Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- About the Authors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Libraries after 2020
- 2 Project Management
- 3 Project and Design Teams
- 4 Partnership and Community Engagement
- 5 The Design Brief
- 6 Design Quality
- 7 Space Planning and Access
- 8 Occupancy and Post-occupancy Evaluation
- 9 Building Libraries for the Future: a Summary
- Bibliography and Further Reading
- Appendices
- Index
9 - Building Libraries for the Future: a Summary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- About the Authors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Libraries after 2020
- 2 Project Management
- 3 Project and Design Teams
- 4 Partnership and Community Engagement
- 5 The Design Brief
- 6 Design Quality
- 7 Space Planning and Access
- 8 Occupancy and Post-occupancy Evaluation
- 9 Building Libraries for the Future: a Summary
- Bibliography and Further Reading
- Appendices
- Index
Summary
Today people question whether libraries still have a future. This is thewrong question. More pertinent is to ask what kind of libraries areneeded in tomorrow's world.
(Worpole, 2013, 186)In her response to a challenge from a Fox News presenter in 2016 that‘vanity’ libraries were a waste of money for parentinstitutions, especially in an era where everything was accessible onsmartphones, Karen Latimer (2017b) defended the need for libraries asphysical spaces as well as being repositories of e-resources. But she wasalso aware of the gauntlet being thrown down to elicit a response andacknowledged that it was not right to be carried away by expensive plans forever more amazing buildings which might not repay their huge financialoutlay. She writes that, while institutions want their users to admire andenjoy the library space,
we also need the spaces to reflect user needs and enable us to delivernew and creative services; we need to respond to the declining need forstorage space by creating a range of new and zoned spaces for learningand studying both collaboratively and individually. It is in this areathat there is scope for further research. We need more evidence on howstudents, and indeed staff, operate in the digital age. The holy grailof library design as we move more deeply into the 21st century is toidentify the kind of building that will meet the changing learning andresearch needs of our users in the same way that for previous centuriesthe classic model of the academic library did with books as the mediumthrough which knowledge was made available… . It is hard topinpoint exactly when the longstanding typology for library buildingsbegan to change but it undoubtedly coincided with the move from print toelectronic resources – the dawn of the digital age.
(Latimer, 2017b, 5)Latimer summarises well the focus of this volume. This new edition hastransformed the way it relays information, trying to refer to onlineresources where possible so that these, which will change and be updatedfrequently, can remain the ‘go-to’ source of most recentinformation, and a quick e-mail or video call can confirm the views ofrelevant organisations and other library building project managers.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Better by DesignAn Introduction to Planning, Designing and Developing Library Buildings, pp. 123 - 126Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2022