Little Library of Water

UPDATE: As of May 2023, the Little Library of Water is no longer an Imagine Water Works project. In the spirit of libraries and freely available information, which guided the creation of this project, this web page exists as an archive of our past work.

The Little Library of Water was co-designed by Imagine Water Works and Waggonner & Ball in 2019 and was paired with programming by Imagine Water Works and the New Orleans Public Library. The installation traveled to various locations throughout the city for a period of four years during IWW’s partnership with NOPL. We are proud of our work on this project and will continue to seek opportunities to provide “literary, musical, artistic, and reference materials for use but not for sale”.

T

he Little Library of Water is an interactive installation developed in collaboration with the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL) and Waggonner & Ball. It is a component of the Library of Water concept, developed by Imagine Water Works, which sees libraries as irreplaceable community spaces that share knowledge and resources — and as critical to our understanding of water in New Orleans and beyond.

The installation combines shelving for displaying the New Orleans Public Library’s water-related books, a display for community resources, and a 3D map detailing the water that flows throughout New Orleans. Over the course of the installation, we’ll continue to add books requested by our community that feature BIPOC (Black/Indigenous/People of Color) authors.

The goal of this project is to connect children and adults with what “living with water” means in a city like New Orleans, in which flood risk and climate change require adaptation and a nuanced understanding of our environment.

The Little Library of Water provides residents with an engaging and educational way to interact with our watershed, connecting audiences across the city with the water that shapes life in New Orleans.

The installation has been designed collaboratively and fabricated by local architects and designers Ramiro Diaz, Thom Smith, and Lex Agnew of Waggonner & Ball. A scale model of New Orleans topography and drainage system was fabricated using a CNC woodworking router, and dowels have been used to mark every public library and water pumping station in the city.

In addition to serving as a library installation, this project includes monthly workshops to engage residents in learning about water management, hurricane preparedness, and more. The installation will be unveiled in June 2019 at the Main Branch of the NOPL, but will eventually act as a rotating exhibit that moves to the branches of the library, increasing access to the materials.

Project Details

Partners: New Orleans Public Library and Waggonner & Ball
Funder: The Nature Generation
Time Period: 2017 – 2019

Have a book or author to recommend? We’ll add it to the installation.
Submit your ideas via our (really quick!) form here. 

NOTE: We are specifically looking for books, poems, and other materials that are written by BIPOC writers, researchers, and artists.