On this week’s blog we discuss the launch of the Scottish Coworking Network, a SLIC project to establish a network of coworking hubs within public libraries across Scotland.
Equipped with 19 desks, meeting rooms and lounge space, the coworking hub at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries will be opening its doors to members on Monday 18th February. There will soon be more to follow, with central libraries in Edinburgh, Inverness, Troon & Dundee all to join the Scottish Coworking Network over the coming weeks and months.
The project aims to assist the development of local enterprise by offering not only a workspace but also a community where entrepreneurs, freelancers and microbusinesses can meet, work and collaborate. The project also encourages networking and collaboration on a national scale, as well as local. Members of the Scottish Coworking Network are free to use any desk space available in any public library coworking hub. This means that a web designer in Dunfermline can travel to Edinburgh for a meeting and make use of all the Edinburgh hub’s facilities.
Success as a small business or solo entrepreneur is so often down to serendipity, and the connected nature of the hubs allows people from different backgrounds and geographical areas to collide and interact.
“We’re at a really exciting point in the project now where we will have 2 hubs in Dunfermline and Edinburgh open in quick succession. I’m looking forward to seeing how the hubs evolve over time, with guidance from the community. We’ve already had interest from members who are saying, I’d love to give a talk, or run a workshop on this topic and we absolutely want to encourage that. Libraries have always been the perfect environment for advancing community learning & growing knowledge and this is just another extension of that.”
As well as community knowledge building, there will also be a series of workshops delivered through project partners to help assist with all aspects of starting up or running a business.
This pilot project allows SLIC to develop a blueprint for how other libraries can establish coworking hubs and become part of the network.