Excellent entry about a fascinating new library in Delft, Holland. It sounds like the Ontario Science Centre of libraries! But it's not called a library. It's not called the Delft Public Library. As 'the shifted librarian' says,
"it just goes by the name 'DOK' and the sign on the door says it's a 'library concept center.' The staff did this on purpose to get away from the traditional stereotypes of the public library, because the institution they’ve created is about as far away as you can get from the connotation of a 1950s building, filled with quiet people, all of them sitting alone, in a relatively dreary building, being shushed by an old lady with a bun."As I mention in the comment on the entry's page, how can this stereotype that follows librarianship around EVER be shaken off, if every time we do, we call it something different?!? When do we give the public a chance to go, "Wow! That's a library (or librarian)? There must be more to them than what I had originally thought!" Ok, that might be a little naive, but it certainly won't happen if we keep doing things they don't expect and then tell them that it's something different so they can go on expecting the same old same old from us the next time.
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