New and planned libraries, services and facilities

Taken from Designing Libraries website

Designing Libraries aim is to provide a web based resource devoted to sharing best practice in the planning and design of library spaces of value for anyone with an interest or involvement in library design and building projects. The portal incorporates a database of library building projects from 1990 - 2011; image galleries; news on library building projects, events and publications; RSS feeds; links to hundreds of information resources and the opportunity to interact with others in the field. Designing Libraries aims to be the focus of an active community of librarians, architects, planners and others interested in library design.

The site offers news, links to information resources on all aspects of library planning and design, future plans, image galleries, advertising and sponsorship opportunities, company listings and discussion lists.

Watch this YouTube film about great library buildingsfrom BBC Worlwide, 29 January 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAmxdMBuwkQ

Unlikely partners, yet the Henderson library which is situated in a state of the art shopping centre is said to be a "a traffic-driving and community service oriented use for the center".

The IGS, or Infromation Gas Station, is Helsinki library's virtual reference service. The service is free to use - questions can be sent on any subject via their web page and will be answered within two weeks. Questions and answers dating back to 2001 are stored on a public archive so they are freely available to all.

In addition to the web service iGS also has a mobile reference service unit, the Information Barrel, that you can visit on tour for example at malls or at different happenings.

Taken from Information Gas Station

Based on information from BBC (Hereford and Worcester) website

A new library centre is to be built in the heart of Worcester in what is believed to be the first scheme of its kind in Europe.
City planners have given the go-ahead to Worcester's innovative new library and history centre which is set to cost £60 million.
The joint project between Worcestershire County Council and the University of Worcester is set to house Europe's first fully-integrated public and university library. Once completed, the centre, which will be open to all members of the public and students of the university, is expected to attract one million visitors a year. The development, having been approved by the city's planning committee, will also house the Worcestershire Record Office, Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service and the Worcestershire Hub Customer Service Centre.

Construction company Galliford Try has been signed up to build the £60m Worcester Library and History Centre.
The centre is thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, integrating a university library with a public one.
The centre, in The Butts, will include learning and heritage facilities, and will be open to all members of the public.
Construction work starts in February 2010.
The library is a joint operation between Worcestershire County Council and the University of Worcester.

From the Newcastle City Council website

The new City Library building is named Charles Avison Building after the 18th century Newcastle composer. On Sunday 21 June the building was formally dedicated by Dr Herbert Loebl who unveiled a plaque in the library as part of the Avison Ensemble Young Musicians Awards.

The new state of the art City Library opened its doors for the first time on Sunday 7 June at 11am. Opening the new library on a Sunday was a symbolic statement, and one which emphasises Newcastle City Council's commitment to providing contemporary and easily accessible services.

The new main entrance into the building is through a dramatic blue glass box on New Bridge Street West with a second entrance on Princess Square. Level 1 has a stunning range of new non-fiction titles as well as an integrated reference library. The whole building will be self service with self-issue and return facilities. This means that instead of being stationed behind a desk staff can help more easily.

On the Princess Square level is a superb new café run by Stewart and Co. from Jesmond (with additional outdoor seating on the redeveloped Princess Square), express email facilities, meeting rooms and the Bewick Hall - a performance space that can seat up to 185 people. There will also be superb display and exhibition facilities.

Level 3 includes a wonderful new children's library as well as adult fiction and community languages. It also has a music and audio visual section for music scores, DVDs (including Blu Ray) and CDs.

Level 4 is the main floor for PC use. Over 30 PCs can be booked free of charge for up to 2 hours.

Level 6 provides a stunning local studies and family history service, with unique local collections, generous research and study space and the latest standard of protection (BS 5454) for Newcastle's unique printed resources. Here you will see the Newcastle Collection - an exhibition of the very special rare books that the City Library owns.

Perhaps more unusual is the 24 hour vending machine, providing a range of books and DVDs from the external 24 hours service area. There are also 9 download stations; elegant stand-alone consoles providing facilities to sample CDs and DVDs, and download music, as well as provide access to Newcastle Libraries' online catalogue. The library has also had the opportunity to buy and install the technology from the British Library which gives Newcastle its own 'Turning the Pages' - highlighting examples from our rare books collection.

