LIBRARY HOSPITALITY: SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

Library scholars and practitioners have frequently reflected on the various factors that in combination make up a hospitable library, but there has been little theoretical synthesis of the notion of the library as a place of hospitality. The hospitality industry provides a rich vein of theoretical material from which to draw definitions of hospitality, and an analysis of this material leads to a preliminary definition of library hospitality: the provision of library resources by a genuinely motivated employee to fulfill the library need of a patron in an environment conducive to the provision of those resources. Libraries have historically provided and today continue to provide services that can be examined under the six elements of this definition. Library hospitality is best seen as a framing device for the entire service approach of the institution as a whole, a way for libraries to make decisions about implementing particular initiatives.