Planning and Design of Library Buildings (Library of Planning & Design) - Hardcover

Thompson, Godfrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0408500247 ISBN 13: 9780408500241

Publisher: Architectural Press, 1989

Synopsis

A new library cannot be successfully created or an old one replanned until librarian, architect and others form an integrated team. Each must appreciate the other's expertise, and know something of their work. Each must also assess and communicate their own requirements and information needs, sufficiently quantified, at the right stage in development.
This book offers general principles for the basic brief, and step-by-step guidance on how to develop it in greater detail. It is the only book in English (and the only comprehensive one in any language) for those who come to this task for the first time, or who have experience of it but may be involved in new commissioning or redevelopment.

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Godfrey Thompson was for almost twenty years Guildhall Librarian, Director of Libraries and Art Galleries of the City of London.

Edition details

• Publisher: Architectural Press
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0408500247
• ISBN 13: 9780408500241
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 328