Throughout the building are features such as limestone flooring, specially commissioned furniture, the latest self-service facilities, and specialist book exhibition areas.

DOK (or the Delft public library) is a 'media centre' that combines 3 unique collections: Music, film and literature. In 2007, 3 librarians from Delft set out on a tour to cross the USA in 3 weeks. They travelled 5,000 miles - "gathering and telling stories, making many new friends, and exchanging valuable ideas. We captured the whole trip on video and in a blog with beautiful pictures at www.shanachietour.com

Extracts below are taken from an article by Erik Boekesteijn about DOK, published in 'Marketing Library Services' journal in March/April 2008.

"DOK's Mission in the Changing World
The mission of DOK is to become and remain the most advanced library in the world. Using creativity, technical innovation, and advancing scientific understanding, DOK endeavors to be an indispensable source of inspiration for its members, visitors, and partners in the city of Delft, in the Netherlands, and in the world. In this way, DOK hopes to safeguard access to the independent, objective, free flow of information that is essential for democracy now and in the future."

"The Library as a Story Publisher
In order to be able to keep, make, and share stories in this day and age, when rights and privacy are the subject of debate, DOK thinks it is essential that librarians start to think about publishing their own content. That is why a number of our projects deal with this issue.

One of the biggest projects we're working on is DOK Agora, "the storyboard of your life." On huge screens in the library, it is possible to present an exhibition of whatever you, as a patron, think is important and of value to the community. Imagine that your grandmother is about to celebrate her 85th birthday. Wouldn't it be great to make an exhibition of her life and show it in the library? A camera crew will interview relatives and friends. They will go to the places where she lived and worked. The final presentation will contain the music and art she loves in a cross-media tribute to a person, a time, and a city. People in the library will see this, recognize things, talk about their own memories, and share their stories. It is a great way of promoting social cohesion.

Another project that is related to this (in more than one way) is DOK Studio. With a considerable grant from a national library innovation fund, DOK was able to buy equipment for a mobile studio, with cameras, sound systems, editing programs, and everything else needed to make documentaries and do videocasts for the website. With this mobile studio, DOK employees visit high schools, allowing students to film their stories or, for instance, a campaign against alcohol abuse among teenagers. This places DOK in the middle of society and gives a boost to the image the teens have of the library. When working in the mobile studio, they find it is great fun to write scripts, read storyboards, and search for music soundtracks to add to the filmed material. DOK Studio has proven to be a successful way of bringing the teens back to the library."

"Getting More Serious About Gaming
One of the documentaries the DOK crew made was "If You're Not Gaming, You're Losing." We shot most of the material for this in the Chicago area. We stayed a week with social networker Michael Stephens and had the chance to spend precious time with him and gaming advocate Jenny Levine. We found there are a number of libraries that pay a lot of attention to their teens and that actively promote gaming. It became clear that these libraries attract a significantly higher number of teenagers, and we learned that the book circulation among these teens is up 70%. This was a lesson not to be ignored."

"Thinking and Acting Beyond Library Walls
Cooperation and guts may be the keys to the success of the unusual ventures we undertake here at DOK. Don't think budgets; think ideas and think beyond the library walls. Together with many partners, we are able to come up with new services or better ways to present the library to the people. A good example of this is the Tank U, a download station that uses Bluetooth. Content that our librarians select, such as a library magazine, an agenda of activities, or an audio book, can be installed onto these Tank stations, which can then be placed in different locations outside the library. Think of the promotional possibilities when you place the Tank U in railway stations, hospitals, cinemas, theaters, and so on. People with Bluetooth applications on their cell phones can download content to their phones and play it on the train or wherever they want. Once their interest is aroused, they are sure to come and visit the library."

"We had always been on the lookout for new ideas, but then we had the budget and the opportunity to put in a number of innovative gadgets, such as our music chairs. In a sort of 1970s design, these iPod chairs, with speakers all around and a seat that moves on its base, provide an entirely new music experience while it is also possible to watch a movie on the big screens. Staff members can update the Macs whenever they want, so there are always new music and films to discover.

Besides the cool chairs, we have the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation consoles. Both adults and children use them all day long. Our bookcases in the youth department are mounted on casters so we can roll them aside for activities. The Coffee Corner provides a good lunch and excellent coffee and tea. There are lectures, readings, and musical performances almost every week, and people like to spend a few hours in the library. Wi-Fi also makes DOK appealing to students to come and study. The art department holds regular exhibitions."

