Creative Spaces in Children’s Libraries: Essence, Opportunities and Ukrainian Experience of Implementation

The relevance of the theme of the article is due to the rapid rethinking of the role of libraries in modern society, in particular, the necessity to transform children’s libraries in accordance with the cultural, educational and digital challenges of the 21st century. The formation of creative spaces in libraries for children is a response to the community’s demand for inclusive, interactive and interdisciplinary formats of cultural interaction and development. The aim of the article is to define the prerequisites for the emergence, the essence of creative spaces in libraries and the opportunities they provide, as well as to reveal the directions of development of creative spaces in Ukrainian children’s libraries. Research methods: analytical method – to study the scientific literature on the functioning of children’s libraries, modernisation of library space and the introduction of innovative approaches in working with children’s audiences; descriptive method – to record and generalise the practices of creating creative spaces in libraries for children in Ukraine. The scientific novelty grounds on clarifying the essence of creative spaces in libraries and the opportunities they provide, as well as in outlining promising areas for improving creative spaces in children’s libraries; identifying the main functions of the creative space in a children’s library as a multifunctional environment that combines educational, cultural, technological and social aspects; substantiating the potential of the creative space as a factor in a child-centered model of library activity that meets the requirements of sustainable socio-cultural development of the community. Main conclusions. It is summarised that innovations in library activities are a tool for changing its role in modern society, which occurs due to the diversification of platforms and areas of communication with users, which, in turn, leads to an increase in the number of participants in creative events in the library. The creative space of the library is defined as various types of library service spaces that are fully or partially focused on the creation of non-text content (drawings and photographs, audio materials, videos, web media, etc.), and not only on its consumption. Particularly, it is emphasised that creative spaces in children’s libraries are not just an innovative format of work, but a new paradigm of interaction with the user, which is based on the principles of co-creation, flexibility, inclusivity and accessibility.