Documenting Activities in Libraries: Designing Services to Link Collections with Activities

Today libraries are offering an increasing number of activities and events, that are producing knowledge. The PLACED project focuses on the development of a prototype facilitating the use of this knowledge. Through a methodology based on participatory design concepts, the team seeks to define functionalities for new place-centric digital services. Assuming that this methodology, which is focused on the analysis of needs and preferences, would benefit from being completed by a study of the roles played by the actors involved (librarians, invited speakers and the participating public), we conducted a series of participatory observations structured on the basis of E. Goffman's methodology. This article presents the results of this study in terms of defining requirements, and analyzes the contribution brought by taking into account the self-presentation and theatrical performances of librarians when it comes to design.