Whilst this is amazing in itself, the visual effect is more stunning. Visit The Shifted Librarian to see photographs and further description of this excellent resource.

From MLA website

"A new partnership has been formed between the library and the Primary Care Trust in Croydon - leading to a mutually beneficial development of the library based Healthy Living Hub.

Croydon's Healthy Living Hub is an informal place for anyone to access information and support on health, well being and how to implement a healthy lifestyle. It is located in the Central Library in Croydon. Designed to be engaging and inclusive, the Hub is a safe space for Croydon residents, and anyone else who is interested, to obtain information about health and well being, without the need for an appointment.

Since opening in February 2010 there have been 4,000 visitors and 31 of these have confirmed that since visiting they have stopped smoking. The Hub has a focus on stop-smoking support and active lifestyles, but other information and advice on improving general health and well being is widely available as well.

Croydon library has a footfall of around one million each year; one of the highest visitor figures for libraries in England. From April 2009 to March 2010 there were 1,036,872 visits to the Central Library.

The location of the Hub was selected specifically to target as many people as possible. The library is popular with young people and many students use it as a study space.

Fiona Tarn, Information and Adult Learning Services Manager and Jimmy Burke, Commissioning Manager at NHS Croydon agree that the library space was therefore an immediate choice, not only in terms of its location and high level of usage, but also as an opportunity for the NHS and the council to work more closely together on targeting particular outcomes and improving the health of local people.

Partners have broken down barriers to accessing health information, via traditional appointment based services, by locating the Hub within the library. They have also opened dialogue with a range of different people about hard to tackle subjects - such as sexually transmitted diseases with young people and health care for the homeless. The provision of a free health advice service has been important, particularly during the recession as often the cost of a phone call can be prohibitive for some.

The Healthy Living Hub is supporting the Council and Croydon NHS with local area targets including:

increasing participation in sport
reducing the levels of obesity in primary school
reducing the current rates of smoking prevalence in the 16+ population as measured by the four week quit rate
promoting healthy eating and mental well being
The Hub has been highly regarded by the community with comments ranging from "Staff were very keen to listen to views and encouraged my son to take part with the wii" to "Found it most helpful" and "Will recommend it to family and friends".

All involved are monitoring the success of the Hub closely, via questionnaires and focus groups. "If successful, after the 18 month pilot, the Healthy Living Hub will be sustained and potentially rolled out to other locations", said Fiona.

The Healthy Living Hub is a cost-effective approach to improving health across the borough. Jointly staffed by the library and NHS, it has shown the potential impact that working in partnership and sharing resources can have."

The MLA have carried out a case study of the project which makes interesting reading.

From an article by Mike Chino, www.inhabitat.com, 11.03.09

Karo Architekten collaborated with local residents of Magdeburg, Germany, to create an open air public library and cultural center and revitilize the community. In the public center, books are free to take and leave 24 hours a day. To use a book, residents simply "walk up to a cubby and pull out a tome." Given no membership is required, there are no barriers to accessing the books.

According to Inhabitat, the library began as an "assemblage of 1,000 empty beer cartons pulled together by residents." The building includes green space and the recycled facade of an old warehouse. Inhabitat writes that the local community helped conceive of the design and were involved from the get-go. The design started as a "1:1 model made from beer cartons," and was later finalized by Karo Architeckten. The firm incorporated parts of a demolished warehouse into the library's facade. The site's green plaza also includes a reading cafe and stage for local community events.

Read the article and see more photos.

From www.tumblebooks.com

"TumbleBookLibrary is an online collection of TumbleBooks - animated, talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they'll love. TumbleBooks are created by adding animation, sound, music and narration to existing picture books in order to produce an electronic picture book which you can read, or have read to you."

A great online resource for children offered in Canada. For a fee, books, games puzzles etc can be experienced online. Available in auto or manual mode, the stories are narrated and the pictures animated, and the pages either turned automatically or a prompt given for the child to turn the pages themselves.

Three grades of difficulty are available so as to be suitable for a wide range of ages and abilities. TumbleBooks can be viewed from terminal within schools and libraries who have subscribed to the resource.

Read more about the collection.

