Liverpool Central Library, awarded

 Liverpool, the city that opened the first public lending library in Europe (at the Lyceum, a gentlemen’s club) saw its Central Library reopened last 17^th May after the works to restore this historic building (it was built in 1860) were finished.

It has taken three years and £50 million but the results are already showing: in a recent interview, Central Library manager David Stoker said since the building reopened in May 15,000 new borrowers had signed up. The council said it expected more than one million visitors to come through the library’s doors in the first 12 months, more than double the previous average figure.

 Now, it has been awarded by the Local Authority Building Control (LABC) with the National Building Excellence Award. The judges highlighted the challenges the city faced in marrying the new build extension to the existing Grade II listed landmark.

The “four-space model” for libraries in Denmark

Two weeks ago we published a post about a new model for building user-oriented libraries, the so called “four-space model”. Today, we bring you a specification of this model, in the form of an article presented at the last IFLA Conference by Jens Thorhauge, director of the Danish Authority for Libraries and Media and former NAPLE Chair under the title “Creating a model-program for the building of future public libraries and their role in culture led redesign of urban spaces”.

You’ll find the article in this link

 

The four-space model in libraries

 Nordic countries have always had a user-oriented approach when it comes to libraries. The newest model considers four spaces: the learning space, the inspiration space, the meeting space, and the performance space, which reflects the goals of libraries today (experience, involvement, empowerment, and innovation) and contemplates both virtual and physical environments.

To deepen inside the four-space model, you can read this article by Henrik Jochumsen, Dorte Skot-Hansen and Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen

Building Collections: 300 years of the Old Library

For this post we are reproducing the information from the Irish web page: Library.ie…”news from Irish libraries”.

This year Trinity College Library Dublin will mark the tercentenary of the laying of the foundation stone of the Old Library, one of the great libraries of the Western world. The balance and symmetry of the architecture have made the building an icon for the organisation of human thought and expression. Its collections span over a millennium of recorded thought.

To commemorate the occasion a one-day conference will be held entitled BUILDING COLLECTIONS: 300 years of the Old Library. The conference will be held on Monday 25 June, 2012 in the Thomas Davis Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, followed by a celebratory reception in the Long Room.

The conference will examine aspects of the physical structure of the Library, and its alterations through the centuries, as well as focusing on the context within which its renowned early printed books and manuscripts holdings have developed.

The day promises to deliver fascinating insights into the progress of social and intellectual endeavour in Ireland, and the emergence of a world-class research library in Dublin.

For further information visit http://www.tcd.ie/Library/tercentenary/.

State Public Libraries in Spain: Ciudad Real

This gallery contains 30 photos.

Ciudad Real is a city of 75,000 inhabitants situated in the region of Castilla-La Mancha, approximately 200 Km south of Madrid. The State Public Library of Ciudad Real is one of the existing 52 State Public Libraries in Spain. It … Continue reading →

Library buildings

If you don’t still know the database Library Buildings, you can click in this link, where you can see photos, data or information about the arquitects of some public libraries in Europe.

See you soon.
http://www.librarybuildings.info/