Reston Spring

Reston Spring
Reston Spring

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Another Angle on Reston's New 21st Century Library?

A recent Atlantic Cities article, "Why Libraries Should Be the Next Great Start-up Incubators," Emily Badger identifies a way public libraries can find a new set of users.  The essence of the idea is presented in these paragraphs from the article:
This old idea of the public library as co-working space now offers a modern answer – one among many – for how these aging institutions could become more relevant two millennia after the original Alexandria library burned to the ground. Would-be entrepreneurs everywhere are looking for business know-how and physical space to incubate their start-ups. Libraries meanwhile may be associated today with an outmoded product in paper books. But they also happen to have just about everything a 21st century innovator could need: Internet access, work space, reference materials, professional guidance.
Why not, Lea suggests, put these two ideas together? Arizona State is planning in the next few months to roll out a network of co-working business incubators inside public libraries, starting with a pilot in the downtown Civic Center Library in Scottsdale. The university is calling the plan, ambitiously, the Alexandria Network.
Click on the title above to read the rest of this article.  

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