Opinions are like buttholes: everyone has one and they’re kind of shitty. So I tread lightly with this post because of my overall belief on opinions and the fact that I haven’t worked in a library for three years at this point. I’ve been spending a little time in public libraries over the past year or so. My oldest kiddo Finn is involved in musical theater, and as he rehearses 2-3 times person week I have some time that I try to spend in a positive way. I like to spend that time in public libraries while I engage in either creative writing activities or I stare blindly at YouTube videos of live performances and guitar pedal demos. Here’s what keeps coming up in my head:

Now that I’m just hanging out in libraries and am utilizing the space, I now see myself as a library user. And as Justin library user, what I’d like to see more of is space that people can freely use, reorganize, etc to best suit their needs in that moment. I’d like to see public libraries adopting more flexible spaces.

As I sit and write these words, I am in a library. I am at a little table that was clearly designed by one of those library catalogs that you as a librarian probably have on your desk. The table is angular and not really good for more than one person but it has two seats at it. Below it are two electrical plugs. One is completely empty, and the other has a barrier around it meaning that while it can have two plugs it will only fit one if the charger is larger. My laptop is a piece of junk, so I need to keep it plugged in while I write. There are some comfy chairs to the left of me, but they’re all against the wall and are not near any electrical plugs. I do not feel comfortable moving the furniture around. It just doesn’t feel like a move that has been OK’d by the public, and 20 years of work in a public library with other public librarians have shown me that they don’t like this kind of freedom in a public library that much. But I would like to see a path ahead where libraries become more flexible with how the community can use them. Creativity is inside all of us, and imagine what great things we can unlock if we can help our community unlock their creativity. My ideas always come from a desire for a kinder, happier utopia.

I think the shift has to come from a collective consciousness that a group adopts over time. That’s how I’ve come to understand the process of change. The idea has to start somewhere, but for it to go anywhere there has to be a collective consciousness that forms around the idea and promotes it to others. And it feels like that is where I can leave this post for now. Maybe the idea will take off, or maybe it will just stay here. Either way is fine.