Facilitating browsing of our print collections – books and serials – will keep our patrons coming in for that hit of traditional library flavor. In my opinion this should be a key aspect of library as place, and also serves to caution libraries about relying too much on remote storage in favor of other uses of our buildings.

One thing I would think important would be to keep separate the effects of “ambiance and amenities” from “access and tools for use.” I don’t think adding new technologies is about “place” as much as “use.” My own observation is that enabling use – through tools, hours, services, etc. (and good furniture) is really important to actually make the connection with library resources. Of course – natural light, comfort, etc. aren’t without their value!

Though many of us don’t have the visually-rich collections that this library has, that phrase describes the best of libraries of all types. They’re organized a certain way, but invite people make their own associations – or as Alberto Manguel says in his History of Reading, the organization we impose asks the reader to “rescue” books from their categories.

I would say the characterization of libraries and librarians as totally uninterested in books (or libraries – note the quotes around ‘information science’ as if that’s a horrid neologism we just coined) is reductive, and certainly the librarians he described in the article who visited were politely critical of the fact that this unusual library is not often open and currently requires mediation of its curators since the organization is not geared to self-directed discovery. And you make a great point about our taking on a social need that nobody else was embracing by providing free Internet access to all.

But this bears out the OCLC Perceptions report’s finding that when people think of libraries, they think of books – quite fondly. And it makes me think that we should not inadvertently dismiss some patrons’ interest in books as we advertise new services or design libraries to respond to non-bookish interests. We do often act as if books are so last year. (Remember, a hundred years ago we thought some books were likely to rot people’s minds and had a duty to push more elevating reading material when they asked for novels.)

Of course, this print/digital either/or dichotomy is a false one. But I really am interested in knowing if “library as place” gestures are drawing students to the resources, or simply to the ambiance and amenities.