Library without walls: Meeting place of and for the People!

Keynote: Paul Holdengraber, NYPL, Director of Public Programs, Live from the NYPL

Bio: studied Law and Philosophy, then Comparative Literature. Fellow at Getty. LA Institute of Art. NYPL.

Universe is made of stories, not of atoms

Museums and libraries should not be mausoleums.
These organizations can be imposing, but...one should feel small in the face of that much knowledge.

Libraries should empower the public.

Make libraries less formidable, more sexy.

There are 52 million items in the collection, but [my programs] are supposed to bring them out and make people desire them.

NYPL director recruited Holdengraber: I want you to oxygenate the library

Make this library irresistible.
Change things.
Focus on transforming and molding.
Belief in communicating and experiencing.
Be addicted to friction. (Program strategy: Bring two people together for discussion. Seeing them makes you revisit their work.)

Digression is the sunshine of narrative.

What happens when learning--a private act—occurs in a public space?

The important thing is to begin.

Library programming: average age of participants was 63. Goal was to make it 36.

After initial programs, NYPL director was skeptical--At the library, we have never done this.

Interested in the afterlife of the art and the conversation. How does it continue to have a life?

Future of libraries
How might libraries be able to help us focus in an age of speed and constant information? Libraries can present new discoveries, serve as a place of opportunity and as a haven.

Our jobs are hospitality.
Programs are a different way of opening the door.
Libraries = home and homepage
Libraries = Facebook and face-to-face