help to develop skills in self-directed and creative learning.13
They identify medicinal or herbal demonstration gardens as the historical ancestors of today’s green library spaces, and highlight work such as that described above at Boulder Public Library as having the potential to improve both community engagement with libraries and even – through pro- grammes like Seed to Table – broader community health. Indeed, a major theme that I have encountered in discussion of library gardens has been that of community involvement. Brown County Library’s staff, for example, noted how they had needed a local fundraising campaign to begin their garden and this allowed it to begin and endure as a collaborative effort. From my research, this seems to be one of the key benefits of establishing and maintaining a library garden: bring- ing together existing library users, new volunteers and community gardening or nature organisations, with the library itself located at the heart of the venture.
For library gardens specifically, however, there has until recently been very little research conducted regarding the effects that green spaces may have on library users (or even their staff!) In 2019, Carrie Scott Banks and Cindy Mediavilla published Libraries and Gardens: Growing Together, creating what they claim to be the “first-ever book on the subject” and making ref- erence to many of the library gardens already in existence across the United States.14
From little acorns to great oaks, starting points for libraries with green dreams!
In concluding my examination of library gardens in context, I would like to reflect on the possibilities for librar- ies like my own, with no utilised green spaces at present but hopes to develop them in the future. The evidence I have found suggests that, far from being a separate entity, library gardens of- ten function as an extension or even an emblem of libraries themselves, adapting to meet the needs of users and reflecting the wider priorities present within their communities. Efforts to establish a library garden may reveal challenges as well as opportunities: all of the libraries I researched highlighted the need for ongoing, year-round gar- den maintenance, which could be prob- lematic for branches like my own where many staff are employed on short-term or zero-hours contracts. The potential for vandalism, although not reported as an issue in any of the library gardens I studied, has also been raised as a concern by several of my colleagues. A more unusual variation of the problem
January-February 2020
did face Boulder Library staff when plan- ning their rooftop beehives, who needed to ensure that the hives would not attract bears!
Library Garden in Aarhus University Library. Photo © Laura Stamer. References
1 Latin Texts and Translations. Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University, Massachusetts. Available online at
http://perseus.uchicago.edu/ [last accessed 17/09/19]
Nevertheless, it seems to me that the greatest defence against these difficul- ties could be found in one of the greatest benefits that grows from library gardens: establishing and cultivating community connections, where people are encouraged to reconsider what their local library pro- vides and the role it plays in their lives. With sustainability and environmental concerns becoming a growing concern for libraries and their users15
, I would encour-
age libraries to experiment with making the most of the natural resources around them. In so doing, we may discover new ways to help make our spaces flourish! IP
l Does your library have a beautiful outdoor space? Share your images by emailing
infopro@cilip.org.uk or tweet us at @infopromag
2 Ajie, Ifeoma. ICT Training and Development of the 21st Century Librarian. Philosophy and Practice Journal (Feb 2019): pp.1-17.
3 Outdoor Learning Spaces, GCU Students’ Association, 29th March 2019.
4 Guignard, Thomas, Libraries Through the Lens, Information Professional (April – May 2019), p. 7.
5 Cited in Focus on International Library and Information Work Vol. 50, No. 1 (2019).
6 American Libraries, The Buzz on Library Gardens, Dewey Decibel Podcast, Episode 38, (June 2019).
7 Austin Central Library, Texas – a sustain- able dream library! Library Planet. Available online at
www.libraryplanet.net [last accessed 01/10/2019].
8 American Libraries, The Buzz on Library Gardens, Dewey Decibel Podcast, Episode 38, (June 2019).
9 The Wordsworth Trust. More information available at
https://wordsworth.org.uk/ [last accessed 10/10/19].
10 Oxford University has also adopted a comparable approach: combining gardens with libraries and museums on its Mindgrowing website that encourages visitors to plan educa- tional visits.
www.mindgrowing.org [last accessed 11/10/2019].
11 Evidence Statement on the links between natural environments and human health, (March 2017).
12 Available online at
www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improv- ing-care/working-sustainably. Also cited in The Telegraph, 9th October 2019.
13 Cited in Kinver, Mark, Outdoor learning “boosts children’s development”, BBC News: Science and Environment, 15th July 2016.
14 Banks, Carrie Scott and Cindy Mediavilla, Libraries and Gardens: Growing Together (ALA Editions: Atlanta, 2019).
Library Garden in Aarhus University Library. Photo © Laura Stamer.
15 For example, Climate Change and Collection Preservation was a key theme at the June 2019 Rare Books and Manuscript annual conference (held in Baltimore, US).
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