I visited 5 libraries on a bus tour to look at their architecture and other features. There were various items of interest but what I was looking for was anything that we could apply directly in our uni libraries, so I’ll stick to that here:
Medical and Dental Library, UWA
Zoned quiet areas – Ground floor for group work, 1st floor for quiet work, 2nd floor for silent work. The librarian assured me that this was self-policing once the signs were introduced.
Diagonal seating in the training room, ensuring that all seats face towards the front rather than sideways – neat.
Staff area has large windows looking in/out of the public areas in a fishbowl style. Some of our group weren’t sure, but I thought it was much better than tucking ourselves out of sight.
Cambridge Public Library
Ingenious lighting at the top of the shelves. Everybody loved this – could it be a solution to the gloomy stacks in Fisher?
Acoustic panelling in the ceiling to reduce noise levels – it’s also attractive and eco-friendly.
Osborne Public Library
Open access reserve shelves. Combine with self checkout and users are able to complete the transaction with no staff intervention.
Please comment if you think any of these have applications in our libraries.
Comments
I like the idea of the staff work areas being visually accessible to the public areas.
I think many clients may wonder what goes on behind the doors marked "Staff Only"! I think it also allows more natural light and outdoor views to be shared by more people. It may also provide clients with a new perspective on the internal machinations of an academic library and for others it may be the joy of knowing what actually goes on behind that mysteriously closed door!
I like the idea of the zoned areas and love that they are self-regulating.
Posted by: Libby | September 20, 2006 12:53 PM
I like having a selfcheck in Reserve and also using it for holds. I have proposed this for the new Law Library.
Posted by: Margaret | September 20, 2006 02:23 PM
Thanks for this interesting report Tom. The SciTech Library will have staff areas visible to encourage clients to come in and work with the Librarians. I like the idea of the zoned areas - although I could see 'really noisy', 'noisy', 'slightly noisy' and 'quiet' working for many of our groups rather than degrees of silence :). The architects we've been working with are trying to designate these types of areas with structural cues (colour, soft and hard surfaces, open or closed areas, bright and dimmer light etc) rather than just using signage. Did you see examples of this approach too?
Posted by: Su Hanfling | September 21, 2006 11:37 AM
Su, this approach was not used in UWA Med Library but I saw similar things being used elsewhere. In particular, colour was often used to tag different areas of public libraries - children, YA etc
Posted by: Tom Goodfellow | September 25, 2006 12:06 PM