Codesigning public libraries project launches its Toolkit
Philip Hider
The ARC Linkage project, ‘Designing for Communities with Communities’, has launched its Toolkit to assist public libraries include a genuine ‘codesign’ element in their future space development projects. The Co-designing Public Library Spaces Toolkit is freely available on the State Library of New South Wales website and provides detailed guidance on how to involve community members in the design, or redesign, of their library spaces. The content of the Toolkit is based on the findings from the Linkage project’s two case studies and covers both the planning and carrying out of workshops specifically for the purposes of codesigning public library spaces. The workshops are intended to bring together community members, library staff, and any professional designers involved, as equal participants. The case studies demonstrated the potential of the codesign approach to make library spaces more user-oriented, as well as to increase community engagement, but also that it requires very careful planning aligned to the goals and circumstances of the particular library.
The Toolkit was officially launched in an online session for public librarians hosted by the State Library of NSW in October. The project team also gave a workshop (pictured) on using the Toolkit at the 2025 SWITCH conference of NSW Public Libraries Association, which was held in Penrith on 11-13 November. The workshop included hands-on activities covered in the Toolkit. The Linkage project has, in addition, yielded five academic journal articles, which are listed on the project’s outputs page.
