As we proceed through an ever faster changing millennium, the question for us to consider may not be what will the 21st century library look like?, but, is the concept of the public library as we know it today valid for tomorrow’s communities’ needs and realities?

Historically, libraries have been understood as public realms that have focused on the intellectual growth of the individual. To this point, this process has been mostly an isolating experience. Thanks to the rise of social media, co-work spaces, crowd-sourcing creation, and mash-up technologies, the process of learning is shifting to a community-based innovation model. In this model, the current library is no longer serving the shifting needs of our communities. A new model calls for a public environment that physically unites people that have similar intellectual and knowledge desires, a place to collaborate, learn from each other, and interact. This new model is best represented by the Athenaeum, an institution for the promotion of learning and for uniting persons interested in scientific, literary, entrepreneurial, and social collective growth. The Athenaeum experience is about Community connections and providing communities with the space, infrastructure, and tools to transform its citizens.

The Concept for the New Library is thus to be understood as the Athenaeum. We are promoting the concept of the Athenaeum as the word suggests an environment that promotes learning in its largest sense and it is not limited to just printed and digital media as it may unintentionally be understood by a portion of the potential patronage. The Athenaeum concept also supports a much wider understanding of a space used for all purposes that unite knowledge and the community with both intellectual and social dimensions, a place for cultural and community exchanges as much as scholarly discourse. Innovation in the design of the Varna Athenaeum will support a new world mindset, a co-creative class (Prosumers)– people as consumers and producers of content.