Libraries as transitory workspaces and spatial incubators

•Public and university libraries need to consider the growing flexibility in work arrangements.•New library users will request more spatial flexibility.•Increasing knowledge of users and activities performed, including work, will help determine new library strategy.•Libraries can be increasingly seen as temporal working locations and spatial incubators.

Growing flexibility in work arrangements, particularly in the knowledge industries, and the ensuing possibilities for teleworking are challenging the traditional ways of conceptualizing and designing public spaces and public services. As an example of this development, public and university libraries are studied from the point of view of teleworking. Although work still only accounts for a small amount of the activities that take place in libraries, its transformations can be seen as a ‘weak signal’ of newly emerging spatial arrangements. In addition to the home and workplace, teleworkers are using a network of public, semi-public and private spaces (so-called third places) for different types of working. The research used the concept “spatial portfolio” to address this phenomenon of spatial modalities. The new role of public libraries within this context is discussed. In addition to their traditional functions of lending books and providing spaces for reading newspapers and magazines, libraries are now becoming more multifunctional, providing space for different activities, including work. This new phenomenon has been studied empirically by conducting a qualitative interview and observing teleworkers in two public libraries and one university library in the City of Helsinki, Finland. The objective was to find and analyze different profiles of workers in libraries, thus providing input for future planning and design of these spaces, as well as the urban fabric around them. The results show that a considerable range of activities within research and education, art and culture, information technology, business and finance, and social services and government are performed in the libraries, all of which are in part supported by the new concepts and policies of the city. Libraries can be seen as ‘transitory workspaces’ where people work at least a couple of hours per week and for different reasons such as free wifi connection and location. Also, libraries might be considered ‘spatial incubators’ or rather places able to attract people who start up their own activities. These concepts contribute to define a new way of appropriating libraries.