Modern Library by Julie Safferstein

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MODERN LIBRARY

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MODERN LIBRARY

INTRODUCTION 2 BOOKLESS 16

RISE OF THE EBOOK 9 SELF-SERVE 27

VOTE YES FOR LIBRARIES 45

NEW BREEDS OF LIBRARIES:

RENOVATED 34

MEET THE LIBRARIAN 51

MEET THE DESIGNER 56

INTRODUCTION

I am a library person. I am an observer, a brainstormer, a designer, a trend-tracker and a technology addict. I am 21 years old and I am a library person. Are you? Every public library offers its community a resource for boundless knowledge, for an unlimited collection of voices and ideas. It offers comfort and support, the tactile sensation of a bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weight in your hands, the opportunity for cultural exchange. A public library is for the people and it is completely free. The presence of public libraries has been a significant benefit to society throughout history and continues to exist as such today. Particularly in our technology-driven age, libraries have more to offer than most realize, and the changes taking place within todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s system deserve your attention. The following is a collection of media coverage, data, anecdotes, opinions, interviews, and illustrations regarding recent library-related issues and happenings. This is your chance to read some words on a page instead of a screen and educate yourself on the modern library experience. You can be a library person too.

8,951

public libraries exist in the U.S.

Americans consider reference librarians and the ability to borrow books

very important

96.4% of the U.S. population is served by public libraries

a key service now offered by public libraries is

free technology

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PORTLAND Portland Public Library promotes the intellectual and cultural exchange of our vibrant city. We are committed to creating â&#x20AC;&#x153;A City of Readers.â&#x20AC;?

SAN FRANCISCO The San Francisco Public Library system is dedicated to free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning and the joys of reading for our diverse community.

ANCHORAGE Anchorage Public Library provides resources to enrich the lives and empower the future of our diverse community, while preserving the past for generations to come.

AUSTIN The mission of the Austin Public Library is to provide open access to information and to promote literacy, love of reading, and lifelong learning opportunities for all members of the community.

INTRODUCTION

CUYAHOGA COUNTY Everything we do is in support of improving the quality of life in Cuyahoga County.

NEW YORK The mission of the New York Public Library is to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities.

PHILADELPHIA The mission of the Free Library of Philadelphia is to advance literacy, guide learning, and inspire curiosity

ST. LOUIS The St. Louis Public Library will provide learning resources and information services that support and improve individual, family and community life.

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23.4%

of library visits involve use of library computers

67%

of libraries have ebooks in circulation

86% of libraries offer wireless internet

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RISE OF THE EBOOK

What’s Happening with Libraries and Ebooks?

A little over a year ago, librarians were up in arms over the issue of ebooks. Several of the largest U.S. publishers weren’t selling ebooks to libraries at the time; some of the others were doing so but with terms librarians hated. So much can change in a year. Today, your local library can give you free access to tens of thousands more ebooks than ever before. As of last week, all five of the largest publishers in the world, know as the “big five” (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster) are selling ebooks to libraries in one way or another.

The latest to come fully online is Penguin Random House. The company’s Penguin division had been experimenting in pilot programs with selling ebooks to libraries. As of last week, its entire catalog of 17,000 titles is available to libraries using OverDrive, 3M’s Cloud Library and Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360 to buy ebooks. With all of the major publishers playing with libraries in some way, blogger Jeremy Greenfield thought it would be a good time to sit down with the leadership of the American Library Association (ALA) to discuss the current state of libraries and ebooks and what’s next now that they’ve won the battle with big publishers (more or less).

They met this week in the office of the New York Metropolitan Library Council (METRO), a non-profit that helps libraries in New York and Westchester County share ideas and resources. In attendance were Barbara Stripling, ALA president, Robert Wolven, co-chair of ALA’s Digital Content Working Group and associate university librarian at Columbia University, Maureen Sullivan, ALA immediate pastpresident, Jason Kucsma, METRO’s executive director and a member of the Digital Content Working Group, and Alan S. Inouye, director of the Office for Information Technology Policy at ALA.

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JEREMY GREENFIELD A lot has happened in the past year, and most of the movement is toward giving libraries more access to ebooks. How is the ALA’s relationship with publishers going now?

ROBERT WOLVEN Publishers are now experimenting with different models to sell ebooks to libraries and generating data and they will make adjustments to how they work with us. Nobody knows what the best answer is yet.

BARBARA STRIPLING It’s on an upward slope — a good slope. We have strengthened our relationships and the ALA has played an important brokering role, but not everything has been addressed yet.

ALAN INOUYE We’re only at the beginning of what could be possible. There are bigger issues here that we’re only going to be able to solve and address with publishers.

MAUREEN SULLIVAN We have yet to get to equitable access at a reasonable price.

