As early as 1879, W.F. Poole stated “Avoid everything that pertains to the plan and arrangement of the conventional library building.” James Bertram, Carnegie’s Secretary stated:“..to obtain for the money the utmost of effectiv (sic) accommodation, consistent with good taste in bilding (sic) and “…the community and architect may express their individuality.” During this era, library design exhibited:

•         Grandness

•         Order

•         Task Based

•         Fixed Room

•         Container

•         Quietude

•         Control

•         Ordered Placement

•         Posting of Rules

•         Maximum Seating

•         Reading Surface

•         Daylighting

 In 1930 John Adams Lowe advocated the “home like rural library” that created a place with:

•        “Homelike” qualities

•         “Lure of books” and “temptation to read”

•         Element of surprise

•         “no guardian sitting commandingly in front of the entry”

•         Variety

Libraries -- virtual and physical -- are unique civic spaces.  As non-commercial, altruistic cultural institutions, they are open to all members of the communities they serve.  As Michael Gorman says, "libraries are places that embody learning, culture, and other important secular values and manifestations of the common good, and there is a need arising from our common humanity to visit such places.  Notwithstanding numerous predictions of the demise of the library as a place, and reports of "deserted libraries", people are using libraries more than ever.  This is because they fill a vital human need for community in association with ideas and with learning.  When designed and maintained with "place-making" in mind, the physical library serves as a vital agent in community building -- bringing people together, and promoting and protecting a community's civic and educational values and the values of librarianship.  Architecturally, place-making is the art and science of crafting spaces in ways that transcend their physical attributes and contributes to the well being of the occupants.  Creating a sense of place in a library enhances the patron's sense of connection with their community and its values and traditions.

After a generation of intensive work in building the virtual library, often at the expense of maintaining and developing the quality of physical space in the physical library, librarians have reawakened to the place-making role of the library building.   Celebrating the spiritual roots of librarianship in curating and cultivating sacred spaces dedicated to learning, new libraries are incorporating elements of place that make each library a unique marker and symbol of the community(ies) it serves.  Libraries are reasserting their role as serious, welcoming, attractive, and fun physical destinations for their patrons by working with architects, such as the talented ones on the dais today, to design buildings that are both beautiful physical embodiments of, and functional physical spaces for creating a sense of a community of learners.  I call this esprit de place or spirit of place.

Why communities create a sense of place

Creating spirit of place is as much about rediscovery as invention. As Raymond Irwin stated in The Origins of the English Library, "Almost without exception every great library, from the days of classical Athens to the Age of Reason, has been built on holy ground. The reason is plain. Of all the devices of magic by which a king maintained sway over his subjects, the magic of the written word is the most potent." While American libraries have adapted the authoritarian sense of awe and beauty to a distinctly egalitarian and democratic tradition of librarianship, they have retained the timeless design goal of creating transcendent and transportive spaces.  By transcendent we mean buildings as more than merely containers of materials, but as places that delimit physicality through imaginative understanding and application of virtues.  By transportive we mean design that uplifts the patron, and enhances the unique experience of sensing past-present-future simultaneously. It is this transcendent--transportive coexistence that distinguishes a library with, what I am calling, esprit de place.

The real estate in a physical community - such as a town or a college campus - is divided into public, commercial and private spaces.  Every community tries to set aside "commons", public spaces frequented by a broad cross-section of the community.  In a town these include community centers, parks, schools, and libraries.  On a college campus these include the sidewalks on the quadrangle, recreation centers, cafeterias, student centers, and the library.  These "commons" are greatly valued as places where people who do not necessarily travel in the same circles frequently meet and greet each other.  Those common spaces associated with learning and culture, i.e. with transcendent and transportive potential, has a particular appeal for many people.  The library is one such a place -- a very public place in which one can spend private and/or social time, reading, researching, browsing, and otherwise participating in the intellectual life of the community.  The library, as an especially egalitarian cultural institution, has the potential of locating the citizen as a participant in the intellectual life of his/her community.

 What gives a library esprit de place?

What gives a library character and makes it attractive to people, are the features that make it distinctive: its resources (human and collections), programs, local traditions, and unique art and artifacts -- i.e. the elements that reflect the spirit of a specific place or community. When talking with students about what they remember years later about their college libraries, it is the places they studied and slept, the smells and atmosphere of scholarship, the recollection of flirting and socializing, and the fun of serendipitous discovery. 

The recent upsurge of library construction and renovation across the United States has created ample opportunities to showcase Placemaking as a key goal for the library of the future. Here are six examples, drawn from many others that could be cited, that offer a picture of what's possible when librarians take advantage of their central role in communities. Whether they work in small neighborhood libraries or large central libraries, rural libraries or suburban libraries, all are intentionally developing their spaces as vital civic places.

