Geographies of the public library: Institutions, architectures, interactions

Public libraries are increasingly recognised in popular discourse as key sites within urban space. They are implicated in encompassing projects of civic investment and abandonment, education and memorial, as well as providing specific settings for the unfolding of everyday life. However, despite their clear geographical dimensions, geographers have only taken a sporadic interest in public libraries. By taking stock of existing geographical research and extending into allied literatures, the paper proposes three interconnected directions of enquiry, through which geographies of the public library might be considered. First, institutional geographies of the public library involve political‐economic projects and processes, and the changing practices of an institution. Second, architectural geographies of the public library involve aesthetics, arrangement and naming of libraries, focusing on transformation at a branch scale. Third, interactional geographies of the public library involve relations between individuals in the physical library, and the increasing work of care for librarians and other library staff. In the face of digitisation, austerity and other forces that appear intent on assigning the physical presence of the public library to history, this paper highlights some key reasons for their continuing endurance in place, and suggests an agenda for emerging scholarship.