create opportunities of wonder and awe. Serving the full range of emotions and needs through engaging, diverse and accessible content is central for a modern library. A great library today needs to think carefully how the content is packaged and deliver hyperlocal, local, national and international collaborations for licensing and access.
Every stool also needs a seat, which connects the legs to each other and creates the connection to the people using the library. They both connect the library to what it means to live a full life.
Sense of self: The library allows people to develop from a somebody or an anybody to a somebody by allowing people to explore new worlds, inform and educate themselves. Being exposed to information, content, experiences and lives different from yours makes it clearer what makes you unique. The library’s services allow people to take their lives further.
Convivencia: The library is a learning ground for living and coexisting with others. The library provides a physical experience of democracy and a platform for joint action. It builds hope and confidence in living with others and sharing resources. It builds confidence that you have value to the other people in your community. (I have expanded on convivencia more on this previous post.)
How to use the stool?
I have found that thinking of and speaking about libraries through the metaphor of the stool is useful for three reasons:
You need all three legs: What is central for the stool is that the uniqueness of the library requires three healthy legs. If you take out any of the three, it is not a library anymore. If you take out place, the library becomes overly focused on transactions and loses its welcoming and radical idea of being open to people even without a particular need. It loses the opportunity for people to join public life without an obligation to justify your presence. If you take out services, the library limits its societal relevance and the ability to meet people where they are and risks becoming a nice to have service. If you take out content, the library loses the opportunity for learning, imagination and elevation.
The stool connects the library to key societal challenges: Sense of self and convivencia bring wellbeing, education and community to the heart of the library and aligns the library with conversations on the future of democracy, workforce development and mental health. It functions as a way to search for connections to public policy without losing the core of the library.
It requires localization: While the legs are the same in every library, every single library needs to develop their own responses to what do place, services and content mean. It provides a valuable place for books while not centering them in the conversation. It also allows libraries to think which parts of the legs are done on a city level, which on a neighborhood level, which digitally and which through physical services.
Have a seat.
Thank you Tommi of the warm athmosphere of your text! It made my morning pendeling to work very bright, it felt almost like being in a group of young people already. And of course, I also got more motivation to try to get a chance to get to test these principles in real life.