Toward a New Understanding of the Purpose and Practice of Public Libraries in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper arises from work undertaken by the James Reckitt Library Trust to chart a new direction for public libraries in Kingston upon Hull, a port city on the northeast coast of England. The paper aims to generalize a number of key aspects of the Trust’s thinking. It addresses the fundamental purpose of public libraries; presents the concept of the deconstructed library, along with its associated business model, and explores the application of the concept of deconstruction to the physical spaces that libraries occupy.