Appendix I

Library Facilities: Current and Future Trends

Current trends

Greater flexibility. Libraries are being built to be easily reconfigurable, with modular
furniture and even shelves on wheels. They are more open, with less staff-only work space
and fewer monumental desks. This allows spaces to be created spaces as needed, without
expensive and time consuming remodeling.
 
Focus on people space, rather than book space. Libraries house communities, not just
collections.  Comfortable seating, spaces designed for conversation and collaborative
learning, interior and exterior views, and amenities such as coffee carts all invite people to
meet and work together.
 
Library as neighborhood anchor. Main libraries attract the kind of traffic and offer the
high tech infrastructure that stimulates economic development in urban settings. In
Chicago, the redevelopment of the South Loop took off when the Harold Washington Library
opened. In Salt Lake City, new commercial and residential building has surrounded the new
main library.
 
Future trends

More transparency. Library spaces will be designed to tell their own story, revealing the
library's services, collections, and learning opportunities in ways that inspire exploration and
invite creativity.
 
Integration of print and electronic content. Traditional library materials will carry Quick
Response (QR) or similar tags that link directly to e-versions of the same item and related
downloadable content. The traditional materials will serve as a "showroom" for the content
people can take home on their preferred device. Nothing will be unavailable.
 
Focus on health. Libraries support brain health by providing opportunities for ongoing
voluntary education (free choice learning), especially for older users. Learning a new
language, attending challenging programs, participating in civic discussion . . . all of these
help keep people intellectually active and independent.
 
Support for the "new creatives." Libraries will continue to support business, but beyond
that libraries will support the class of entrepreneurs and creative workers who are
developing urban centers: artists, software developers, musicians and others.
Space for creation. Libraries used to be the supermarket: the place to pick up ingredients
to take home and use. Libraries in the future will also be the kitchen, the place where those
ingredients are brought together to make new creations.
 
Collections that are hyperlocal.  Public libraries will shift their focus from collecting global
materials (that are increasingly available in the cloud) to collecting local materials, items
that might otherwise be lost or forgotten. Some of these items may actually be created by
users and staff of the library (see "Space for creation," above). The library will be THE place
to find out about your own locality.   

Material provided by Joan Frye Williams and George Needham, Library Consultants-September 2010