Taken from the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham website

Located at Westfield London, the £2 million library is one of the most exciting and innovative libraries in the country and has something for everyone.

Offering self-service terminals and customer-focused staff, the library has over 10,000 brand new fiction and non-fiction books; with over 1000 new DVDs, 600 CDs and 25 computers for public use.

The building was officially opened by Jeremy Paxman, Benjamin Chang and the Mayor of H&F on Monday 14 September.

Some of the features of the new Shepherds Bush Library include:

Bigger study space, plus WiFi and extra public access PCs
A great range of new books, CDs and DVDs to browse and borrow
Dedicated spaces for quiet reading and children's activities
Meeting and exhibition spaces
Quick reference and local information
Events for all ages
A dedicated PC linked into council services
An exciting new children's library with a sit-in reading globe
Music mixing software & listening station
XBox 360 + games
Unlimited WiFi internet access (adult customers only)
Public toilets and baby-changing facilities

Information from www.thehub.co.uk/thehub

A Mary land library has deployed a touch screen self service machine to provide an educational tool for children.

Kiosk Marketplace reveals how Carroll County Public library's information kiosk can be used to learn about its green features, which include storm water management, solar hot water and a geothermal heat pump.

The building's resource use is also displayed on the kiosk in real time, helping library visitors to engage with their surroundings.

Cheshire are also employing the kiosk to provide visitors with local business and attraction information including printable maps and local money-off vouchers.

Green information kiosk

Taken from the mla.gov.uk website

New Central library to inspire

Liverpool City Council has chosen Inspire Partnership for the £50 million Liverpool Central Library and Archive PFI contract, following an exhaustive Europe-wide search for a blue chip development partner. The successful contractor - which beat off competition from three other short listed organisations - is a joint venture between Amber Infrastructure / and Shepherd Construction.

Central Library - which is located in the heart of Liverpool's cultural quarter on William Brown Street - has gradually fallen into disrepair over many decades. Under the scheme, the Grade II listed parts of the building which date back to 1850, including the façade and famous Picton, Hornby and Oak Reading Rooms, will be restored to their former glory. The sections behind the façade which were built in the 1950s and 1970s following World War II bomb damage will be demolished and rebuilt to make the most of the available space. The new library will be open and inviting giving the public access to enhanced facilities in a landmark building.

The project will include a new home for the Liverpool Record Office which will house 14km of archives and some of the city's most historic treasures from the last 800 years - such as the original 1207 charter - in purpose built secure, climate controlled storage.

There will also be state-of-the-art IT facilities which will allow young people to download music and games onto MP3 and MP4 players, with wi-fi and access to computers.

The new look Central Library will also include:
¨ New entrance to main library, including a 'literary pavement' and front and rear access
¨ Five new floors with better access including escalators, lifts, toilets, meeting rooms and café
¨ New repository with capacity for 20 years of new archive space
¨ New conservation studio for repairs to the city's masterpieces
¨ New rooftop Atrium and terrace overlooking St. John's Gardens
¨ Re-opening of historic internal entrances to the Picton Reading Room
¨ Re-opening of International Library, to original design, as a new children's zone
¨ Dedicated room to John James Audubon's celebrated book - Birds of America
¨ Doubling the number of public computers
¨ New light well's at front and rear to allow library to be naturally lit
¨ New 24 hour on-street, drop-off book service

''By refurbishing the beautiful 19th century facade and the historic reading rooms, while creating brand new spaces and facilities inside, the people of Liverpool will get the best of both worlds, and set a great example to the rest of the country of how a really effective 21st century library service can look."

Information from HantsWebNews website

Hampshire County Council's Winchester Discovery Centre has won the prestigious Public Library Building Award for the category of Architecture meets Practicality 2009, the premier building award in the public library profession of the UK and Ireland.

The Centre beat off tough competition from thirty four other libraries from around the UK and Ireland at the biannual awards, which were presented by author Gervase Phinn last week at the National Public Library Authority Conference in Bristol.

The award recognises new or refurbished libraries of significant architectural interest which provide practical solutions to users needs and are user friendly, with the building reflecting the brief/specification and vision of the architect and delivering the needs of a 21st century public service.

