The Library Park Project: Proposal for Redesigning the Spaces in the Martí Provincial Library to Facilitate the Implementation of Services Impacting Community Development

LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 67, No. 4, 2019 (“Communities and Technologies: Realities, Challenges, and Opportunities for Librarians in Cuba/Comunidades y Tecnologías: Realidades, Desafíos y Oportunidades para los Bibliotecarios en Cuba,” edited by Kate Williams-McWorter, Yohannis Martí-Lahera, and Pedro Urra González), pp. 745–758. © 2019 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois Abstract Today the design and development of new services, products, and spaces at libraries must be supported by an architectural design that reinforces the role of the institution as a regular meeting place, a space to get together, fully integrated into its urban setting, with services and spaces that are articulated and go beyond the physical limits of the institution. The aim of this paper is to describe the proposed renovation of the central patio and the spaces that surround it at Martí Provincial Library in Cuba. This renovation will allow the library to offer new services under the concept of a Library Park, that is to say, an area for citizen empowerment and community development. This report also emphasizes the need to confront the changes that the library must do in those spaces to become an ideal location for the community to find recreation, training, and needed information.