MAUREEN Like access for those with disabilities and the issue of digital preservation.

JEREMY That sentence has been a sticking point for librarians. Some publishers sell ebooks to libraries with limited use terms. Others sell them at much higher prices than what consumers have to pay.

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JEREMY Last year, the ALA and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) held a private meeting open to the press between publishers and librarians to start talking about some of the issues that face the long-standing partnership between the two groups in the ebook era. There were some strongly worded letters sent back and forth between the ALA and AAP just days prior to the meeting, which really heated things up. The meeting was really interesting and ended up with ALA and the publishers saying some things that you rarely hear in forums like that. MAUREEN That meeting was a turning point. I was being pressed on the business model discussion and we presented our ideas on possible models that could work for everyone. After that meeting, there were several informal conversations with publishers and the AAP and I would describe them as cordial. It was important to get people in the same room.

BARBARA We got some complex issues on the table. And it opened my eyes to the perspective of the publishers and that helped in our ongoing dialogue.

ALAN And let’s not let the “big five” off the hook — Simon & Schuster is still only doing a lending pilot in New York City. We need it everywhere.

MAUREEN As for the letters, the ALA had to take a strong stance at that point. I would add that the AAP is a great broker but there are a lot of issues that publishers can’t work together on because of antitrust concerns.

BARBARA With the common core curriculum coming online, there is increasing pressure for school libraries to develop their ebook collections.

JEREMY So, what other issues is the ALA working on now in terms of ebooks? ROBERT There are many, many publishers now that libraries can’t even buy ebooks from, like design firms and ad agencies that may only put out a handful of books every year.

MAUREEN Public libraries want their readers to be able to get a new best-seller and for the library to pay a reasonable price for it. JEREMY Let’s talk about that last point for a second. Why is it important that libraries can buy dozens of ebook copies of Fifty Shades of Grey or Gone Girl at a fair price. Does making those books freely available to patrons really help the library fulfill its mission? MAUREEN People have always been able to get information and what is being currently published from libraries.

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JEREMY That doesn’t resonate with me and I suspect it doesn’t resonate with the publishers you want as business partners either. Things change. BARBARA When some people can read these best-sellers and others can’t, it marginalizes those people. These books are a literary touchstone and everyone deserves to have a chance to be a part of that. JEREMY That makes a lot more sense to me. How does it relate to the overall mission of the library?

BARBARA So, when you restrict access to any information, the library has been thwarted in fulfilling its mission to give people in the community the information they need. JEREMY But Gone Girl? Good book, but is it important for everyone to be able to read? MAUREEN It’s not for us to decide that the public needs Gone Girl as much, more, or less than any other book.

MEET THE PATRONS LOCATION Jackson Heights Library, Queens NAME Nasheet Rumy AGE Thirty-four OCCUPATION Freelance designer and part-time college student HOW OFTEN DO YOU VISIT THIS BRANCH? Once a month. WHY ARE YOU HERE TODAY? I’m returning magazines and studying statistics. I also just like being around people.

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“ We’re only at the beginning of what could be possible.”

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NEW BREEDS OF LIBRARIES

I.BOOKLESS

NEW BREEDS OF LIBRARIES

Texas to Have First Bookless Public Library

A bookless library. It sounds like an oxymoron, but come the fall of 2013, San Antonio’s Bexar County is going to be home to the BiblioTech, the country’s first bookless public library. Of course, there will be books — just ebooks, not physical books. The 4,989 square-foot space will look like a modern library, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who was inspired to pursue the project after reading Walter Issacson’s Steve Jobs biography, told ABC News. Instead of aisles and aisles

of books there will be aisles and aisles of computers and gadgets. At the library’s start, it will have 100 e-readers available for circulation and to take out, plus 50 e-readers for children, 50 computer stations, 25 laptops and 25 tablets on site. “We all know the world is changing. I am an avid book reader. I read hardcover books, I have a collection of 1,000 first editions. Books are important to me,” Wolff told ABC News. “But the world is changing and this is the best, most effective way to bring services to our community.”

Library goers will be able to take out books on any of the devices in the library, take out one of the 50 e-readers for a period of time or bring their own e-readers to the library and load books onto their own devices. The library will also be partnering with ebook providers or distributors to provide access to over 10,000 titles. The hope is to add to that collection annually. The county is still figuring out who will provide the equipment and has requests for proposals out for the e-readers and other equipment.

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Currently Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer services on their respective e-readers which work at libraries. You can take out books on the e-reader devices and then check them back in to the library remotely. “You will be able to check out a book, read it on-site. It will be a learning environment — you’ll be able to learn about technology itself as well as access a tremendous amount of information,” Wolff said. There will also be a children’s area with interactive tables and interactive walls. Wolff also said the library is exploring adding other media to the library, like movies and music.

