Seeing libraries through users' eyes

Library Land's Adam Zand and Greg Peverill-Conti Photo courtesy of Library Land Project

When it comes to spreading library love, the Library Land Project raises the bar. For over a year, the two founders have been visiting public libraries and celebrating them, sharing images of them, writing stories about them, and rating them. It’s something to learn from.

Greg Peverill-Conti and Adam Zand made their 200th library visit in Massachusetts, to the Hyannis Public Library, as I wrote this. So far, they have visited some 202 libraries in Massachusetts, where it all began, and 25 in states beyond.

I am so jealous. If you are anything like me, visiting libraries is a pastime. I visit them as a library person looking to learn about them, and as a regular user wanting to get stuff done. I also engage in straight up library tourism—seeking out icons for sheer aesthetic pleasure. Along the way, I try to witness the living moments within these special places to continue to learn about the real life of libraries.

I especially like hearing the same from those who don’t work in libraries. One cool thing about Library Land is that Peverill-Conti and Zand are not librarians—they are library patrons. We get to see what they care about and notice. Of course, two people can’t represent the whole range of the communities we serve, but nonetheless there are insights to be had. What they see and how well they document it is lovely, detailed, and deeply interesting. It helps share the library story, site by site, and can serve as a model for those they’ve not yet visited.

The criteria they use to rate the libraries are also worth a look. Eleven items are rated on a five-point scale to inform an overall score. They are: parking or transportation, Wi-Fi, meeting or study rooms, overall condition, completeness, community, friendliness, restrooms, noise level, general comfort level, and how well a library measures up to the question “Good place to work?” While these are far from the only criteria on which libraries might need to assess themselves, the fact that these are the qualities deemed important by folks outside the field is in itself worth consideration. It’s notable how much they lean toward the physical experience of getting to and being present in the library space.

Peverill-Conti and Zand’s roots in discovering libraries through using them as work spaces are clear here—they met at the Newton Free Library as they created their PR firm, SharpOrange, and, as Peverill-Conti noted to me, got hooked. “It was a super experience. Free parking, fast Wi-Fi, comfortable study room—it had it all. And we got a ton done. So we decided to do it again but at a different library.” From that seed, awareness of how critical libraries are grew, as did a passion to advocate for them.

I appreciate their list, and its distinct departure from the usual output measures, but wondered what “completeness” means to them. So, I asked.

“We assume that libraries have books, music, and DVDs. We likewise assume most libraries have children’s rooms, teen spaces, etc.,” Peverill-Conti told me. “Where completeness goes up is when we see a great collection of Library of Things items [or] a broad range of museum passes. We’ve also seen libraries that lend works of art, which is pretty cool. In some ways, we also think about new types of offerings—Maker spaces, for example. But even among these, there are gradations: some libraries have a single 3-D printer while others—like Chattanooga—have a full-size loom, a VR lab, woodworking tools.”

While those assumptions regarding the collections and range of spaces remain the crux of the matter for many libraries, there is something refreshing about having them taken for granted as fundamental (even as we still fight for them in too many settings). The focus is on their qualitative experience of the library on top of those basics.

The Gladys E. Kelly Library in Webster, MA, has the only perfect score to date, and the detail as to why is worth a read. The ratings keep the conversation real—and continue to be refined as Peverill-Conti and Zand continue to learn.

What’s clear is that this project is based on strong recognition of how important libraries are, and how amazing their work is, large and small. That comes forward in the many stories they share about the libraries they visit. The Library Land Project is full of joy, and it is also useful, inspiring, and real. Just as our libraries are.