Key Takeaways — Gusan Dong Village Library
By Chu Pak Yan Desmond
The project of Gusan Dong Village Library is a demonstration of social innovation of no hierarchy which not everyone in the hierarchy –top, mid or bottom — was comfortable with networked, open conversations that exposed the development of library areas for all to use. The social lab trip team visited the library and explore how participatory discussion is collaborative development method integrated into space design in Gusan, a district in Seoul.
The building structure comprises of the original structure of three buildings, residential buildings in Gusan) as well as new areas molded together. In the picture above, one can see the outside structure of one of the buildings from inside the library. The efforts of residents, the library was built with much of their participation to preserve the local history of Gusan.
The library is also known for having the largest archival collection called the “Village Archive” that preserves the history of Gusan. It is managed by an archivist who has lived all its life in Gusan. The building structure has also won several architectural awards.
Based on our studies, we are able to draw three key takeaways as follows 1) Involving residents, library leadership, library staff in designing, and implementing the change of the library would give stakeholders a full understand the changes; 2) All stakeholders are becoming accountable to each other for their implementation of library design plan, and eventually were energized; 3) The strategy to emphasize the importance of the library as a community hub will increase the ratio of borrowing books and stay longer time.
- Building Community by Involving All Stakeholders
Local residents would take a lead role in designing, testing, and advocating solutions to the district government. Library leadership would shape the conversation to ensure proposals were strategically on-point and also would provide resources, guidance, and act as decision makers.
As we can learn from the project, the co-creation conversation would be neither bottom-up nor top down. Involving residents with library leadership in conceiving, designing, and implementing the change of the area would result in a course of action that 1) was more fit-to-purpose; 2) more likely to be well executed, and 3) the usage is higher than expected. All stakeholders, including residents, library leadership, the local government would fully understand the changes and be accountable to each other for their implementation.
2. Increasing the Sense of Belonging by Shaping Library Strategy
The discussion of potential development options was built by library staff and local residents with participative support from leadership. The library’s strategy was transformed from impersonal statements from requirement collection stage into a living, internalized prototype. Having to develop testable hypotheses forced the participants to think deeply about how to structure their work so that it was rigorous and data-driven.
As concluded, library staff and local residents were energized by the opportunity to shape how the library worked. They entered the process with the perspective of employees and came out with the perspective of library leaders. The project expanded their sense of belonging. After the project, they had a clear line of sight to the entire system through their interactions with colleagues from across the library.
3. Building a development strategy to emphasizes the importance of the library
Library leadership knew that given the immense changes brought on by digital innovations, as well as shifts in the communities that the Library served, it would need to evolve. The first issue is how to transform into a hyper-local services library, tailoring to the diverse needs of its patrons. Since the purpose of the library has to need changing from borrowing collection to space hub. As a result, the library serves many chairs, activity room, an area for non-reading activity as possible.
The library discovered the residents are more likely to use books and other materials in the library than check them out; and stay longer than other local libraries in Seoul. It brings us to our concluding point: the development strategy of the library emphasizes the importance of the library as a community hub.