“That could be a real possibility. This is a new venture — we are starting with the basics — but we will have the opportunity to add on to that,” he said. But it won’t be a completely paper-free library. “The only thing I believe we will charge for is if you want to print out something,” Wolff said. “We will charge for the copies you would want to print out.”

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Combining the Nation’s Digitized Libraries, All in One Place Buried in the archives of America’s public and academic libraries are historical treasures. Old papers, photos and records that flesh out a detailed picture of our past. Many libraries are trying to make it easier to find that material by putting digital copies online. But with so many different websites and databases to turn to, it may still require a research degree in Web searching to find anything. This spring, a program launched that aims to put all that great stuff in one place: the Digital Public Library of America.

The DPLA has already drawn scholars like Lincoln Mullen, a graduate student at Brandeis University who is researching the history of religious conversion in the United States. Mullen says the DPLA uncovered some hard-tofind documents at the College of Charleston in South Carolina: handwritten letters by a slave owner, William H.W. Barnwell, in which Barnwell discussed religious instruction to slaves and how the North misunderstood the South in these matters. Mullen says it would have been hard to find these documents by doing a general Internet search. “It’s hard to know, apart from lots and lots of browsing, where those collections are available,” he says. “They’re all fragmented in so many different places.”

Right now, there are only about 4 million items on the DPLA’s site, but the collection is growing by about 500,000 new books and documents each month as more libraries from around the country come on board. The San Francisco Public Library is among those putting its digital archives on the DPLA. Recently, says the city archivist, Susan Goldstein, the library has been digitizing huge scrapbooks from the San Francisco Police Department. “A lot of them are full of mold, so we’re scanning them because it’s preservation,” she says.

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In the back rooms of the library’s main building, technicians are busy scanning books, photos and newspaper clips to be put online. In one room, large books are being placed in a cradle, carefully pinned down and put under a camera. It’s a tedious, page-by-page process. But Goldman says these are detailed historical records that could be of interest to people outside San Francisco. There’s the scrapbook of a famous homicide detective named Theodore Kytka, for example. Kytka was a pioneer in using modern techniques like handwriting analysis.

“It’s all his cases that he testified in or worked on,” Goldman says. “So it’s just all these murder cases, mostly,” like a high-profile case of a wife poisoning her husband’s mistress by sending her chocolates. Luis Herrera, the San Francisco city librarian, is on the DPLA board. He thinks the service is going to be great for students of all ages, from grammar school to graduate school, in San Francisco and elsewhere. “Think of the amazing stuff that’s there,” Herrera says. “Whether it’s the first photograph of the moon or some photographs of the civil rights movement. You can use that for your school experience.”

And it’s all free — which is part of the motivation behind the DPLA. The idea germinated on the East Coast at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. John Palfrey, one of DPLA’s founders who now heads the exclusive private high school Phillips Academy, says he was concerned that the process of digitizing the nation’s books and records was being left to a private company, Google, which had its own deals with publishers. That “vested too much authority in a group of for-profits who had a particular interest — which was making money from the sale of books,” Palfrey says.

MEET THE PATRONS LOCATION Grand Central Library, Manhattan NAME Luke Grant AGE Eighteen OCCUPATION Artist HOW OFTEN DO YOU VISIT THIS BRANCH? Whenever I get the chance. So, from once a day to once a month. WHY ARE YOU HERE TODAY? I came to meet friends and socialize. To learn new things and meet people who might help me get further along.

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“It’s not to say authors and publishers shouldn’t be able to make money from the sale of books — of course they should,” he says. “But when we’re talking about a library, and the future of libraries, I think a public-spirited entity needs to have a central role there.” But when it comes to more recent books and materials, the DPLA is caught in a bind. Libraries are locked in tough negotiations with publishers over how to purchase and lend copyrighted ebooks. So, instead, the DPLA is targeting materials that are already in the public domain.

Palfrey says there is plenty that can be done with the material that is no longer covered by copyright. “If we were to get all public domain materials digitized in every library, and sharable from any other point on the globe, that’d be an enormous service to the world,” he says. It’s terrific that the DPLA is helping the world, but some public librarians are not sure it’s what their patrons need. Jim Duncan, director of the Colorado Library Consortium, doesn’t think that what the DPLA does fits the definition of a public library.

“What the typical public library user wants and needs…it tends to be contemporary content, best-sellers,” he says. “That’s what they’re coming to the public library to check out.” Duncan would like to see the DPLA use more of its muscle to negotiate with publishers to make more ebooks available through libraries. The backers of the DPLA say they do want to take on the copyright issues. But for now, they hope to lay the foundation by digitizing the resources they can get up quickly, and without a fight.

