Apropos Kathleen's excellent points below, I would like to share a project that explores the way that public spaces (sometimes surreptitiously) become information-sharing points. I was interested in looking at whether the institutional environment of the public library is replicated in other public spaces, and so chose to look at NYC's subways as mobile reading-rooms. The result is the <a href="http://gretabyrum.com/files/UPL/index.html">Underground Public Library</a> site, which is currently set up for crowdsourcing and data-gathering, but which will hopefully become a repository for information about underground reading in NYC, organized geospatially. I also hope to publish writings by others interested in how reading in public works as a social, spatial, and cultural phenomenon; please contact me if interested.<br>
<br>Thanks,<br>Greta<br><br>-- <br><span style="color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">Greta Byrum</span><br style="color:rgb(102, 102, 102)"><span style="color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">
MS Urban Planning 2011</span><br style="color:rgb(102, 102, 102)"><span style="color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">
Columbia University GSAPP</span><br style="color:rgb(102, 102, 102)"><span style="color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">
<a href="http://gretabyrum.com/" target="_blank">gretabyrum.com</a></span><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Kathleen Hulser <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kathleen.hulser@gmail.com">kathleen.hulser@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Response to Shannon Mattern Libraries & Epistemology<div><br></div><div>Shannon makes a key point by suggesting that the politics of information has to be part of the discussion of the future of these places. The physical library as a site poses different issues in New York City than in Lagos, and differences are just as great when contrasting the urban significance and public libraries situated in thinly populated areas lacking any other public spaces. </div>
<div><br></div><div>I think we should never lose sight of the importance of face-to-face gathering points that are open and public -- yes, call them "libraries and media centers" in today's world. In democratic societies to date, the key pretext for keeping libraries open and funded has been the educational and informational mandate: the cultural imperative seems to be less of a priority and more subject to budget cuts and political manipulation, so one can't trust community centers, etc. to remain open public spaces. See, for example, the discussion, of public spaces and gatherings in Lisa Keller's excellent comparative history "Triumph of Order: Democracy and Public Space in New York and London: which probes constraints on outdoor free speech in the American and British tradition. Those free speech issues always haunt discussions of libraries and epistemology, since assumptions about free inquiry are inextricable from political parameters of the public sphere. </div>
<div><br clear="all">Kathleen Hulser, public historian, New-York Historical Society<br>-- <br> <font>"The political and commercial morals of the United <span style="color:black;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)">States</span> are not merely food
for laughter, they are an entire banquet." Mark Twain.<br></font><br>
</div>
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