A tale of two libraries: space, place and reading in Porto’s public libraries

Until 2001, people in Porto, Portugal could only visit or borrow books from one library − São Lázaro − located where the historical centre and the eastern end of the city meet. Then, a new building, the Almeida Garrett Library, was designed and placed in an almost equidistant position between the historical centre and the western zone. Both buildings and their reading atmospheres are quite different. Readers and professionals tend to compare them. And so the question arises: how do two different architectural spaces shape reading practices, even though they are inserted in the same city and serving potentially similar readers? The question sought to explore the interaction between people and space, in other words, how a space provided for reading may be appropriated, how it shapes reading practices, and, what social relations are performed in such reading spaces. Buildings tend to reflect both public reading and local cultural policies, even though the use of the space may alter and circumvent the programmed institutional aims. This analysis of space usage takes into account such policies and actual reading practices, along with their meanings and emotions. Social issues such as class, gender, ethnicity, age and power relationships provided a context for this analysis. As the public services and public buildings were analyzed, a research approach was designed to place reading in the context of urban public space, urban conviviality and the importance of democratic places for encounter and discovery