Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Informing The “Naive Triangle": Evidence-Based Transformations In New Young Adult Library Spaces, Anthony Bernier

Faculty Publications

Given recent technological innovations the notion of serving teenage populations obliges libraries to aspire to new design and spatial visions. Youth, historically not deemed entitled to an equitable share of public environments, has frequently been viewed as creating conflict in libraries, or as librarian Lynn Cockett observed, “Inviting young people to a library that is architecturally not prepared to handle normal adolescent behavior can have some pretty negative consequences.” Even under some of the best design processes, however, a kind of “Naïve Triangle” develops: architects, who frequently know little about libraries or youth aesthetics, work with librarians (with little architectural …