Given the opportunity to renovate, expand and build new libraries, the Richland Library (Columbia SC) needed a framework to guide architects, challenge service models and ultimately inform every touch point throughout the library’s system. The framework, developed by a service designer, architect and visionary library staff and partners, started with idea that the 21st Century library could be a place where artists work, problems are solved, skills are practiced and risks are taken.
“Library As Studio” is our concept that re-envisions a library’s role as a community catalyst for innovative learning, creating, and sharing. It requires that physical environments be transformed to foster experimentation, reflection, and collaboration. Library As Studio requires that services, staff roles, processes and partnerships all be re-imagined to create usable, useful, and delightful customer experiences.

Organizers:
Melanie  Huggins,  Executive  Director,  Richland  Library
Melanie  is  the  executive  director  of  the  Richland  Library  in  Columbia,  SC.  Passionate about strategic  planning,  collaborations,  leadership  development  and  library  staffing,  she  is  a  frequent  speaker  and  facilitator  for  other  libraries  and  organizations.  Huggins  came  to  Richland  Library  in  2009  from  St.  Paul  Public  Library,  where  she  served  as  the  director.  Prior  to  that  Huggins  was  youth  services  director  for  Charlotte  Mecklenburg  Library  where  she  led  the  development  of  ImaginOn:  the  Joe  and  Joan  Martin  Center.