New Library Buildings of the World

Citation

Dewe, M. (2000), "New Library Buildings of the World", Library Management, Vol. 21 No. 9, pp. 501-508. https://doi.org/10.1108/lm.2000.21.9.501.4

As Maija Berndtson notes in her preface, this book has a special character, in that: “It is the first time … so many libraries from different parts of the world [have been] presented in one publication”. And here they all are, many of the library buildings that have attracted international interest over the past 20 years: the State Library of New South Wales, the National Library of China, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Münster City Library, The Hague Public Library, the British Library and San Francisco Public Library. In all, 130 library buildings from around the world and, generally speaking, national, state and large university and public libraries.

Based on the response to a survey sent to 800 libraries in 132 countries, but with only 178 libraries replying, the book’s world coverage is inevitably rather patchy: the Arab world, for example, is only represented by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and this hardly a typical library project. As might be expected, China, including Hong Kong, is well represented, as are Malaysia and Spain. Northern Europe is covered – best by Denmark with 12 libraries – but Austria, Portugal, Italy and Greece, for example, are unrespresented. France has only two entries and, while The Netherlands and Germany are better represented, clearly many significant buildings are not included.

In spite of these comments about coverage, praise must be given to the IFLA section on Library Buildings and Equipment, who, together with Shanghai Library, were responsible for the volume’s publication. Conceived as a book to accompany the 11th International Seminar on Library Buildings, “Building in a Changing Environment”, held in Shanghai in August 1999, much of the book’s illustrative material was also used for the seminar’s exhibition on library buildings.

This well‐produced book is presented bilingually and provides basic information about each building – size, cost, architect, etc. – as well as a brief, often very brief, description of each building. The text for each building is interspersed with three or four coloured pictures showing interior and exterior views of each library. The originality and variety of the ways the concept of a library, from Australia to Yugoslavia, can be expressed in built form constantly amazed this reviewer. An avid consumer of floor plans might, however, be disappointed by their absence from this 249‐page work.

The usefulness of this book lies in its function as a guide to large library buildings of the last 20 years. It is a guide, however, that is incomplete in its coverage and limited in the information it offers about each building. Its completeness is not the fault of its compilers and it is, perhaps, unrealistic to expect too much detail in such a guide. What a publication like this points up is the need – voiced on a number of occasions, by this reviewer, among others – for the full and regular documentation of library building activity at both the national and international level. Certainly UK librarians are much helped by the New Library Buildings series published since the 1960s, although the publication is irregular and lacking in currency. The biennial UK Public Library Building Awards, as well as those awards made from time to time by SCONUL, are a useful way of drawing attention to recent public and university library buildings. The way ahead is undoubtedly a library buildings archive – of both new and old buildings – on the Internet. It may happen in the near future for UK public library buildings, which will be a beginning.