Session

CREATING A PLAYFUL LIBRARY SPACE: Reimagining the children’s area in Helsinki Central Library Oodi  

In this workshop you will receive tools and new ideas on how to implement and bring playfulness into your library space. In the 90-minute session you will work with different models that can be easily modified to use in any kind of project design.

We will take you through different processes of a project: A) involvement of the customers and users of the space, B) critical evaluation of the results from phase A, C) generation of new ideas, and finally D) bringing new ideas to life and making more definite plans for the project. You will be able to take home documentation from the workshop and continue the planning in your own library.

The base of this workshop is the big development project in the children’s area of Helsinki Central Library Oodi. The project was launched in 2022 with customer surveys and interviews with fellow librarians and teachers. By analysing the results and observing the space many shortcomings were noted. Based on the findings we started a collaboration with third party artists, designers and architects to reimagine a more playful library space.

Now that our project is almost complete, we can share with you all our knowledge and findings: what challenges we encountered, what we would do differently next time, what kind of surveys we used, etc. Many libraries could benefit from incorporating playful ideas not only to children’s areas but also to other library spaces – welcome to learn and plan how your library could bring in the element of play!

Maximum capacity: 30 people

Hosts

Tatu Salonen &  Riia Ollanketo

Tatu Salonen
Librarian / Children & Youth Team / Helsinki Central Library Oodi
Tatu started working in Oodi in 2020, and is currently the team leader in the Children & Youth Team. He is also the head of the Customer Experience Development Team, having the passion of developing the library and its services. Recently he has been responsible for the ongoing development project in the children’s area, with the goal of creating a more playful and functional library space. In Oodi, Tatu also takes part in the Work Scheduling team and Communications Team, being in charge of Oodi’s Twitter page. He is an eager learner and always willing to take his expertise to new directions.

Riia Ollanketo
Special Librarian / Children & Youth Team / Helsinki Central Library Oodi
Riia has worked at Helsinki Central Library Oodi since its opening 2018. She is part of Oodi’s Children & Youth Team and one of her responsibilities is also Oodi’s logistical system and robotics. Riia has long experience working with school and day care groups, and she has also taught information retrieval for junior high school and secondary school groups. In 2013 she was part of the project group, whose task was giving feedback to Oodi’s architects and contemplate the architectural drawings for a more functional form. Today Riia is taking active part in the project to develop Oodi’s children area. Her special interest is in making the library more functional and playful to the different clientele. Architectural drawings, new technologies and space planning is also very close to her heart.