Rachel Fleming Collection Development Librarian, Geisler Library, Central College Confronting the Gathering “Cloud” Philosophical Foundations and Future

Rachel FlemingCollection Development Librarian,Geisler Library, Central College

Confronting the Gathering “Cloud”Philosophical Foundations and Future

Directions of Library Architecture

Rachel Fleming, Collection Development LibrarianIowa ACRL 2009 Spring Conference, 17 April 2009

Confronting the Gathering “Cloud”

Iowa ACRL 2009 Spring Conference

Library Architecture and Epistemology• History of Library Buildings and the messages

they send about knowledge and knowing• Brief assessment of current (and future?)

ideas about knowledge and knowing• Brief overview of library building trends• What are our goals? Our institutions’ goals?• How are we communicating these through our

buildings?• Beyond buildings…



This talk has only more questions.



“To be effective, practitioners should be reflexive, should examine and questions what we do, how we do it, and why we make the choices we do.”

-John Budd



“The academic library exists to make manifest and tangible the products of social processes aimed at putting us on the path to knowledge.”-John Budd

“We must look at all buildings as evidence of social processes”-Abigail Van Slyck



Library of the Benedictine Monastery of Admont, Austria







The Aptly Named “Wall System” of Shelving

Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura Rio De Janeiro, Brazil



The equally apt“Alcove System”

Trinity College,Dublin

Memory devices



PANOPTICON



British Museum Reading Room, Built 1854-1857



Andrew Carnegie

Pierpont Morgan LibraryNot Unlike Colonel Anderson’s



Iowa City Public Library

Dubuque Public Library

Grinnell College

“The main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves.”

Andrew Carnegie



Carnegie Library Floor PlansSuggested by James Bertram







Modernism & Brutalism• Grand Scale• Mechanical• Futuristic• Freedom• Open space• Transparency



Le Corbusier’s five points for contemporary construction1) the pillar, to be left free to rise through the open

space of the house2) the functional independence of skeleton and wall,

not only of outer walls but of inner partitions3) the free plan, composing interior space with

nonbearing interior walls to create free flow of space and also interpenetration of interior and exterior space

4) the free facade, the completely flexible and variable wall which is merely a nonsupporting skin or sheath

5) the roof garden -- the development of flat roof as additional living area

Appearance… has the quality of a beautiful ship or machine of the future

:(





Current Trends in Architecture.

Drew Harrington, “Six Trends in Library Design”

1. Self-Service & Operational Efficiency2. Flexibility & technology integration 3. Green/sustainable buildings4. Collaboration …5. A Renewed interest in Aesthetics6. Customize library to local community

Architect’s Perspective & Recommendations• Library “typology” still appealing to architects• Elements to reinforce “collaborative learning”– Spaces need to include ownership– Work & study spaces integrated with instructional

spaces : seminar rooms house special collections– How will the entire community use the library– When and how will spaces/furniture will be used– Design spaces for what you want to happen there– Consider what environment each space creates

-Steven M. Foote







Data everywhere, changing everything.



Where does the library fit?



The more, the better.



It goes onFOREVER 80 / 20



What’s Changing?



“Knowledge is more than an object of cognition; it has been subjected to some kind of filtering… In other words, it has

been deemed meaningful through some societally agreed-upon practice.”

-John Budd



What is a library?



What is a library?

What is a librarian?



Documents

Rachel Fleming Collection Development Librarian, Geisler Library, Central College Confronting the Gathering “Cloud” Philosophical Foundations and Future