Planning Public Library Buildings

Concepts and Issues for the Librarian

Michael Dewe

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317079958
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Architettura
• Categoria: Architettura generale

Planning a new or refurbished public library means considering not only facilities for collections, services, staff and users, but examining also the local context, reviewing the library image, and developing relationships with other community facilities and agencies. This book examines the entire gamut of challenges confronting the planning and development of contemporary public libraries; their mission, their roles, and key issues such as lifelong learning, social inclusion, community and cultural needs, regeneration and funding. The helpful presentation and readable style guides the librarian through the preliminary information-gathering and decision-making process that ensures a successful library building for all concerned. Using practical case studies, plans and photographs, the author tackles the critical issues of siting, size, plans and design concepts, and provides a helpful guide to weighing up the alternatives of refurbished, converted and new buildings. Separate chapters focus on the planning, briefing and construction process; security, safety and sustainability; key characteristics of successful buildings; identity, decor and signage; and interior layout and facilities. The text draws together a vast resource of real library examples from all over the world which provide best practice models and lessons to learn. For funding authorities, librarians and architects of public libraries this is a highly informative book that will help to ensure wise decision-making and prevent costly mistakes.

1 Mission and roles

The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport, and a library card.

E.L. Doctorow, 19941

At the start of the twenty-first century the public library is a worldwide phenomenon. Beginning as a mid-nineteenth-century Anglo-American concept, the idea of publicly funded local libraries, offering a range of services and facilities of broad appeal and freely available to all, is now widely accepted, if not universally implemented to the same standard. Much of this international development has taken place in the period after the Second World War, stemming from the influence of America in Germany and Japan, the UK in the Commonwealth countries (Australia and Ghana, for instance) and in Europe following the creation of the European Union. Scandinavian countries adopted the Anglo-American public library concept earlier than other European countries and their library design ideas were particularly influential in the early post-war years in the UK.

As many UK surveys have shown, the public library and its staff are valued and appreciated by their users, particularly where a modern, well-equipped facility is provided.2 But in today’s world the public library has to meet the challenge of whether to be regarded as

… a pleasant but scarcely vital, additional factor in people’s quality of life? Or … to be a serious force for social justice, one of the few uncontrolled routes to personal growth we have?3

Answering such questions demands that public libraries actively demonstrate their relevance and promote their value to the individual and society at large.

International organizations have helped promote the public library idea. UNESCO’s Public library manifesto, first issued in 1949, briefly makes the case for the value of public libraries in a democracy through ‘free and unlimited access to knowledge, thought, culture and information’, and outlines, for example, their mission, funding and management.4

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has also played an important role, not only in promoting libraries generally, but public libraries in particular. Its Standards for public libraries (replaced by its 1986 Guidelines), have been influential in the UK, for example, as regards the size of public library buildings. The latest version at the time of writing, The public library service: IFLA/UNESCO guidelines for development (2001), provides an up-to-date account of the purpose, resources and management of public libraries.5

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY: A DEFINITION

This worldwide public library movement can be characterized normally as providing a service which:

• is established, supported and funded by the community through some form of local taxation

• provides access to knowledge, information, works of imagination and cultural experiences

• is based on local needs and reflects cultural diversity

• is available equally to all members of the community

• is in principle free of charge

• is free of censorship.6

In many countries public libraries are underpinned by specific legislation. This should state the level of government responsibility, how they are to be funded, and place public libraries in a nation’s network of libraries and related organizations. Ideally public libraries should have a clear position in a national library and information plan that recognizes their continuing contribution to culture, information provision, literacy and education.7

As recommended in the IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines, public libraries in England and Wales are supported by specific legislation, the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964. The legislation introduced ministerial responsibility for public libraries and placed a rather open-ended duty on library authorities ‘to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons desiring to make use thereof’.8 This duty now also applies to both Scotland and Northern Ireland. Although the legislation mentions certain services, it does not state what the ‘duty’ of public libraries in the UK might be in terms of purpose and roles. For some, an important feature of the Act is precisely that ‘powers and duties are laid down in general terms which allow more freedom to local authorities’.9 With the phrase ‘desiring to make use thereof’, the Act places the emphasis on individual motivation to use the library service rather than the expectation that all, or many, will want to do so.

Whatever the possible drawbacks of the 1964 Act, the public library review of 1995 did not recommend new legislation.10 Later it was said that the public library standards for England, which came into force in April 2001 with targets to be achieved by March 2004,11 would demonstrate what constitutes a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ service.12 In reality the standards were about access, the range and scope of library services and how they would be measured. It did not tackle the public library ‘duty’ in terms of its purpose and roles:

Standards should be more than a mere measurement … They need to be based on a set of beliefs about the role of libraries in a democratic society. There is a very great danger that we’ll miss what is important about the public library service.13

A new version of the standards for England was produced in 2004. New Welsh ones have now been published to supersede those introduced in 2002; it is anticipated that these will be achieved by March 2005. Their relevance as regards library buildings is discussed in Chapters 3 and 4.

ROLES, RESOURCES AND COMMUNITIES

To fulfil satisfactorily the IFLA/UNESCO roles of providing access to knowledge, information, works of imagination and cultural experiences, the public library must have satisfactory resources:

• material in all formats

• adequate levels of staffing

• sufficient funds14 and, it might be added,

• satisfactory information and communications technology – hardware and infrastructure

• a suitable building, although not all library provision is necessarily provided from a static service point.

As well as having adequate resources, the public library will need to be informed about, and consult with, the community it is to serve. In other words it should involve local citizens in the development of the library service.15 This is especially true as regards the library and information needs of particular community groups, if resources are to be deployed satisfactorily. Consultation is particularly important when a new building or improved accommodation is being planned, because of the opportunities such projects offer for change and development. Both community needs analysis and public consultation are dealt with in Chapter 7.

In addition to a knowledge of the community to be served, the librarian must also be aware of general social and other trends that might affect local provision, such as:

• demographic change

• change in employment patterns

• political change

• educational change

• technological change

• economic change.16

Such changes are characterized in the UK by alterations in population structure; increasing demand for a ‘flexible’ workforce; an emphasis on choice in public services; the need for better educated and skilled employees; the change towards lifelong learning and skills training; and the range of electronic formats that nowadays co-exist with the book. Other factors include changing family structures, the 24-hour society, and increased leisure time. Also, as noted in Chapter 2 and later in this chapter, cultural institutions, including public libraries, are expected to contribute to the government’s wider social, economic and political objectives.

People places, an Australian guide to planning public library buildings in New South Wales, spells out the need to identify trends likely to affect their function and design in the coming years. It recognizes that some trends are peculiar to New South Wales, while others are also found overseas. Those affecting Western societies, including the UK, can be listed thus:

• an ageing population, of whom a significant number may have physical and other disabilities

• the speed of developments in information and communications technology, giving rise to the problem of the information-rich and information-poor in society

• the multicultural nature of society, due to immigration, economic migration and the arrival of asylum seekers

• the existence of indigenous cultures, as in Wales and other parts of the UK

• competition from other providers of information, education and entertainment

• the changing nature of rural and urban communities.17

For the UK, further ‘drivers for change’, such as increasing population mobility and new forms of democracy (which includes electro...