Holding Together Experimentality from Within the Public Library: The Case of BiblioLab 9B Espai Jove (Barcelona)

Abstract

This article analyses the sustainability of experimental practices in public libraries through the case study of BiblioLab 9B Espai Jove, a library lab carried out in 2 libraries in the district of Nou Barris (Barcelona). The study examines the conditions that make possible the stabilisation or dissolution of the experimental within the library infrastructure from a relational perspective, grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The research, qualitative and exploratory in nature, follows the differentiated trajectories of a single experimental activation deployed simultaneously in 2 distinct libraries. The results show that the experimental does not emerge automatically by implementing a specific model of library innovation, by employing particular participatory methodologies, or by developing certain practices within designated library spaces. Rather, it depends on the library’s capacity to articulate a network that makes it practicable. The continuity of a library lab requires stable relational infrastructures, cohesive professional teams, and practices of care that sustain cooperation among diverse actors. The study concludes that a laboratory does not transform the library by itself; transformation emerges when the institution succeeds in integrating the logic of the experimental —marked by openness, provisionality, and negotiation— into its own organisational infrastructure.