A New, Familiar Lens
Updated: 10 hours ago
I’ll never forget sitting with my colleagues in a cozy breakfast nook in Missoula, Montana. We just wrapped up attending the 2022 Library Journal Design Institute, seeking inspiration for the Anythink Nature Library.
That was four years ago today.
Up until then, the design process had felt like a round peg-square hole. Nothing quite fit, and this was a team that knew when something was off—or when it sang. Our hope was that visiting the award-winning Missoula Public Library and engaging with thought leaders in design would provide the spark we needed. It did, but not in the way we expected.
In that cozy nook, we realized we needed a different approach. For an organization that founded itself on asking “Why?” and flipping traditional concepts on their heads in the name of people-centered design, we had to challenge our own assumptions once again and ask some hard questions.
We were designing this library like an Anythink library, but this project called for something new. This was a different kind of project, a different kind of building. The land urged us to push ourselves—to evolve our way of thinking. The 140 acres of open prairie called for a fresh lens.
Back in Colorado, we threw everything on the table and started asking, “What if?” In scribbles strewn across whiteboards, we explored new themes. What if we designed a library around elements? By seasons? Around areas of natural sciences—astronomy, biology, earth sciences?
That was when Anythink Nature Library Manager Maria Mayo-Peaseley introduced the Environmental Kinship Guide. Immediately, everything fell into place. You know that spark? That collective jolt of lightning when the idea hits? That’s exactly what happened. And with it a whole new way of thinking—and talking—about what this library could be.
ENVIRONMENTAL KINSHIP
Nature has always had a major influence on Anythink’s work. Interior spaces bring the outdoors in through color palettes, patterns, natural light and even trees—both realistic and artistic. Early on, treehouses became a symbol for Anythink because the library is like a treehouse—a place where people can daydream and be anyone or imagine anything.
One of Anythink’s guiding philosophies is that people learn through play, no matter their age, which is why hands-on, participatory learning is central to its work. This extends beyond the library walls to its outdoor spaces, including community gardens, learning gardens, and Nature Explore classrooms at several locations.
According to their website, “Nature Explore is an initiative of Dimensions Educational Research Foundation, a national nonprofit dedicated to inspiring joy and wonder in children, educators, and communities with a heart-centered approach to early education.”
It was during a Nature Explore conference that Maria learned about the Environmental Kinship Guide, developed by a collective called Environmental Kinship International (EKI). Its framework of kinship “is based on the understanding that everything in the natural world is interrelated and that humans are a part of this as cohabiters,” the authors write.
Created with the purpose of providing a new lens for educators and administrators to think about nature-learning curriculum for children, Anythink has used it as inspiration for the Nature Library’s design and to inform the collections, non-traditional items, programs, and experiences visitors engage with in the space. And not just children, but people of all ages.
Four major learning modes make up the guide: learning “about” nature, learning “in” nature, learning “with” nature, and learning “for” nature. What I’m providing here is a simple breakdown, but I recommend reading the full guide.
Learning “about” nature: “Defined as the study of the natural world”
Inquiry, study, initiative
Learning “in” nature: “Defined as the affordances provided in nature”
Accessibility, exploration, engagement, agency
Learning “with” nature: “Defined as forming kinship with the natural world”
Relationship, participation, connection, spirituality
Learning “for” nature: “Defined as recognising the role of reciprocity in humans’ connection with the rest of nature”
Guardianship, responsibility, sustainability
Our trip to Missoula happened just weeks before Anythink Executive Director Mark Fink joined the library. One of his first orders of business was forming an indigenous advisory council of leaders from the metro region, including Kara Casey, Jayson HighWalking-Ferris, Alisiana Medina, Sarah Ortegon HighWalking, Sid Whiting, and Rick Williams. Their insights had a profound and recognizable impact on the design of the Nature Library, not to mention how the collaboration personally impacted each of us involved, including Anythink staff, our facilitator Kimberley Sherwood, and the dream team from Davis Partnership (architect), GH Phipps (contractor), and THK Associates (landscape architects).
We had a lot to learn.
With the Environmental Kinship Guide as our North Star—which itself is grounded in indigenous learnings and practices—a devoted team of experts ready to create something that had never been done before, a synergistic partnership with the City of Thornton, and hundreds of ideas gathered directly from the community, the group set off to fulfill the Anythink Nature Library’s vision of “helping people find their place in nature.”
