29 Libraries and information centres

CI/SFb: 76
Brian Edwards with Ayub Khan UDC: 727:8
Uniclass: F76
Brian Edwards is a Research Professor in Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art,
an accredited college of Edinburgh University. He is an architect with a PhD from
Glasgow University and is an active researcher and consultant on the design of libraries.
Ayub Khan BA (Hons) FCLIP is Head of Libraries – Strategy at Warwickshire County Council.
His previous role was that of Principal Project Officer (Library of Birmingham) working
on plans for a new City Centre library in Birmingham

KEY POINTS: 1.03

• The community role of public libraries is changing rapidly The reasons for the revival of interest in the library were threefold.
• Information is delivered in all kinds of media, not just paper First, new media technologies, particularly IT-based knowledge
packages, led the government and universities to reassess the role
Contents of libraries in a digital age. Second, the resurgence of interest in
1 Introduction other cultural building types – notably the museum and art gallery –
2 Community role of libraries encouraged clients and their architects to see libraries as buildings to
3 Library design visit in their own right rather than merely providing a desk from
4 Room layout, furniture and shelving which to borrow a book 29.2. Third, the expansion of universities
5 Space standards worldwide led to a radical reassessment of the role of the academic
6 Environmental considerations library in teaching and learning, and this in turn changed attitudes in
7 Financing and resources the public library – Table II. So, there emerged a new generation of
8 Bibliography libraries such as the Idea Stores in East London and the Discovery
Centres in Hampshire where the focus is on community wellbeing
rather than the individual reader.
1 INTRODUCTION
1.01 Table I
The developing role of the library has created a set of new and complex
challenges for those delivering library buildings and services. The Main types of library Key features
libraries of the twenty-first century are no longer simply familiar repo-
National library  National collections of books, journals, maps, etc.
sitories for books. They have changed and expanded, been rethought  Research focused
and redesigned. Libraries now provide an increasingly wider range of  Conservation element
different services, using a multitude of media, and reach a more diverse  Specialist readership
audience than ever before; see Table I and image 29.1. Public library  Collections primarily for loan
 People’s Network of computers
 Wide range of material including local interest
 Community information base
1.02
 Often integrated with other ‘cultural’ buildings
After years of relative neglect as a building type, the library  Wide range of customer base
enjoyed a renaissance towards the end of the twentieth century. Academic library  Study support for teaching and learning
Interesting new solutions to the architecture of the public library  Research collections
 Large computer areas
appeared at Peckham, London to designs by Will Alsop and in
 24-h access
Vancouver to designs by Moshe Safdie. In parallel, national
Professional and special  Specialist collection of books and professional
libraries underwent exciting transformation as in Paris to designs libraries journals
by Dominique Perrault. The libraries of colleges and universities  Often contains rare material
 Limited access facilities
were also transformed into dramatic enclosures for knowledge
 Conservation element
dissemination, research and learning such as at Thames Valley  Closed community of users
University designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership.

29.1 Ideal pattern of public library

interrelationships (Brian Edwards)
29-1