Planning and Design of Library Buildings

This books explains to the librarian the way architects work in designing a library and also educates architects as to how librarians work. The book is designed not only for students but also for those approaching for the first time the task of creating a new library. The author works on the assumption that few architects approaching the designing of a new library know very much about libraries and fewer librarians know anything about architectural planning. It explains the role of the various members of the building team at each stage of a library building project, from the primary brief to the drawing up of the detailed design. The author gives an account of the main library types - public, educational, industrial - showing how staff and reader spaces within them work and how various kinds of function affect such matters as the provision of services, the storage and passage of books and materials and questions of access, circulation and security. Although the subject is both planning and design, the latter element is considered only as it directly affects and is affected by, the library's operational aims. Discussions about the inter-relationships between funtion and form have been avoided and the choice of photographs has been dictated by the need to illustrate planning points. Changes since the last edition particularly reflect the growth of electronic technology. The emphasis is on common factors and the recommendations here apply as much to small libraries as to large ones: to extensions and conversions as much as new buildings. Though the descriptions of planning procedures and references to the requirements of official regulations are based on British practice, it is hoped that the procedures described here are sufficiently logical as to help any officer who is called upon to work in a foreign country.