Innovation in Action: The Hybrid Library Model Unveiled

By: Kelly Jahn, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, Kelly Jahn Interior Architecture & Design

Public libraries play an essential role in developing healthy communities, serving as a third space institution that has taken on many functions beyond lending books. They connect people to information, services, and each other. Libraries form partnerships with other organizations to meet the social needs of the community. They offer early childhood literacy opportunities and reading programs for children, and are safe havens for teens, providing after-school homework help and positive social activities. They offer computer classes to help older adults learn technology skills. Libraries support small businesses, entrepreneurs, provide job and career assistance, access to video conferencing and maker spaces, market trends databases, business classes, and space to work or meet.

Library services are ever evolving to best meet the needs of their communities. The Lyell Branch of the Rochester Public Library Systems is an example of a small urban community library rethinking how they can better serve their constituents. The Lyell Ave branch is housed in a 5500 square foot, stand-alone building in the Lyell-Otis neighborhood, in the northwest corner of the city of Rochester, NY. The branch serves a low-income neighborhood of about 30,000. Currently, the Lyell Ave branch has low attendance and material circulation. The library building has a minimum street presence, easily missed when driving through the neighborhood. Few residents are comfortable walking to the library due to safety concerns.

In 2018 the Rochester Public Library hired a consultant to evaluate the Lyell Branch and provide recommendations for how to increase usage. The decision was made to convert the Lyell branch into a hybrid library. The term hybrid library generally refers to a library that has a mix of physical and digital collections. However, for Lyell, the term hybrid library will refer to part time in the existing building and part time on the road serving their community using a mobile library. It’s a cultural shift for the community and staff, rather than a technology shift. This type of hybrid arrangement has never been done, and the staff are still trying to understand how it will operate.

The first step is the design of the mobile library. Rochester Public Library and the Lyell Branch have partnered with multi-disciplinary teams of industrial, interior, and graphic design students at the Rochester Institute of Technology to design the fit out of Dodge Ram ProMaster 2500 High Roof Vehicle. The mobile library will provide all the services currently offered in the physical library. The project goal will be to increase library outreach to individuals unable to access current library facilities including youth and elder populations, persons with visual and physical impairments and the incarcerated.?

Student teams are working to develop the design of the mobile library including in-van access, pop-up display, mobile cart and systems for rapid loading and unloading, and a full branding and graphic package. Student work also includes proposed renovations to the existing branch addressing loading and unloading of the van, storage and staging of mobile components, and operation of the branch in a reduced capacity when the mobile library is out for the day.

Students, library staff, City of Rochester, and community partners have been working together since the beginning of the fall 2023 semester to define what a mobile library will look like, requiring systematic thinking to address a shift in library services holistically. Rochester Public Library has secured funding to build-out the vehicle beginning January 2024 and bring the mobile service on-line by summer 2024. The proposal for the branch renovation will be longer term. The library will need to apply for grants and find other funding sources to tackle it piece by piece.

About the Author:

Kelly Jahn is a LEED accredited, NCARB certified architect with over 20 years’ experience specializing in the design of interior space.? She is the owner of Kelly Jahn Interior Architecture & Design, a small design practice in Rochester, New York. Kelly’s experience includes a diverse portfolio of project types including interior public spaces, corporate workplace, higher education, and hospitality. In addition to practice, she also teaches part time in the department of interior design at the Rochester Institute of Technology.