As everyday life gives us fewer reasons to leave home, public libraries offer something increasingly valuable: third places to go, spend time, and be part of a community.
Think about the places where people have traditionally crossed paths without making plans first. Kids met friends at the park. Teenagers spent afternoons at the mall. Neighbors talked outside the local diner. Community centers, recreation facilities, playgrounds, churches, and town squares gave people regular opportunities to see familiar faces. You might know them as ‘third places.’
Sociologist Ray Oldenburg popularized the term “third place” in his 1989 book The Great Good Place. Home is the first place and work is the second. Third places are the informal spaces outside of home and work where people spend time around others and develop connections to their community. The American Library Association has explored the concept in the context of libraries and notes that Oldenburg was concerned about the decline of third places long before our lives became as digital as they are today. Read the ALA overview of third places and libraries.
Why are traditional third places changing?
Many third places are still here, but we have fewer occasions to use them because we have fewer reasons to leave home.
Shopping all happens online, and so does streaming movies and TV shows. Banking is just another app, even groceries can be delivered to your front door. Many people work remotely at least some of the time. We heave fewer reasons to leave the house and bump into a friend or neighbor.
The convenience of all of these is hard to argue with, but it has changed the role of physical places in our lives. The decline of the traditional mall is one example. Malls were built for commerce, yet they also became places where friends met, families spent an afternoon, and people simply walked around with other people. The American Library Association points to both the decline of malls and the shift from physical to online commerce as part of the changing third-place landscape. Not long ago, people had to leave the house daily to go to work, school, shop for groceries and run errands. Now, you can accomplish most of your to-dos without stepping foot outside your front door.
The cost of this convenience is that we live more singular lives. Loneliness is on the rise, and the fact that we live more isolated lives is a large reason for that. We don’t have unscheduled run-ins with acquaintances, and the result is that we lose a sense of community and connection to the people around us. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Why libraries as third places matter
Libraries still give people an occasion to leave home and interact with others.
Patrons come to pickup their book on hold. A young family can come into the branch for story time. A book club meets on a weekday afternoon, or a student needs somewhere to study after school. Someone might want to browse the new releases instead of choosing the next book from a screen. Somebody might just want to change their scenery for a little bit.
Once people arrive, they share a space with others who came for a completely different reason. They do not have to talk to one another for the experience to have value. Being around other people in their community can give a sense of belonging on its’ own.
This is why the idea of the library as a community living room works so well. The library provides a shared place without prescribing exactly how someone should use it.
Libraries reflect the communities around them
The value of libraries as third places goes beyond providing somewhere to sit. Libraries take on the character of the communities they serve, and that character can be seen in their collections and programs.
A strong world-language collection tells you something about a community. So does an active local history collection or a children’s department filled with families on Saturday morning. Hotspots, museum passes, seeds, games, and other items found in today’s library collections can reflect local interests and needs.
Programming provides another way to look at libraries as third places. Early-literacy programs may be especially important in a community with many young families. Another library may see strong interest in genealogy, technology assistance, English-language learning, teen activities, workforce resources, arts programming, or programs for older adults.
UC Davis Library provides one recent example. Its approach to the library as a third place includes tutoring, mental-health ambassadors, therapy dogs, and music and dance performances. The programs reflect the needs of its campus rather than a standard formula for what a third-place library should provide. Read about the UC Davis approach to the third place.
A place worth leaving home for
Libraries can’t replace parks, community centers, recreation facilities, or other gathering spaces. By adding to those kinds of places, libraries offer an indoor, year-round, all-ages and abilities place that everyone can gather. No matter what brings people into the library, they can all find something that they connect with and make them part of the community.
As more of daily life becomes available from home, having places that still give people a reason to show up becomes more valuable.
For library professionals, that adds another dimension to collections, programs, and physical spaces. They provide services for patrons, but they also create occasions for people to come into the library and spend some part of their lives in the presence of other people.
The value of libraries as third places is simple: give people somewhere worth going, reflect your community, and let people connect with one another.
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