Weston Super Mare
15 June 2005

Billed as a one-day seminar to explore current library design thinking, around 50 participants, mainly from the southwest and south Wales, met at the new Campus Library at Weston to explore this important theme.

The programme kicked off with a presentation by Russ Currie, Leisure Manager for North Somerset Council, the information, learning and community centre incorporating the library in which the seminar was held. Russ explained how the idea of a shared building, that includes schools, a multi-purpose space and the library, came about.

Funding, consultation and the work of the design team were among the issues covered. In his view, management - there is a community services manager and facilities supervisor - is the key to making a shared building successful.

David Green, Stock Manager, Wiltshire Libraries gave an illustrated talk on New Zealand libraries under the title of 'Learning from the best'. The best included the public libraries at Wellington, Palmerston North, Hamilton and the Tupu Youth Library. Noteworthy design features ranged from neon signs, commissioned furniture, the library counter as art, a 'Daily News Café (with newspapers), the use of strong colours and 'quotation' graphics, to museum artefacts in drawers integrated with library shelves, and a children's play area. At Palmerston North, the library is described as 'the living room of the city' and is divided into different zones within the building - sound and vision, and teen zones, for example.

Gosport Discovery Centre, the first of Hampshire's Discovery Centre Projects, was described by Jan Turner, Hampshire's project co-ordinator. Jan made it clear that while Gosport - a refurbished 1970s large library and now incorporating a museum - was a model for future development, other centres would be different. Other Discovery Centres would combine facilities that reflected the local community structure and needs. At Gosport, the museum is located on a mezzanine floor, its former premises becoming the local studies centre. Arts England contributed funding for the art work and there is a café. The staff function as one integrated group and reference and lending stocks are combined in one sequence in categories, with subject magazines housed with books.

Libraries have often housed a museum or other cultural facilities and it is tempting to think that the Discovery Centre, whatever its modern features and ambience, is a change of name rather than a fundamental change to the public library idea.

After lunch, Rachel Van Riel, Director, Opening the Book, enthused on the theme of the customer-centred approach to library design. This thought-provoking presentation was illustrated by a number of case studies, including the refurbishments of libraries at Ash, Surrey and Widnes. Rachel's presentation demonstrated how retail concepts can be adapted to a library context - rethinking and re-branding libraries by utilising new approaches to stock, staff, furniture and layout.

While much practical and helpful advice was given - de-cluttering the library environment, for example - I feel that the retail context does not exactly correspond to the library context and libraries are not just about getting people to borrow books and other material. The question also arises as to whether libraries wish to be locked into such branding concepts because of the difficulty of sustaining and renewing them in a local authority context as opposed to a retail one.

The final paper of the day was a case study of the design opportunities presented by the refurbishment and extension of Bishop's Cleeve Library and given by Sue Laurence, Assistant Head of Libraries and Information, Gloucestershire Libraries.

The library design reflects many of the points made by Rachel Van Riel and now includes a quick choice area for books music and films, quick return and self-issue, more PCs and a refreshment area. Innovative uses of colour and signage from James Ford Design have created a design template that can be used to brand other libraries within Gloucestershire.

Before participants broke up into small discussion groups, Michael Dewe took the opportunity to advertise the Designing Libraries website, which amongst much else includes a library buildings database featuring The Campus Library, Gosport Discovery Centre and many other libraries completed between 1990 and 2005. Seminar participants were invited to use the website and contribute their building projects to the database.

Michael Dewe