The New York Public Library
Collaborative Work
Beyond a physical space that houses books, the library provides a preemptive sphere of property and possession. The borrower essentially time travels through the collection of archives, not just with the physical book itself but through the characteristics of its distant past. However, as the patron evolves from consumer to producer, there is a clear dichotomy that exist between how information is produced and accessed. Challenging the future of libraries is the tension between past-print and future-digital. How will technological advances impact how libraries will change in the future? How will the size and purpose evolve? Asking these questions provided the framework for our research which prompted us to develop a process where we can explore and instigate the redesigning of the New York City Public Library.
While it is heavily debated that the days of traditional books may be numbered, our need for information will always continue to evolve. Perhaps it will serve as a “social networking environment” for independent workers and thinkers alike. These spaces in the library will operate as productive work hubs offering just enough privacy for work to be accomplished. All the while simultaneously incubating social spaces that encourage conversation to spring to life.
The strength of our future co-design process is that it allows for multiplicity in response, but yet restricts the participants enough to stay relevant to addressing the tension of past-print and future-digital. It is engaging, provocative, and prompts people to converse in an in-depth analysis of a space that we so often take for granted. With more time and resources, the project can be further improved to allow for a more realistic and sophisticated method to redesign the library.