Libraries as Community Porches

Michael Kodransky
Apr 13, 2008
May 1, 2024
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Photo: Main Library in Charlotte, NC

Neil Peirce, whose weekly columns about state and regional issues are syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group, reports on the growing trend of libraries as better social gathering places, offering activities beyond traditional book borrowing and reading. It's now more common for uses on the inside to spill seamlessly to the outside. PPS worked with the Public Library of Charlotte on ways to create better public spaces around the perimeter of the building:

"If the old model of the library was the inward focused 'reading room,' the new one is more like a community 'front porch.'"

Libraries can be anchors for community life.

Related Articles:

Libraries That Matter [PPS Newsletter, 4/2007]

Library Placemaking in Action [PPS Archived Newsletter]

How to Make Your Library Great [PPS Archived Newsletter]

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