Public living rooms are places where anyone can go to be in the company of others, they are welcoming places with people who listen, who treat everyone the same, who don’t judge or try to fix each other. Each public living room is different, most have sofas and cuppas, maybe some tunes and board games and they all use the six simple camerado ideas to underpin how they run. Folk in Barnsley can now find public living rooms in their local libraries and a couple of the librarians have shared their thoughts on how they began and what it means to the people who come along.
Public Living Rooms at Barnsley Libraries
Emma
I was sitting in an online training session when I first heard about Camerados and their Public Living Rooms. The trainer was talking about these amazing welcoming spaces where communities could come together and just be. I immediately thought – that sounds just like a library.
After the training had finished, I did some googling and was instantly on board with the concept. We have a lovely space on the ground floor of our central Library @ the Lightbox full of sofas and comfy armchairs with a café where you can get a hot drink attached. With a few tweaks and the right messaging, I knew this would be the perfect place to host a Public Living Room.
My next job was to get the rest of my team on board and convince them that this was something for us – it turned out it wasn’t very difficult. The beauty of Public Living Rooms in a library setting is that they align with what all library staff aim to achieve in our libraries – a safe place for people to meet, share knowledge, stories and interests and just be themselves.
I quickly contacted Yvonne at Camerados and ordered our box. Other services and areas of the council heard that we were planning on setting up a Public Living Room and were supportive, offering to help us promote the space to their networks and letting people know that this is a space for them. 
Since opening, our Public Living Room has been busy, and staff have commented that they have seen many an intense game of connect four taking place in the space. Our communities have come together and filled in postcards, sat and chatted over a drink they brought in from the café next door. Someone has even left a copy of The Happy News newspaper for others to read to spread some positivity.
Not only have we seen the positive impact the Public Living Room has had on the people using it, but we’ve also seen a positive impact on our library. Research at Sheffield Hallam University has shown that Public Living Rooms help people make connections and improve their wellbeing. One of our objectives in the service is to offer ways for our users to improve their wellbeing; providing this dedicated space is helping us achieve that. The Public Living Room also helps dispel the notion that libraries are just there for book borrowing when our libraries are so much more and can act as community hubs. It’s great to see the people of Barnsley make themselves at home and make the space their own.
After seeing how successful the Public Living Room has been at Library @ the Lightbox, other branch libraries have been inspired to set up their Public Living Rooms.
Becki
After hearing about the Public Living Room at Library @ the Lightbox, I knew it would also be a good fit at Thurnscoe Library. As a team at Thurnscoe, we have made it a priority to respond to our community’s current and ever-changing needs, which has resulted in multiple children’s groups. While searching for the perfect weekly adults’ group to help reduce isolation and improve community connections between some of our customers, we knew a Public Living Room was the way forward.
Speaking to Yvonne cemented that our values and aspirations for the group aligned with each other, so getting our box of goodies from Yvonne was like an early Christmas present; we couldn’t wait to get set up.
Since opening our Public Living Room (called Adults Activities and Company Club on Thursday afternoons), we have seen an increase in community connection and support between those who have attended. Whilst playing games such as dominoes and eating a few biscuits, we have seen an overwhelmingly positive response to our Public Living Room, with customers sharing life stories, hopes and memories whilst visiting.
It has been so lovely to see our community continue strengthening relationships with each other and, in turn, with us as library staff. Our members have even started coming outside of Thursday afternoon hours to enjoy the cosy space we have created in the library whenever they feel like it. This home away from home is just what we were hoping to achieve.
In the new year, we hope more people will join our Thursday group and use our Public Living Room throughout our opening hours and that it continues to foster a sense of belonging, pride and community amongst attendees.
Want to try a public living room in your library or community?
Then, find some like minded folk, grab a brew, have a chat and maybe give it a go! Nothing has to be perfect, if you would like to set up your own public living room in your community then order your public living room in a box (it’s free) to get you started. There are public living rooms in all sorts of places; community hubs, cafes, schools, universities, church halls, pubs, theatres, hospitals, care homes, parks, shipping containers and farmers markets! If you’re in Bristol, Rotherham, Edinburgh or Sheffield you will also find them in libraries there too.
