Browsing by Subject "Libraries and community"

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    The Portal of Serendipity: Public Libraries, Children's Rooms, and the Importance of Public Space to Caregiver
    (2024) Dallman, Zora; Hong, Emily
    This thesis offers an exploration of children’s rooms in public libraries as a critical resource for parents and caregivers of young children. Through a case study of the Jones Library in Amherst Massachusetts, I engaged in participant observation and semi-structured interviews to understand the library as both a physical environment as well as a social sphere. I present the library as a portal of serendipity, representing the ways that libraries serve as a necessary and unique third space through providing opportunities to bring together people of multiple ages and multiple needs and create joyful encounters and experiences without any expectations in return. I frame my argument through using an anthropological lens of space and through positioning the library in the current historical moment.