The New American Library
Technological, educational and social changes are redefining traditional roles
John W. Focke, FAIA

Our libraries are fast becoming sophisticated communication centers. The newly transformed libraries across the United States will continue to hold stacks of familiar books, but the difference will be in how books stand alongside new technologies and electronic resources. Published books will remain in circulation, as talk of bookless libraries is part of a "false paradigm." U.S. libraries that have attempted to eliminate books have been forced to return them to the shelves. It is a fact that both books and technology are expanding, not shrinking.

Technology changes the way people interact and learn. Soon, the library will serve as both a social and educational destination for people of all ages, cultures, and socioeconomic levels. Considering that 95 percent of libraries that will exist on day one of the 21st century have already been built, most facilities will experience problems in accommodating these new technology demands. They simply aren’t equipped to handle the needed changes.

Communications Technology Centers

Today, the role of the library in American society is changing to reflect the advent of computers and other electronic information technologies in our schools, businesses and homes. Renovated or newly constructed libraries and learning resource centers (LRCs) go far beyond replacing old card catalogs with computer terminals and bar-coded books.

For more than two centuries, the American public library has been a symbol of scholarly knowledge—traditionally "passive" environments providing resources for government and business, and offering public access to information, knowledge, and literacy. While continuing to provide traditional resources, our libraries are preparing us for the new century by evolving into "active" communications technology centers—the virtual library, or "bibliotech," where people can connect to real-time data and images from around the world and find opportunities for social interactive learning. Imagine these scenarios: home schoolers meet regularly at the library to participate in distance-learning classes offered by a university or a national education company; executives from a nearby office gather in a private meeting room for a teleconferencing session with their overseas parent company; and teachers from local K–12 schools work with librarians to develop interactive projects that students complete using the library’s electronic resources.

In progressive communities throughout Texas and across the country, libraries are using sophisticated architecture, technology and marketing savvy to attract new patrons.

Partners in Education

As part of an overall strategy to better introduce young children to a stimulating learning environment and to provide equity in access to information, K-12 public and private schools are becoming partners in education with public libraries and college systems. The popular idea is that kids who grow up using a college library may strongly connect with that school as their choice for higher education. Thus, college administrators market their schools to future students, inviting higher enrollments.

Colleges are not only interested in marketing to potential future students but are also marketing to adults as part of a growing continuing education community. Library-based day care centers, along with information literacy classes for both children and adults, are on the drawing board as part of this integrated strategy. In the academic world, the library is once again an important icon and a public metaphor for literacy at the highest level. In its new role the library is a marketer for information literacy, allowing people to experience an accessible future of education and connectivity with the world.

One excellent example of a user-friendly, future-oriented library is the new LRC at Palo Alto College in southwest San Antonio. Opened in August 1997, the $7 million facility is the most advanced library in the Alamo Community College System and perhaps in all of San Antonio. The planning committee decided the new LRC was as an opportunity for Palo Alto College to become the "heart of the community"—a place where everyone in the community could have open access to all information. Palo Alto contains such traditional resources as books, periodicals, and tapes, as well as multimedia electronic resources for on-line services and open academic computing resources. Other components include an information concourse to access on-line services, user training sessions, instructional media services with a TV studio, and an instructional teaching center with a faculty multimedia production lab. Future plans at Palo Alto call for on-site day care with computer literacy training for children.

With most school districts in the United States experiencing over-extended resources and limited budgets for establishing or expanding computing labs, more and more schools are looking to local libraries and other community supporters to provide these resources. We can expect this partnership concept to increase. As the next century looms closer, we’ll soon see what kind of interactive global village it will take to raise a child.

Social and Cultural Destination

Society’s most powerful agents of change are children. With computers outselling TV sets, today’s children are multimedia oriented, able to multi-task, used to visual stimulation, and intensely curious. As the drivers behind library change, kids want a visual learning environment where they can socialize and share information with friends. Both teachers and librarians say it works. Problem-based learning and team projects that require groups of students to work together are increasingly being incorporated in school curriculums.

Libraries need to offer a balance of services. People can’t live in cyberspace; they also need social stimulation. The new facilities will provide social amenities, including cafes, gift shops, community and library exhibit space and public reception areas. Libraries are also being used more for community functions, especially those related to literacy. Special instructional rooms and teaching aids, such as audio-visual/television and other communications equipment, make libraries ideal venues for classes and meetings of all kinds. In addition, retirees will continue to meet friends and use the library in both traditional and technical ways.

Nearly every major city in this country today has a sports stadium, monument or distinctive building as its recognizable landmark. On the cutting edge of technology, marketing and architecture, some of our nation’s newest libraries—such as San Francisco, Denver, and San Antonio—are hot tourist destinations, with tour companies including the library on their "main attraction" tours. In fact, the new San Francisco library has seen patronage triple in the first year and has had more than one million visitors over a three-month period.

Larger Library Facilities

Library space is growing, not shrinking, in the new American library. In traditional libraries, book stacks and journals occupy approximately 50 percent of the library space, with remaining space divided between seating and staff facilities. Today, technology is rapidly claiming one third of the total space, with books filling another third and the rest reserved for seating and staff functions. In most cases, a single computer station requires 50 square feet of space, the same space as 1,000 volumes. It is not possible to simply retrofit old libraries with new technology. Most facilities will undergo the "knife," by either renovating or expanding, to keep up with the demands of technology and the educational and social changes among children. In older libraries, when conditions become overcrowded, patron seating is lost and collections are typically removed and stored off-site. This severely limits information access and could create "standing room only" situations during peak hours. Patrons suffer from lack of accommodation and will grow frustrated wasting their time on fruitless searches.

