Library Builders

Citation

Revill, D. (1999), "Library Builders", New Library World, Vol. 100 No. 3, pp. 142-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/nlw.1999.100.3.142.2

Library Builders describes 43 new library buildings ranging from the smallest to the largest, public, academic and national, across the world. It is arranged alphabetically by architectural practice ‐ thereby making comparisons more difficult than need be. The criteria for selection are not given. The volume is not critical other than the occasional argument and the comparison of the new British Library at St Pancras with the Bibliothèque de France.

The book is more concerned about visual form than effectiveness. Project details are given at the back of the book but there are no post‐occupancy accounts of actual effectiveness in use, albeit the design brief’s requirements are assessed against the architectural achievements. These tend to be in terms of the buildings’ setting and philosophical purpose on the macro level. Architects like openness and neatness, whereas wiring, PCs, books and users tend to make libraries in use somewhat less attractive. Libraries, like new houses’ living rooms, look best when empty or, if occupied, tidy and few users in evidence. Space and light are evident. How to deal with a lack of space is not addressed. Similarly a major, relatively unsolved, problem for architects is how to deal with the problem of noise in these very open buildings. The book is lyrical, in praise of architecture, and beautifully illustrated, showing some spectacular buildings (e.g. Phoenix Central Library). Commentary (a quarter of the first opening per project) takes second place to the visuals and hence is brief and general.

Michael Brawne’s introduction spells out the challenges facing librarians and architects yet indicates that even modern libraries retain features which go back to the monastery (e.g. the scholar in his carrel). Brawne’s (1970) acute awareness of the contradictions needing to be resolved (first published in 1970) and as much an influence on this reviewer as Faulker Brown’s “Ten Commandments”) (Browne, 1970) is also evidenced in his short piece on the National Library in Sri Lanka.

Following the introduction major issues are addressed in five essays. John Olley on “The art of reading” (the influence of the book on architecture), Paul Lukez on the effects of electronic access, Michael Spens on a critical comparison of the British Library and the Bibliotheque de France, Richard MacCormac on “Architecture, memory and metaphor: the Ruskin Library” and Merrill Elam on the character of the library. Despite the essay by Lukez, “Whether://multi‐media.(cyber).libraries?”, and the blurb which states that “the historical perception of the library is being undermined by the digital revolution” and the inclusion of Cranfield’s new library and Thames Valley University’s shed, there is barely a PC in sight. The libraries look much like one might expect if there were no PCs around.

Libraries still store information (the book is not yet dead) and lead to routes to other information. That “available” externally is beginning to gain greater significance than that held locally. But ‘twas ever so. No library could ever be self‐sufficient, not since Konrad Gesner attempted to compile his universal bibliography in 1545.

Lukez recognises that the library’s role in facilitating the need to belong (collectivity), in joining an established endeavour (the atmosphere of study), being central to the objectives of an institution, its social meaning, requires a building rather than a Web connection. This requirement includes PC provision until such time as every user has a networked machine available at home. Users want to be where the pursuit of knowledge is celebrated. Users need the presence and persistence of others as helpers, guides, navigators and advisers; therefore library use becomes, or is, a social activity. Not least of the user’s problems is how to describe that which she/he does not know in order to find it.

Lukez (p. 13) sees librarians becoming “quasi publishers” being “instrumental in pulling an appropriate source out of a vast sea of information”. Librarians might prefer to see themsleves as navigators, and information retrieval specialists, rather than editors and publishers.

The effect the PC has on design is neglected in this volume. The PC does demand special consideration and, apart from the addition of false floors and other solutions to cable management, does require a rethink and re‐design of the conventional study place. Otherwise the variety of architectural “solutions” is quite remarkable, not just reflecting the constraints of site or brief although similarities can be discerned.

Spens’comparison is interesting. There is a certain Gallic perversity (or is it a French joke?) in storing books in four, high‐rise, “L‐shaped” bookends, giving the books the best view, and sunlight, from which they must then be shielded, and putting the users underground. The British Library wins on points awarded largely for its internal spaces.

There are some errors ‐ “The organisation of the six storey, 48 square metre building”! (p. 15) ‐ and in Michael Spens’ “A tale of two libraries” which states that the British Library was open to readers in the Autumn of 1996 (p. 12). This latter is corrected later in Colin St. John Wilson and Partner’s piece on the British Library.

One could take exception to some statements, for example that Alvar Aalto’s use of different floor levels is now more feasible as electronic delivery means that flat floors (for book trolleys, etc) are no longer necessary. Unfortunately they still are ‐ for false floors for wiring to PCs, for the delivery of equipment, for the disabled, for future flexibility, etc.

This reviewer was somewhat irritated by some of the more abstruse language ‐ “repeated codifications of earlier modernisms in a mosaic rich enough to hold emblematic resonances yet clear enough on its formal coherence to dispel any semantic confusion” (p. 23). This is not “plain words”. It is either very profound, requiring discussion of definitions of meanings, or “architecturese”.

So a spectacular book. Lovely libraries but few answers to fundamental questions plus internal arrangements which are largely “traditional” (readers on the outside, books on the inside) and which may well reflect eternal verities. Put it on your coffee table as it will impress visitors and delight architects. It may well depress you as you look at your existing buildings and reflect on the budget.