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Contributors: Carolina Carvalho, River Roberts, Michelle Huang, Aldo Schwartz, Joshua Saul
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The purpose of the library is to invite visitors to experience their surroundings in a different way, a slower, more intentional way. The library should inspire visitors to become part of it by leaving something behind for others to find. So the experience of the library is always evolving as it is experienced by those who find it. Ideally, the library will also inspire visitors into the spirit of pilgrimage, to the surrounding community, to sacred places and routes, even to other libraries. And of course, as the name implies, it should leave a sense of playfulness and wonder in those who cross its path.
The location of the library is entirely up to you, but there are some things to consider.
You might want to find a place with a good balance between enough movement that enough people will find the library, and enough quiet that people can feel at liberty to explore its invitations. A good option can be a location with a variety of natural surroundings that you can invite people into through a variety of prompts and objects.
Places with cultural or spiritual relevance can also add to the sense of wonder and help inspire the spirit of pilgrimage. However, in this case, make sure to consult with the community to sense what would be appropriate and ideally welcomed by both visitors and locals. When that is the case, they can turn into some of the best guardians and stewards of the library.
Last but not least consider the location alongside the materials and designs they interact with the weather: depending on what kind of library you want to build or install, should the location be more sheltered or can protection from the elements be sacrificed in favor of higher exposure?
Once again, the world is your oyster also when choosing materials, but first and foremost you should ensure that they are in harmony with the surrounding environment, which is why it is helpful to select a location first. Given that most libraries are built by passionate stewards without access to a dedicated budget, scavenging or repurposing materials can be a good option to consider, especially if you can get your hands on some materials or objects that capture the essence of the location, and embody the sense of “local wonder” in some way.
Crafting the prompts and invitations will be the bulk of the work when designing and setting up your library. You can adjust the number of invitations to the size of the library, but we recommend that you limit the amount of invitations and rather get creative if you have access to a larger space. Invitations can be as simple as interesting objects for people to interact with, notebooks suggesting guided reflections, postcards and drawing materials or maps. They can also be as complex as prompts that invite people to do activities around the library and report back in some way, pilgrimages that send visitors to other locations, or requests that people carefully craft an object that they then have to part with. Make sure to include all the additional tools or objects necessary for visitors to complete your invitations (unless the prompt relates to leaving something personal behind).
And of course, you can add some books!
You will probably have some immediate ideas of what you would like to do as soon as you start imagining the library, but take some time to go out, wander and rediscover the place you want to honor. Try out your own invitations, be on the lookout for interesting things to add and do some research, you never know what you might find. We also encourage you to include the locals into your process of discovery, talk to elders and community leaders, and find interesting local projects that your library could help support in some way. Consider also the idea of pilgrimage, what are the special places that the library could lead people to journey to and experience? Soon you will find yourself with plenty of new ideas to choose from, and hopefully a new sense of wonder that you can infuse your library with.
You should also include two key invitations:
A note on language: depending on where you are installing your library and the diversity of people that might pass by, consider having your prompts translated into one or two additional languages so that more visitors can enjoy it. This is particularly important when installing in a location that is not your homeland: if the local language is not your mother tongue or English, make sure to translate as a form of respect to the locals.