If you were busy doing anything else last night, lucky for you this particular TLCafé was archived.  (Well, they all are.)

But, last night Shannon Miller and Carolyn Foote were truly inspirational as they discussed their own experiences and shared images about rethinking and improving the space we call library.  Tiffany Whitehead moderated expertly.

Our friends shared their ideas about seriously considering intension and purpose and thinking about what to unthink–things like permanence and what learning looks like.

They discussed learning about design thinking; carefully watching the way students work; the inspiration we can get from looking closely at coffee shops and hotels and office spaces and from visiting other schools and libraries.

Carolyn advised (among many other things): conducting video learning interviews with students; using visual listening exercises; identifying obstacles with stickynotes; using critical friends to watch the space’ surveying stakeholders; incorporating strategic brainstorming; thinking through a whole day through the lens space.  Carolyn talked about cave spaces and her juice bar/help desk; and giving things a name.  For instance, she focused her design efforts on what she called designing a transparent library.

Shannon described how she continues to take from her art school experience and how her first remodel involved a small team of family and friends who moved furniture, made curtains, collected furniture and painted.  She described how kids use exisiting space to create niches and make the space their own.  She talked about making it work.   Shannon also described the process of working with the architect.

Whether you are strategizing major renovations or thinking about small tweaks (and shouldn’t we all?) give yourself some time to

spend an hour on the Webinar Archive and visit the text archive (reThinkinglibrary.txt and the download link)

And here’s the Padlet brainstorm.  Prepared to be inspired!

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