product. To discover one’s self is to rediscover the world. Robert David Sack makes this relationship quite clear.
As a locus of experience, personal place provides a holistic sense, interweaving elements from the realms of nature, meaning, and social relations. From its other side, it sets in motion the potential to see the world from somewhere else, and then unravel the threads and trace them back to the particular realms. The key to understanding the relation between these moments lies in the connection of place to awareness. (Sack, 1992, p. 30)
As we learn about ourselves through the introspection that is stimulated by heightened awareness, we interpret the world around us differently and gain a more advantageous perspective on life, thereby achieving a greater understanding of our situation in the world. So, it is logical that ‘‘The more we experience a behavior setting, the greater its power to alter our percep- tion of the ‘real world’’’ (Gallagher, 1993, p. 129).20Synesthetic experience is commonly associated with the identification of place, as can readily be judged from references to the literary work of Marcel Proust, which figure prominently among examples offered by scholars who are representative of diverse fields. In the novel’s most famous scene, the protagonist ofRemem- brance of Things Past dips a Madeleine cookie into a cup of lime blossom tea, the resulting combination of whose flavor and aroma unleashes his involuntary memory and thus helps him better understand the present. The experience is not just literary, of course, but more broadly human and physiological. The neurologist Sir Russell Brain notes that ‘‘an object seen is seen endowed with those qualities which experience has shown it to have for other sensory modalities, tactile shape, texture, temperature, weight, &c’’
(Brain, 1959, p. 33). Yi-fu Tuan advances this information: ‘‘An object or place achieves concrete reality when our experience of it is total, that is, through all the senses as well as with the active and reflective mind’’ (Tuan, 1977, p. 18). The library is about providing information; but it is more, or more profoundly, about understanding. At its best, the library experience is about both understanding of self and understanding of world.
perceptible in a given location. The first and single-most important step in that direction is recognition of the full range of the values of place and the power it possesses. Action that is oriented to the future of the library as place means sustaining, enhancing, or re-creating the space to permit, to encourage or to facilitate the natural bonding process that is innate, even if dormant, in most humans. It should now be evident that ‘‘the perception of the environment is a great deal more than the sum of the perceptions of those objects which make up that environment’’ (Le´vy-Leboyer, 1982, p. 46). Perception of place invokes and gives further definition to a world view, it provides a special comfort by enabling the continued definition of self, and it stirs the imagination. Place is an essential and inspiring sense, but one that sometimes needs to be aroused and sustained through the right kinds of nurturing. It arguably is among the responsibilities of librarianship to work toward that vision.
Fortunately, creating library place does not require us to start from a blank slate, but rather makes us identify and strengthen those elements in the library setting that have tended naturally toward the most likely effect to be achieved. Whatever positive connotations are best emphasized, it is a matter of thoughtfully blending the design of the digital environment com- mensurately with the concept of place. Perception, image, cognitive systems, and feelings are not simple considerations to integrate into library man- agement. But the most challenging aspect of this undertaking stems from what seems to be the mixture of conflicting temperaments that it entails today. We cannot afford to ignore or gloss over the likelihood that the temperament that drives the speed and precision of the library’s technolog- ical dimension, which is integral to most library services, is at odds with the temperament that encourages the contemplation and exploration that are expected of place. This must be dealt with directly. But the raw materials are there to be shaped; the potential is there to be realized. ‘‘I would suggest,’’
says David Canter, ‘‘that the real significance of environmental change and the concomitant change in conceptual systems, is the change in the inter- action we have with our surroundings’’ (Canter, 1977, p. 156). We do not need an entirely new library. But we do need to take stock of the essence, or the latent essences, of the library as place and of the full potential of the library as experience, and to set them, figuratively, in bold relief. First, we need to understand these influences ourselves; then we need to bring that understanding to bear on the fashioning of space that will be conducive to the very subtle experiential essence that can be valued by those many in- dividuals who are most susceptible to its influence.
We have arrived at a fortuitous moment in that regard, for, as observed earlier, what now appears to be the beginning of a gradual displacement of print text by digital21 is accompanied by an unprecedented intensity of attention to the library as place. The ubiquity of points of access to infor- mation and, therefore, the convenience of information at fingertip, argues loudly the possibility that the physical library can be bypassed, and consequently raises logical questions about the function of its space. Surely, we do not really believe that convenience of access to the world’s informa- tion is either the sole function or the ultimate goal of the library in the long term. Study of the concept of place indicates that the library’s function should and can be considerably more than that.
