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This concept is the “third space” – a social space other than work and home where people can congregate, socialize, and relax. Parks and libraries are some of the only remaining spaces in capitalism where people can be humans without paying for the privilege to exist by the minute.
True, that is what the concept has become. But we need to remember that “third place” originally ment places of business like pubs, cafés, barbershops etc.
Modern cities do need the kind of places you ment - not more malls or apple stores (think I read that it’s a new trend to have those resemble places you can casually chill so they can casually sell you their stuff).
Americans reinventing coffee houses that aren’t Starbucks be like:
You gotta pay to be at a coffee house. And sure, coffee isn’t terribly expensive and most places won’t kick you out even hours after you’ve bought your single cup of coffee, but non-Starbucks coffee shops are usually tiny and in some places hard to find.
Look, we’ve reinvented the tubes a bunch of times…
We will reinvent humanity a billion times…
I think this is why Borders went out of business…
Borders was pretty cool.
What was borders?
A bookstore that also had a cafe in it. People would go there and buy a drink or whatever and read. The problem was after reading they didn’t have to buy the book. I read a ton of comic books for the price of a coke back then. A library set up like this would be pretty cool.
That sounds like Hastings kind of.
So many good stores that are now extinct.
This is secretly one of my life goals: have (graphic novel) library that is also a café. Maybe when I’m retired (aka never) 👌
I like it, and can it have a dedicated place to draw/create? What’s the auditory experience going to be like? You’re going to have to tell us more about this cafe you’re ‘never’ going to have XD
Some libraries, like Austin’s Central Library, are centered around that idea.
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Driving in my monster truck to get to the library so I can read until 1am
Austin’s Central Library
centered around that idea.
Checks out.
I’m sorry, we need to see your library card before you can check something out.
I miss that about college, 24 hour library filled with people. You have to be quiet on the main floors but upstairs was less strict.
The routine of get a coffee, study for a while, go pee and step outside with some friends for a smoke, and grab another coffee on the way in. Rinse and repeat until the sun comes up.
Man not ours. Couldn’t say shit anywhere lol.
Even our computer labs weren’t too 3rd-spacey.
Man I miss college sometimes tho. Back when I had friends and a life lol
Yeah the upper floors are supposed to be for quiet study but you could still collaborate and talk without being hushed, just can’t get too roudy. Michigan State btw.
But then homeless people would have a warm safe place to stay! /s
And if people aren’t isolated they might get silly ideas about questioning the system.
Especially with all those books around. Better ban books and defund libraries. I wish this weren’t how a good chunk of the political right think.
Locally we instead pass laws to put liability on librarians and it’s been very successful at destroying libraries.
I would love this. Like another commenter said, after 10 the no talking rule gets rescinded and it turns into a cafe level of speech.
I’d love to just read books with my wife at a library late at night.
Or simply have study areas where the silence is enforced. Rest of the premises just demands calm.
let’s make the place where everybody wants you to shut the fuck up the hub of social interaction
You know we can have more than one place for reading right? Not everyone needs to read in a quiet place and would like more options.
Walls exist.
So rebuild libraries to have talking rooms?
University libraries have different floors for silent zones and not. A similar concept can often be used for the mid-sized libraries too
Lots of them already do. I live in a small town and my library has 2 conference rooms and a room where book readings take place. Loud activities happening throughout the day not interrupting people in the quiet areas.
Eh fair. Still to me this is just a weird idea. It’s like the top comment suggested it looks like OP is trying to think of a coffee shop. That’s a good place to be social if you don’t want to go to clubs and shit like that.
Yeah there are massively better options and every time I’ve seen a similar conversation happen and a librarian shows up they have a million good reasons why libraries shouldn’t be social hubs. I just thought I’d be a bit cheeky.
Respectable haha
The type of nightlife I wouldn’t mind. Looks very cozy
I dunno that sounds a lot like communism
What if we charged people a ‘sitting rent’? And if anyone sits down to wait for their friends we call the cops especially if they aren’t of the ahem Caucasian persuasion. Heaven forfend humans actually have a ‘commons’
My local library closes before night time, so I’m on board with the idea of them a library closing late at night.
I don’t even need to talk to others, just seeing people there would soothe me and ease loneliness I get from not socialising much.
Can’t you take the bus or something?
I never seem to remember that it is an option, so thank you for throwing that out there :P
Neat idea, but most libraries I’m familiar with discourage too much social interaction. Maybe after 10 the “be quiet” rule gets rescinded.
They could have a common room where you are allowed to talk. But that would cost money of course, we can’t possibly afford that.
Edit: please don’t have showers in the common rooms of pubic libraries
They could have a common room where you are showered to talk.
Sometimes the best ideas come from typos…
I dunno if this idea is all that great. They came up with it awhile ago, waterboarding I think it was called
Blub glub gurgle <gasp>
“Now are you ready to talk?”
Shakes head
That could work. I think it is an interesting idea to turn libraries into a 3rd space. We need to do something. People are lonely and isolated af.
I think it is an interesting idea to turn libraries into a 3rd space.
I think it’s both an interesting and fantastic idea. I could not be more for it
Libraries here are regularly opened until 22 or so. It’s very nice :)
That’s awesome! The Seattle Central Library closes at 6pm. Like how the fuck are people supposed to use a public resource when it closes as soon as they get off work? It’s hella dumb.
The issue probably goes deeper. I’m sure they have struggles/difficulties about having more accessible hours. I do wish my libraries had better hours too though.
I think it might have something to do with the explosion of homelessness in Seattle over the last few years. When I moved to Seattle ten years ago that library was amazing, and open pretty late (I think 8 pm). But last time I went there like a year ago it was completely overrun with homeless people. They were everywhere in the library, just sitting around doing nothing (not reading or using computers), and dozens of them were outside of every entrance too. So, I think they might have adjusted the hours because of that, instead of directly dealing with the problem. I don’t really have an issue with homeless people taking advantage of a public resource, that’s why it’s there, but a lot of other people do, and the city has to consider everyone’s perspective.
There should be a better solution for homeless people than for them to have to overrun places like that. It’s sad, and detrimental to all sides. That’s crazy to think about how it used to be a place that could stay open like you said, and then turned into something else that wasn’t able to because of external influences and impacts.
Where’s the resiliency?
There’s got to be some kind of proactive way of dealing with an issue like this vs. going the ‘limit hours’ route, which harms the accessibility of everyone. This is probably affecting a lot of libraries right now.
Where is ‘here?’
Denmark
This post is pretty spot on.
Actually the public libraries I know have long abandoned the concept of enforced silence (and librarians ‘suggesting’ what the patrons should and shouldn’t read).
They already have different areas for different needs. And often a café close by or integrated (at least in larger cities). In fact the opening hours are most likely the main reason people don’t socialise there in the (late) evenings.
Actually there have been several instances where staff members forgot to lock the entry and libraries have been used outside of their opening hours - without any supervision - and the cool part is that nothing has been vandalized or stolen. Kind of like when libraries abandoned fees for overdue media and the number of returned stuff (in time and long overdue) increased significantly. Libraries have a more central position in our culture than most people realize, they only need to adapt to the times and (re)gain some respect of the public. As institutions they might be more needed than they have been in a long time (providing also reliable information, helping to gain (information) literacy and so on).
They mostly are around here
Try kava bars. YMMV depending on your location but here in Florida, there are many that are open late where people just hang out, watch movies, play pool, videogames, read, work, etc and they’re usually not loud or crowded and they don’t serve alcohol