DREAM BECOMES REALITY
Recently, I spent time at the Anythink Nature Library as a customer. I often joked during the design process that I would move my office to one of the comfy chairs we dreamed of in front of the big windows that at the time were only sketches. Here I was, that dream a reality.
Although I left Anythink formally in April 2024, I’ve stayed connected to the library as a consultant and now a volunteer member of the Anythink Foundation board. I’m grateful to have had an up-close view of the project as it was constructed and opened. After spending years working on this project with the Anythink team, it’s rewarding watching it come to life and embraced by the community.
My friend Laura Frank, executive director of COLab, joined me for a tour of the library and lunch in the LatinA Flavor Cafe. I took calls and worked from various nooks. I spent a few minutes in the Kinship Garden, listening to the new Misha Panfilov album, and watching the clouds. Founding Anythink Director Pam Sandlian Smith’s quote etched in stone was over my left shoulder: “The library nurtures infinite curiosity.”
I met a young woman who was also working from there. She shared her story of caretaking, working full-time for a local non-profit while obtaining her master’s degree in special education. We bonded over the mysterious ways the universe points us to where we need to be—and how we get to use this insanely beautiful space as our office.
I saw several families come in with newborns and sat in awe thinking about how this is the library they’ll grow up knowing.
The whole time, I watched the Environmental Kinship model in action: kids clamoring on boulders, people checking out TryIts, families exploring the outdoor gardens, staff walking the loop trail on their break. I asked Maria how she felt after being open for a month. While staff is navigating the operational learning curves that come with a new building, a building that truly puts the curve in learning curve—there are no straight lines in the place—she’s amazed at how people instinctively take to the concept. Some things she was concerned about haven’t been an issue at all. Risk and messy learning are key to children’s agency and exploration. Would parents scoff at the boulders and mud pit? Instead, families have embraced these features wholeheartedly. This speaks to the effectiveness of the model and the intentionality of its application in the space.
WHAT IF?
Since the library opened on August 8, 2026, I’ve thought a lot about the Environmental Kinship Guide and how to adopt it elsewhere. Could a framework for childhood nature learning also be applied to organizational culture? How we approach marketing? Civic engagement? Change management? What about political systems? Crisis management? Mutual aid?
Let’s look at this in the context of libraries. What if an organization used the Environmental Kinship Guide to approach growing and nurturing its culture? What might that look like?
Learning “about” the library: Learning an organization’s history. Being curious about how it got to this point. Understanding why it made past decisions—asking “why” to inform future ones. Learning about the community served—its history, evolution, and future. Recognizing an organization’s current culture and how it can best be nurtured and grown.
Learning “in” the library: Spending time in the library and in the community—the equivalent of “getting your hands dirty and making mud pies.” Working alongside the community. Problem solving, building and creating together.
Learning “with” the library: The spiritual aspect of the work—acknowledging why we do what we do. Examining how personal values align with organizational values. Celebrating the touchstones that make an organization unique, and what makes libraries unique. Carving time for reflection and daydreaming as a practice to inspire new ideas and creative thinking.
Learning “for” the library: Guardianship, responsibility, sustainability for the library and what it means to the community. Growing advocacy from within. Working with partners. Developing advocates and ambassadors that put these philosophies into action.
What might this look like as a structure for onboarding new hires? Or new leaders? Or even leaders who’ve been around for a while but could use a fresh perspective? Could it be used to orient new board members? Potential funders?
Taking this concept a step further, what if these methods of learning were physically explored in nature as a way to deeply embed sustainability in the work? This approach is already happening in places like the Library Field. Our sustainability group over the last year has also modeled this type of learning and convening.
Organizations need to evolve just like nature evolves. We have so much to learn from the natural systems around us and within us. Constantly, we see how nature inspires art in all forms. Recently, I read an article about nature providing frameworks for democracy in crisis.
Why not adopt these natural frameworks in libraries?
What if…?
Interested in working together to put this concept into practice? Let’s talk about what’s possible.
The Anythink Foundation Kinship Campaign raises private funds to support nature-based programming and public art across the Anythink system. If you believe in this project, and the power of libraries to inspire the environmental stewards of tomorrow, please consider a donation. 🌱
The concept of “new, familiar” was inspired by Pardeep Toor’s story collection, Hands.
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