By sympathetically remodelling and refurbishing the Grade II listed building and creating an extension that works in harmony with the existing architecture, the Discovery Centre has certainly been built with durability and frequent use in mind. With the winning of this award, CILIP has recognised the success of the building. Residents and people working in the City have also shown that the Discovery Centre is a hit with them as so many people now use it.

The award is an initiative of The Public Libraries Group (PLG) of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and The Library Council. The awards recognise the best libraries which opened to the public in the last two years throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The awards focus on library building design, good practice, overall management and the public usage.

There were four categories for the 151 public library authorities to enter with two special awards. 34 entries competed for the awards and only ten were shortlisted. Winning and commended libraries ranged from the large city libraries to suburban and rural neighbourhood libraries in the United Kingdom.

The Danish library authority and the physical library space - old library romanticism or postmodern functionality? The Danish library service is second to none in its forward thinking use of library space - read this chapter from Nordic public libraries in the knowledge society

An interesting article about library and museum buildings in Finland and how they can be contrasted. (Taken from the Librarybuildings.info website)

The urban mediaspace development at Aarhus in Denmark, due for completion in 2014, is at the forefront of driving library modernisation. It is "an amalgamation of modern and innovative functionalities of a main public library, a one-stop citizens' services, and spaces and facilities for civil society activities and networks."

From interiordesignnews.com, 1 June 2010
Some great pictures of Hjorring public library and how it has tried to address the need for play, learning, technology, study, commerce and ...yes even just reading, all within a modern and welcoming environment. What an act to follow!

Helsinki City library have succeeded in creating individual and quite different spaces for the various areas of the library.

An array of great pictures showing the interior of thee City library in Turku, Finland. (Taken from ExinteriorDesign.com website)

Taken from a pdf file on the Designing Libraries website

Bissett Adams was the architect for the refurbishment of the new library for High Wycombe.

Lighting, graphics and exhibition spaces invite visitors to visit the upper floors of the new High Wycombe library, in the new Eden Shopping Centre. The main library floor includes a creative children's library with a story circle, 'book trees' and climb-in reading pods, High Wycombe was also chosen as one of the pilot sites for Headspace, the new teenage
library concept from the
Reading Agency.
The second floor is a calm,
well-lit space containing spaces for local community groups, learning rooms, study space, and the local history library.
High Wycombe library has won the Mixology Award 2009 for Public Sector environments, and is shortlisted for the Public Library Buildings Award.

Taken from a case study on the MLALondon website

Downham Library opened on 12 March 2007 as
part of the new Downham Health and Leisure
Centre. The centre is seen as a model for
community health, leisure and well-being
provision. As well as the library the centre
swimming pool and leisure centre; GP surgeries,
dental practice and community health care
facilities; exhibition space; a café; an
AccessPoint for council services; a crèche; and a
community hall with meeting room and kitchen.
The centre replaces a 1930s library and public
baths and was a major project for the council.
Funding came from a Private Finance Initiative,
Lewisham Council, the government and the local
Primary Care Trust.

The library occupies a prominent position just
inside the main entrance to the centre, and
occupies two floors. On the ground floor is a café,
a quick choice section, children's library and
quick use PCs. Upstairs is the main library which
has RFID self service throughout, allowing a
move towards a more customer focused
approach with staff on hand to help, plus a staff
pod for enquiries. The self service facilities also
allowed the Library & Information Service to
develop a new staffing and service delivery
model, the Downham Model. The model allows
the redeployment of staff in an Invest-to-Save
context and was presented in Barcelona at the
International Conference on RFID in Libraries
(April 2007). Self-service also allows late opening
until 10.00pm with only security staff on duty.
TVs and libraries may seem an unlikely
combination, but Downham has three - one in
the Adult area (showing BBC News 24), one in
the Teen Area (showing a music channel), and
one behind the counter on the ground floor
(offering council and library information and
screening announcements). The meeting room
converts to a cinema with a 42" screen with
Dolby Stereo surround sound where films are
screened.

Taken from the 2CQR website

"Simply place your chosen book onto the WonderWalls 'Hot Spot' and instantly receive content descriptions, extract readings and author interactions .The WonderWall also offers catalogue and web search facilities, reader guides, pictures, movies and many more features, making it an essential addition to any library space."

Visit the 2CQR website to see how the WonderWall experience can enhance the library environment.