A proposition advanced decades ago by environmental psychologist Harold Proshansky and his colleagues provokes circumspective thought about the current library situation; they concluded that ‘‘When a change in a physical setting is not conducive to a pattern of behavior that has been characteristic of the setting, that behavior will express itself at a new time or locus’’ (Proshansky, Ittelson, & Rivlin, 1970, p. 33). Of course, the library profession would prefer that the chosen locus for library-type activity be the institution that the library has become or can become. But the profession is not alone in that preference, because the logic of it is so compelling and so well supported by the established positive senses of place already associated with the library, even if they have been taken largely for granted in the recent whirlwind of technological innovation.
Because the image an individual generates about the qualities perceived in surrounding space prompts action, the manner in which change is intro- duced assumes even greater significance as ‘‘It is these changing environ- mental roles which mediate the changes in conceptual systems’’ (Canter, 1977, p. 156). David Canter speculates further that ‘‘increasing differenti- ation is an aspect of certain types of cultural development, especially those involving the importation of new technologies or modes of space use’’
(p. 118). None of this means that place is ignored or is rendered less sig- nificant as the culture evolves but, rather to the contrary, that it can be defined more distinctly.
Speaking at a national conference on the library as place, an architect reminds us of what we already know about an academic library, but of which we do not always seem fully convinced and confident.
The library is the only centralized location where new and emerging information tech- nologies can be combined with traditional knowledge resources in a user-focused,
service-rich environment that supports today’s social and educational patterns of learn- ing, teaching, and research. Whereas the Internet has tended to isolate people, the library, as a physical place, has done just the opposite. Within the institution, as a reinvigorated, dynamic learning resource, the library can once again become the cen- terpiece for establishing the intellectual community and scholarly enterprise. (Freeman, 2005, p. 3)
Among the many other similarities between academic and most other types of libraries, the fact that the library is a unique institution within its com- munity remains clear. Not to seize the opportunity presented by this uniqueness in the interests of the users of the library would be a most unfortunate mistake.
In contrast to creating physical space, the subject of creating or sustaining place as an identifiable experience has begun to receive a level of attention in the library press that is unprecedented. Meanwhile, as much professional and scholarly writing outside librarianship addresses the more general as- pects of place, most of which are highly applicable to the library, the few theories advanced for the creation or design of place also share in their fundamentals. Yi-fu Tuan observes that successful architecture most evi- dently generates a strong sense of place simply by housing the accumulated experiences of work or worship or whatever is the regular activity of the space, but that ‘‘a great building is also an image of communal life and values: it is communal experience made into a tangible and commanding presence’’ (Tuan, 1975, pp. 161–162). Elsewhere he states that while human beings not only discern geometric patterns in nature and create abstract spaces in the mind, ‘‘they also try to embody their feelings, images, and thoughts in tangible material’’ (Tuan, 1977, p. 17).22Psychiatrist Eugene V.
Walter summarizes the special place created by experience:
The totality of what people do, think, and feel in a specific location gives identity to a place, and through its physique and morale it shapes a reality which is unique to places – different from the reality of an object or a person. Human experience makes a place, but a place lives in its own way. Its form of experience occupies persons – the place locates experience in people. A place is a matrix of energies, generating representations and causing changes in awareness. (Walter, 1988, p. 131)
These are the most fundamental of guidelines, to which informed imagi- nation must give shape. For centuries, the library has presented a unique experience for those who sought it or discovered it by chance. As place, it has encouraged, in the most subtle and passive ways, the reflection and introspection that arouse the individual subconscious. If the library profes- sion recognizes this value and chooses to adopt it as a fact with the same degree of certainty as the undeniable fact that library services incur a cost,
then the challenge is to maintain the quality of that unique experience, but with such accommodations as may be necessary in a hybrid environment that emphasizes its digital dimension. It is a matter of more purposefully applying the theories of the concept of place to the physical library through a merger of the developing technologies into the perception of one holistic library experience. This will require much thought, but it will be a fasci- nating intellectual venture.