Libraries need a variety of public spaces—traditional spaces for individual study and research, group spaces for meetings, socializing and interactive study, and active spaces for on-line information technology.

With the number of patrons increasing daily, well-planned and well-organized office space that can allow for growth is crucial. Technical services have traditionally been assigned "leftover" space. The new libraries are being designed using new parameters for good office planning that will free up staff time by employing the technology of "smart" buildings to make material handling and mechanical functioning more efficient. Behind-the-scenes operations to acquire, catalog, and shelve thousands of volumes a year will need new tools borrowed from the business world to scan, process, and track the flow of books and journals. These new mechanical systems will be designed and constructed as part of the building infrastructure to facilitate the labor-intensive work of reshelving books.

It is not unusual for large libraries to receive 500 to 1,000 new books a week, creating an urgent need for material handling machines that reduce the hands-on work and smooth the flow of materials.

Impact on Librarians and Patrons

In the new American library, librarians and staff members will become information facilitators and computer literacy trainers, providing training and support for a variety of media. The all-inclusive environment of the public library requires new classrooms and learning labs for literacy training that will encourage access for people of all physical abilities, cultures, ages, and socioeconomic levels. Equal access to on-line technologies means accommodating people who are technology-impaired, as well as those with special needs, such as the hearing- and sight-impaired, who may require special equipment and training to access information. Equity of access is a big issue in public libraries as we realize the importance of technology literacy to our future. Children will need strong computer literacy skills to qualify for good colleges and careers. Patrons also want extended use of the library, as much as 24-hour accessibility, which will require major changes in staffing and security.

To make efficient use of staff and space under these conditions, libraries are discovering the importance of centralized on-line technology. Placing technology stations at different locations throughout the library changes the activity level of that area and divides staff members who could otherwise share responsibilities.

Both public and academic libraries are expanding communication technology, and will thereby expand the library community they serve. Libraries installing Internet access and on-line resources can expect to double patron usage in the first year. As funds for public school libraries continue to decline, more students and faculty will look to the public and university libraries to supplement their research. Community college students are also seeking convenient local resources and distance learning opportunities. Growing numbers of home schoolers will continue to look to public libraries as their central education facility, on-line resource, classroom and, in some cases, program provider.

Flexibility in Design Elements

With this transformation, one of the greatest challenges library architects must address in design is the short life of new technologies and the impact on library spaces. Modern libraries must be designed with a long-range technology master plan for electronic flexibility to expand capabilities as future technologies and user needs change. Technology is upgraded three or four times during the typical 50-year design life of a building. With a planning process that averages five years and considering technology changes so rapidly, a poorly planned library facility could become obsolete before it even opens. Programming the building for electronic flexibility is one solution. This involves projecting a vision of future building uses to include infrastructure adaptability for environmental systems, as well as power and cabling distribution. When a large number of computers and other technologies are brought into work spaces, everything from lighting and acoustics to the air conditioning capacity changes significantly.

With increased social interaction in libraries, people want visually stimulating environments with natural lighting and open views from one area to another for greater social connection. The information concourse with its multiple computer terminals will allow greater movement and noise levels than traditional spaces where patrons search for books and research information, but the two areas need not be closed off from each other. For example, glass walls and physical distances can provide necessary space separations while interconnecting people and technology.

Architect’s Role in Library Planning

A popular choice today among some universities and municipalities is to use a team concept that brings together the experiences and ideas of librarians, faculty, students, patrons, engineers, architects, and others to plan a library.

The architect is no longer the expert who dictates form and function. A new paradigm for an interactive and collaborative design process requires expanding the design team to bring a clear understanding as to the purpose of the library. In this new role, architects are facilitators and chroniclers of the design process, bringing graphic representation to ideas and details of how a building serves the people who will use it. More specifically, architects guide team members in establishing priorities and projecting a bold vision of the facility’s future by helping the team create a "big picture paradigm." Team members are encouraged to identify "big ideas" that determine the function and form of the new library. These big ideas might include: open access to information, security, expanded literacy community, flexible design and electronic infrastructure, and people as priority. Experienced architects bring awareness of new building technologies and components, information about what other libraries are doing and what the future holds for libraries.

To establish priorities for planning and design excellence in the library, architects determine how people will flow through the facility; the focus on materials, books and journals; and how to integrate technologies into the building infrastructure. They must consider convenient access to fiber optic technology, electrical wiring, and cabling for power, computers, communications, security systems, teleconferencing, cable television, and other multimedia. Long-term savings can be realized by integrating technologies into the building design and planning flexibility for when technologies are enhanced. Smart buildings provide time-saving systems to monitor the lighting, mechanical operations (heating, cooling, ventilation, and plumbing), air quality, security and statistics on the number of patrons and materials entering and leaving the structure. Most important, good architects envision the library environment from the perspective of the user and provide the attention to detail that gives a building a sense of place and makes it aesthetically pleasing and functionally efficient.

Architects also help team members decide whether a new library will be designed within the existing architectural context of the surrounding community or campus, or whether it will become a signature building with a commanding presence.

Planning for rapidly changing technology and different patterns of use is a major challenge to today’s library architects and planning teams. The problem-solving architect understands the importance in learning about the needs of the library, its uses and how patrons and staff function in the facility. Only then can the architect successfully budget, program, design, and build a future-oriented library. A cookie-cutter approach reused from one library to the next won’t work for the new American library.