Community choices should reflect the fact that libraries will not be deserted—and will become incredibly busy places when there is a conscious understanding that people genuinely like being in the presence of others in learning and in cultural events. Why else would over 750,000 people stand in line to see a Matisse art show when nearly every image could be seen in a book or on-line?

The many elements of "place" in a library are too numerous for me to list here (and nothing is more boring than a list in a talk). They include many of the traditional spaces and services about which we talk so much in conferences and in the literature. What follows is a selected list of elements that are contributing to a trend in library design to make libraries more distinctive and attractive places in their communities, to enhance their "spirit of place".

In a talk at Simon Frazer University in 1988, the writer Ralph Caplan eloquently summed up the role of design: “Yet one of the principal uses of design is the articulation of difference. Design is both a way of making distinctions and a way of eliminating those that are not useful.”

Placemaking is a concept that bridges the mental and physical aspects of place.  The elements are:

Designing for esprit de place in new building projects and in renovations

Creating esprit de place is the art of designing library spaces that support the services and programs that best meet the needs of a community.  Key elements of place-making include a) integration of activities, b) supporting the serendipitous nature of library use and the range of choices available, c) vigilance in upgrading and changing space to reflect the changing needs of the patron, and d) building on existing traditions.  Successful place-making includes a) creating a design from the character of the existing place; b) co-locating library and non-library uses; and c) integrating non-textual content (people want more than books in a library). 

In designing new buildings or additions, and planning building renovations, libraries are employing a variety of strategies for enhancing the sense of place and enjoyment patrons derive from their visits to the physical library. Academic libraries are reclaiming their roles as agents in community building, and borrowing ideas from their colleagues in public libraries, which never lost sight of their importance as gathering places. Public libraries are enhancing their roles in information literacy and teaching, and strengthening their virtual library presence.  There appears to be an increasing cross-fertilization among public and academic library designers, something LFF believes should be stimulated and supported through ALA and AIA conference programs. This, we believe, is a result of the shifting role of information as a commodity and the collaborative nature of learning and working.

Given the variety of activities that take place in a library, a key challenge in library planning and design is achieving a balance among an apparently opposing range of functions and needs. Some examples include: solitude/interaction; quiet/noise; conservation/food and drink; order/mess; existing physical barriers/barrier free; durability/comfort; openness/security; limited hours/24x7 expectations. 

In addressing these apparent planning and design tensions, it is easy for a librarian to become immobilized and opt for maintaining the status quo. It is equally easy to succumb to the latest fad and introduce the changes for the wrong reasons. The successful library meets all these needs through a process of careful and iterative process of consultation, compromise, and design. What is required is nothing less than holding on to our enduring values, while also demonstrating a genuine openness to listening to our constituents, considering new ideas, and trying some different approaches that accentuate the community-building role of the library.

Placemaking Elements

The intersection of privacy, personalization and meaning is, in the author’s opinion, the nexus of what the library patron is searching for in a library. There are seven Guiding Principles, in my opnion for the foundational premise of sound library planning. These are:

  •         Particular--it is known

•         There is a point of departure and return

•         Place has pronounced borders--a distinction between what is and what is not

•         Identity is sub-identity of the self

•         Fusion of human and natural order--the crux of self-beloging

•         Place is based on proximity and closure

•         Cognitive and social meaning meet in conceptions of place

Placemaking reconciles the individual and civic goals into a cognitive set of design features that permit simultaneous and overlapping use of the library by the multi-varied patron and creates architecture that is connected to and continues the historical traditions of the community without mimicry.cent for art programs”, and a growing range of museum/library collaborations are expanding opportunities for the public to engage with and enjoy artwork in public places.  Spaces are being designed for permanent art commissions, the thoughtful display of art owned by the library or on long term loan from museums and galleries, and for short-term exhibitions.  Design challenges include conservation conditions (light and environmental conditions), security, and hanging surfaces. 

Before the late 1940’s, libraries were designed as a totality. The container (architecture) was given equal attention to the contents (the book). The contents were seen, not inappropriately, as worthy of special display. In addition, the space for the reader was treated with special rooms that enveloped and communicated the idea of intellectual pursuit. Who is not in awe of the Rose Reading room at the 42^nd Street New York Public Library? While this may be seen as a nostalgic reminiscence, we see this historical attributed as essential to the well being of the patron—and essential to the continuity of the library itself. This “totality” in design is reemerging. Features that are designed to give libraries a sense of warmth, style, and locality, such as fireplaces, decorative stairwells, beautiful lighting fixtures and lamps, use of local materials for floors and counter tops, are being requested by library users. I believe that there is a longing for spaces that respect the long tradition of libraries as holistic places for learning not only about ideas contained in the contents, but also the tradition of the place. I end on a quote from Amitai Etzioni -- "Community size and differentiations can create difficulties for its members to participate actively in dialogues that maintain shared values or for members to bond with one another."

My next blog will be about the impact of the digital on the physical.