The term “third place” was coined in 1989 by Ray Oldenberg. It refers to a place that people choose to spend time at or congregate at that is not home (first place) or work (second place). I used to work at Starbucks, and when I was first hired, I was told that Starbucks as a company tries its best to act as a “third place” where people feel comfortable spending their time. After hearing this term in reference to a library, I realized that in my opinion, a library can also act as a “third place” for people. Like a coffee shop, a library is quiet and a very calm place for people to do work and study. Nick Mitcho, interviewed by me, stated in reference to Savitz Library, “I loved the library because it was quiet and I had two or three kids at home, so there was no place at home for me to hide and do my work.” Though I and Nick seem to understand libraries to have this sort of other place feeling, many others do not feel the same. I posted an anonymous survey through Survey Monkey and asked for responses from friends, family, and other people through the reach of social media. 72% of the people surveyed had not heard of the term “third place” previously, and after explaining the term, 48% of people did not consider libraries as a “third place” and 10% of people were unsure. At first I was confused as to why so many people chose these options, until I interviewed my mother, Lynn Briggs. My mother was born in 1969, and has lived with and without technology. I asked her if she considers a library to be a “third place”, and she said that she did not, however, she can definitely understand why some people may see it as such. She has never been a reader, but does have some fond memories. Through this interview, I understood that some people would just rather use online services and do their work in the comfort of their home instead of going to another place. There were still 42% of responders who said that they did consider libraries a “third place”. One of the written responses stated, “I depended on the library a lot during my first few years of college as a quiet place to focus.”

In a previous geography class that I had taken we did an analysis on Starbucks locations compared to Population Density. We found that were population density was greater, there were more Starbucks locations, which is to be expected. Similarly, I wanted to see if there were more libraries in locations with more people. To do this, I found an online site that listed all of the libraries in NJ. I converted this data into a shapefile and displayed it on a map with the population density. In this analysis, I found that there are more libraries where the population is higher. I was trying to understand, through this map, if everyone had an equal opportunity to visit libraries and use their services as they would with a popular coffee shop. The map is interactive, however cannot be inserted into the Scalar system. Please click here to be directed to the interactive website. Click on each point to see the city that each library is located. 

I also was interested in understanding how libraries have changed before and after the term “third place” was coined, and if this had anything to do with the construction of libraries or the lack thereof. To analyze this, I created two maps, one that shows libraries in the Glassboro area before 1989, and one that shows libraries in the area after 1989. I was hoping to find either an increase or decrease in the number of libraries present between each time frame. However, the number of libraries is not what changed, rather the location of these libraries over time. Many of the libraries have moved two or three times. There have definitely been changes internally in these libraries, as well. The resources that the libraries offer has grown immensely since they first opened. In fact, the Margaret Hagen library did not even have plumbing in the building during its first years of operation. This map is interactive, however cannot be inserted into the Scalar system. Please click here to be directed to the interactive website. Use the bar in the middle of the map to swipe between libraries in the area opened before 1989 and after. Click on each library symbol to find out when the library was opened, if it was public, and whether or not it is still open today.