The Library: The Best Place to Be Creative

THE LIBRARY: THE BEST PLACE TO BE CREATIVE
Written by Nora Al-Taha

Pings, beeps and chatter. Daily noises drown our creative brains while we try to come up with a great new idea, the next plot point to tackle or a new perspective to design. 

We are constantly bombarded by a rush of advertisements. Consumer-based content is thrown at our faces and into our phones every day. We are influenced to buy more than we are encouraged to create. If you have had an itch to pursue your creative projects head-on, consider heading to a library—a perfectly curated space to pick up creative steam and fly-by productivity. 

OUR MODERN AGE AND THE TIMELESSNESS OF LIBRARIES 

Libraries have always been longstanding spaces to acquire knowledge—places filled with copious amounts of educational books and documents. Today, libraries are widely used by individuals to study, borrow and read books, as well as a place to conduct research. 

In today’s age, more people rely on their smartphones, laptops and other devices to quench their curiosities, write their papers and read books on their tablets. We live in a comfortable world. Everything is within reach and everything else is quickly delivered. To sit and work on a project is often daunting and grueling work. 

Our attention spans have diminished over the years. Social media shoots quick dopamine in our brain and our ability to focus has declined. It has been more and more difficult to find the pace, place and passion to be creative. So, how can libraries help?

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT OF THE MODERN WORLD

If you are in an energized and crowded space, where people are mingling and in active conversations, it would be natural to join in. You could find yourself engaged in a heated debate or enthralled in fascinating storytelling. This is especially evident in mass crowd scenarios such as rallies. The environment around you psychologically alters your behavior. When a group of people band together for a greater cause, the concept of deindividuation arises. Deindividuation is a psychological state where one can lose their sense of individual identity and mold their behaviors to suit that of the group. 

In addition, social media and the influence of advertisements blur our sense of individuality. We are constantly (and consistently) being fed loads of consumer-based content. A new tech gadget just dropped. Shop now! A trend has flooded your algorithm. Join it! Even new words and phrases become quickly picked up and popularized—yapping; very demure, very mindful etc. All of this and more is given to us in snippets—short and fast-paced. 

Ultimately, we don’t feel the pressure of it all at once. It’s like drinking water from a dripping faucet. Our thirst is not entirely quenched and we have a lot of room for more water. The dripping will never feel “too much”. 

So, when our minds are drowning in short, fast-paced consumer content, how can creatives detach and attach their focus on pursuing creative goals?

CONSUMER VS. CREATIVE 

Modern mass advertising is overstimulating and damages our cognitive learning. The phones in our pockets, the billboards on the road, the radio, social media feeds, television… all of the content around us targets us to “want” and to “buy”. It is difficult to distance ourselves from these influences. That’s how a library is a solution for your creativity—a quiet environment, designed to help you focus and learn, question and create rather than shop and follow.

HOW A LIBRARY’S ENVIRONMENT POSITIVELY IMPACTS CREATIVITY

Detaching from a crowd and sitting in your own solitude can help regenerate your own thought process—your true thoughts. Your authentic creativity. Just like a crowd or social event can influence our behavior to socialize and behave as others are, a library environment can do just the opposite. 

It’s quiet. With an obviously focused energy around, a library space is contagious in its ability to push you to work on your creative goals. Step into a library, take a seat and open your laptop, tablet or notebook and you’ll notice how much easier it is for you to focus and tackle your project. 

It is entirely up to your free will to scroll through a social media app, but the benefit of the library environment is this: look around. Most likely, the people surrounding you are busy focusing on their own work. It is difficult to ignore the plentiful books on the shelves. Wouldn’t you wonder how much effort it took writers, researchers and doctors to write word after word, page after page, until their book was complete? The inspiration of the creativity on the shelves and the people occupying the tables around you are just the fuel you need to breathe life into your project. 

While writing this article, I spent a good chunk of time typing away in a library. After work, I would use the library to work on other creative projects. A library’s table and chair had become a welcoming haven for creative brainstorming. The change of environment ultimately affects productivity. 

The next time you want to stay home and do nothing, remember this: you can do nothing tomorrow. Dedicate a few minutes at a library to read the book that has been abandoned on your nightstand, to jot down action steps for your project, or to plan and sort out your goals for the next coming months. 

Sketch. Write. Plot. Draft. Read. Investigate. Design. Work in a library, see what happens.