Space planning

Photo of children's area with chairs, bookshelves and carpet.

Does your library entrance draw people inside? Once inside, what makes people take notice? Can retail space planning ideas help you create an inviting library space? This section will help you plan and design your library space to create a welcoming, healthy, safe and accessible environment.

Self-paced courses and webinar recordings on this topic are freely available in the WebJunction Course Catalog.

Photo: Group3 Planners, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Most Recently Added

Universal Design at Your Library

Publish Date: Webinar / 31 March 2023

This presentation will introduce the principles of Universal Design and offer concrete advice for how to apply each of the principles at any library.

Community of Practice for Telehealth at the Library

Publish Date: News / 1 June 2021

Even before the pandemic, Pottsboro Library in Texas had begun to focus more on health, through their community garden, and programming like cooking classes for families on a SNAP budget. But when director Dianne Connery witnessed the added challenge...

Smart Spaces are Community Places

Publish Date: Webinar / 27 April 2021

In this webinar, learn design thinking principles that can be used in collaboration with the community, to identify and meet space and programming needs for active learning.

Smart Space Transformations Transcend Library Closures

Publish Date: News / 12 March 2021

In the spring of 2020, the 15 small and rural libraries participating in WebJunction’s Small Libraries Create Smart Spaces project were on the verge of activating their newly transformed smart spaces with collaborative community programming;...

Taking the Plunge into Prototyping

Publish Date: News / 4 March 2021

After opening up a world of possibilities with community discovery and ideation brainstorming, the Small Libraries Create Smart Spaces libraries were ready to move on to the next step in the design thinking process: prototyping. Creating a prototype ...

Turning Community Input into Workable Ideas

Publish Date: News / 17 February 2021

In their community discovery process, the 15 libraries participating in the second round of Small Libraries Create Smart Spaces learned that community input is likely to lead to more questions than neat, complete answers. In sorting through the tangl...

Small Libraries Discover Their Communities

Publish Date: News / 9 February 2021

The design thinking process begins with a deep investigation into a community’s values, needs, and interests before rushing to develop space and service transformations. Forging connections and starting conversations with your community are essential...

Understand Active Learning and Community-driven Spaces

Publish Date: News / 26 January 2021

This resource is part of the Toolkit for Creating Smart Spaces, a toolkit to help you re-envision your library’s place as a center of community learning. Libraries have long been hubs of lifelong learning for all ages. Active learning takes ...