Creating a New Library ― Recipes for Transformation

Cooking up a New Library offers ways to make your library group space into one conducive to transformational learning. Transformational spaces are environments where safety reigns, where special kinds of relationships are built, while freedom and challenge remain central. Libraries must provide all these layers. A final layer of fun provides the icing on the library cake, helping the patron invest in learning. This book provides librarians with ideas for providing a transformative library experience for their patrons. Some activities would appeal to a user engagement librarian or outreach librarian. An example of such an idea is the ‘Edible Book Festival,’ where participants create an edible representation of a book. Submissions can then be judged on a number of different merits. Some, such as the‘Personal Librarian’, would appeal to subject liaisons and instruction librarians. Still others are easy and inexpensive activities where librarians who manage Information Commons areas or Circulation departments, would find value.

The book is structured as cookbook with an introduction to the idea, then directions on its execution. Following directions, the book givestips on how to adapt each ‘recipe’ to fit other specific needs, including other kinds of libraries. The layout will follow three strands: space, community, and outreach. Each of the sections will include five elements critical to transforming spaces: fun, stimulation, safety, freedom, and personal. Each section will contain an introduction, demonstrating why this idea is important. Following that will be a selection of recipes of ways to introduce that element to the space in question. From providing coffee in the morning, to a full Personal Librarian program, this book presents useful and engaging ideas for transformational learning.

• Provides practical ideas to enable and encourage transformational learning in academic and research libraries
• Presents practical ideas in the style of a cookbook; recipes that can be readily applied to a variety of sites and situations
• Gives useful insight and ideas relevant to different kinds of libraries, including academic and research libraries
• Suggests fun, quirky, and practical ideas for your library