Library as platform: Embracing the generativity of public library space

Public libraries have a long legacy of serving the public via service provision, yet this poster argues that the library needs to be reconsidered for the generativity embedded in its physical space. Investigating the New York Public Library and Seattle Public Library as result of a study focused on mobile knowledge workers shows how the library is currently being used as a 1) space for productivity; 2) space for community building and sociality; 3) space for meeting; and 4) infrastructural space. Adopting this framework puts a new onus not only on designers (or renovators) of a library’s physical environments, but equally on those who help to establish the norms of practice in these spaces