[Ezku]

Hmm. I feel that. I’m sensing a dichotomy here between understandings of ”library as a place of study” and ”library as a communal place of sharing cultural artefacts”. Since the latter involves a lot of other things besides books and the silence required for deep study thereof, maybe a new word not derived from books (liber->library for English, kirja->kirjasto for Finnish) would indeed be appropriate?

Disclaimer: been to Oodi and think it’s great. I’m not a regular user of libraries in any sense, though. I used to be, 20 years ago, and appreciate the current trend exemplified by Oodi as something perfectly befitting Finnish societal values and ethos as I understand them. Ymmv, of course.

[andrepd]

I think those can quite coexist in the same space (especially if said space is a 100M euro building ;)). The library can function as that communal place of shared culture, and host cafés, exhibitions, concerts, rooms for community events, rooms with musical instruments (the facility I make the most use of in my library)... and also quiet study rooms and places to focus without noise or distractions. There is no incompatibility between these two aspects.