konnekt – the PopUp Living Room in Pioneer Park

In 2019 an area formerly used by the American army called Pioneer Park was incorporated into the city of Hanau. The Hanau municipal library would like to make the planned district library an identity-forming, cultural and educational venue together with the new residents of Pioneer Park and its partners, the local adult education centre (VHS) and the Protestant forum hanau+. In keeping with the “New Librarianship” concept proposed by the American library studies scholar Richard David Lankes, this project aims to examine its own role as a library and make changes to its professional toolbox. The project is integrally connected to the local urban planning process.

The project partners pursued an interdisciplinary approach which considers and utilises the knowledge, experience and needs of the citizens at the future library, as well as creates synergies with respect to cross-institutional collaboration. For example, the project is headed by a librarian and an adult-education specialist. They started by building networks in the emerging city district, engage in dialogue with residents and develop initial formats. The goal was to create a collection of resident knowledge in the form of books and films, events, networks and even blogs and databases. This collection concept should serve as the basis of a spatial concept – first for a pop-up library which project organisers plan to install in the winter, and then later, for a new city district library.

Partners: Hanau Adult Education Centre, Protestant forum hanau+