As suggested earlier, it is not the purpose of this paper to recommend specific library operations or services, logistics or mechanics, but to consider the much subtler and more qualitative dimensions of human experience that can interact to create the library as place. First among them is the single most significant characteristic of the library, and therefore its foundation for further refining, which Betsy Baker aptly describes as convergence:
For the library to be a true convergent point in the information landscape, we need to develop an environment from which users can intuit that they are in a hub where an abundance of intellectual and informational resources, from a wide variety of disciplines, schools of thought, times, geographic locations, ethnic voices, production formats, and so on, are coming together. It is in this desire to be a place of convergence that we set ourselves apart from other information providers. (Baker, 2000, p. 87)
How this vision can be realized is a matter to be determined within each library and its community, but there are many other considerations, as well, that would build upon Baker’s suggested foundation for the library as place.
By abstracting the concepts advanced in the works of a number of mostly recent writers,23 they can be brought together into a coherent vision, such that they are applicable in principle to all types of libraries. Thus, among the perceptions to be encouraged are those of sanctuary and solitude required to engage in the refinement of analytical and critical thinking, yet with the awareness of ready support systems; available collaborative learning processes and varied learning environments; and the drama of community that makes one feel a greater sense of self and higher purpose; the sense of a contemplative oasis for the spirit and intellect, both in reaction against conformism and to provide a sense of control over individual fate; the perception of comfort, including the olfactory and tactile experiences, which is important to endowing the library with the sense of a special kind of familiarity that befits an intellectual home; the perception of the library as an iconic symbol, as a presence that recalls historical experience and tradition in the midst of a world of constant change and innovation.
J. Nicholas Entrikin makes a special point of noting that some places are given significance as symbols of a shared past or in recognition of their cultural distinctiveness, and that it is the job of preservationists ‘‘to stabilize
the meanings associated with places. They do so in a self-conscious manner, as responses to a perceived human need for attachment and identity’’
(Entrikin, 1991, p. 58). It is that human need that we should strive to meet in planning the future of the physical library and the library as place. Our responsibility is to preserve what can reasonably be preserved of the library as place and to accommodate current and emerging service potentials accordingly.
When the stage is set to invite the appropriate perceptions, they will then be conducive to the three great achievements that the library as place can offer: the nurturing of imagination,24the refinement of self-identity, and the extension of thought into invention and the rediscovery of the surrounding world. Arguably, these potentials embrace the core of the mission of any library, the differences being how and to what extent they are intended to be achieved. It is not uncommon that settings provide a level of predictability that guides toward an accepted and expected behavior, and even that ‘‘We unconsciously rely onybehavior settings to supply much of the stability of our social institutions’’ (Gallagher, 1993, p. 128).
This essay attempts to reference the generic physical library, although my bias that whatever else we may be, we are also and always students, may show through more than necessary. But the learning dimension of the library surely is highly worthy of emphasis when contemplating the power of place.
Whoever is the user of the library, our primary purpose in managing it is to help the users do what they do better as a result of their library experience. It is precisely because of the possibility of the fathoming experience it offers that the library is a social institution, not a public utility. Understood in its fullest sense, for example, the concept of learning occupies a particularly significant segment of the voyage from the library as utility to the library as place in the way place has been described here. To be sure, the library is a tool. But in its fullest sense the library is that and much more. The funda- mental purposes of the ‘‘learning library’’ are described succinctly:
The central idea of the learning library is that of integrationyRather than an external
‘add on’ to the educational experience, the library, as information resource and gateway, is a primary catalyst for cognitive, behavioral, and affective changes in students – as they interact with information resources as directed by faculty, as they complete assignments and study with peers, as they extend their knowledge at multiple levels, seeking con- nections and making meaning in more self-directed ways. The learning library, rather than a repository of materials or a study hall, is therefore an agency of change in students’ lives. (Simons, Young, & Gibson, 2000, p. 124)
More than a belief, an unwritten theory has long held that the library can be an agency of individual and societal improvement: Students become better
students, workers become better workers, citizens better citizens, and all of humanity benefits. Taken to their limits, notions of the library as place are attempts to more nearly realize the potential portrayed in this theory.