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Judge says Google Books Does Not Infringe Copyright

Google’s idea to scan millions of books and make them searchable online seemed audacious when it was announced in 2004. But fastforward to today, when people expect to find almost anything they want online, and the plan seems like an unsurprising and unavoidable part of today’s Internet.

“It advances the progress of the arts and sciences, while maintaining respectful consideration for the rights of authors and other creative individuals, and without adversely impacting the rights of copyright holders,” Judge Chin wrote in his ruling. “Indeed, all society benefits.”

So when a judge on November 14 dismissed a lawsuit that authors had filed against Google after countless delays, it had the whiff of inevitability. Even the judge, Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, said during a September hearing on the case that his law clerks used Google Books for research.

The Authors Guild said it disagreed with the decision and planned to appeal. Google said it was “delighted” with the outcome. Google began its book-scanning project in 2004, without obtaining permission from copyright holders. The next year, groups representing authors and publishers sued Google claiming copyright violations, beginning an eight-year court battle.

In the meantime, Google has continued to scan more than 20 million books, the majority of which are out of print, without compensating copyright holders. They are searchable on the Google Books website, which returns snippets but not entire texts. Some full books are for sale on Google Play through partnerships with publishers. Google also has certain agreements to give libraries and publishers digital copies of their books that it scans. Google and other technology companies often push the limits of regulation and law, and hope that eventually the rest of the world, and the law, will catch up.

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Judge Chin cited the benefits for librarians, researchers, students, teachers, scholars, data scientists and underserved populations like disabled people who cannot read print books or those in remote places without libraries. He said it also helped authors and publishers by creating new audiences and sources of income.

“What seemed insanely ambitious and this huge effort that seemed very dangerous in 2004 now seems ordinary,” said James Grimmelmann, a law professor at the University of Maryland who has followed the case closely. “Technology and media have moved on so much that it’s just not a big deal.”

“In this day and age of online shopping, there can be no doubt that Google Books improves books sales,” he wrote.

Google’s book search is transformative, he wrote, because “words in books are being used in a way they have not been used before.” It does not replace books, he wrote, because Google does not allow people to read entire books online. It takes security measures, like not showing one out of every 10 pages in each book, to prevent people from trying to do so.

Paul Aiken, the executive director of the Authors Guild, said in an interview that the result was “obviously disappointing” and that the authors would appeal. “Google created unauthorized digital versions of most of the world’s copyright-protected books — certainly most of the valuable copyright-protected books in the world,” he said.

Google issued a statement that said, “Google Books is in compliance with copyright law and acts like a card catalog for the digital age — giving users the ability to find books to buy or borrow.” Case law has changed during the time it took for the case to be decided, but so has the attitude toward digital texts, said Jonathan Band, a copyright lawyer for the Library Copyright Alliance, which filed an amicus brief in support of Google. “There’s an understanding that the way this technology works, there’s going to be copying,” he said. “And that there’s a sensibility in the courts that as long as the whole work is not displayed, and as long as the rights-holder isn’t harmed, then this copying that goes on behind the curtain just doesn’t matter.”

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“Google Books acts like a card catalog for the digital age”

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40%

of library patrons say they visit to borrow a DVD or videotape

70%

visit to browse shelves

73% visit to borrow print books

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II. SELF-SERVE

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Library-A-Go-Go Featured as Urban Libraries Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Innovation in Technology

When a study presented to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors found notable geographic inequities existing in library service in Far East County, an area experiencing unprecedented growth, the Board directed the County Librarian to implement immediate options for improving service to the residents without additional county funds and without reducing services provided throughout the twenty-five community libraries.

Along with this service challenge, the Libraryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new Strategic Plan was placing an emphasis on selfservice and, wherever possible, taking library services to where people are rather than requiring an added trip to the library. Several published reports also revealed that compared to other Bay Area residents, Contra Costa County workers experience the longest travel times.

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42% OF AMERICANS OWN A TABLET

48% OF EBOOK READERS USE A KINDLE

17% OF EBOOK READERS USE A NOOK

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The Costa County Library launched a new service, branded Librarya-Go-Go, the first fully automated, 24/7 library book lending service in the country that exists where no library service existed before. The machines provide a costeffective method for opening a new location and extending hours of operation so when all other community libraries are closed, these unstaffed locations are available for customers.

To deliver services in nontraditional spaces, the library partnered with a transit agency and a shopping center developer. Contra Costa County Library pioneered this European technology in North America and library automation staff extended the original design.

It is the first automated book lending machine in the country to connect in real-time to the library system so that customer accounts are automatically updated and books returned are immediately available for borrowing. Staff also installed a remote camera inside the machines for closer monitoring and for troubleshooting site malfunctions.

Innovation

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Progress Library-a-Go-Go machines have helped to bridge service gaps to two underserved populations: county residents who do not live close to a community library and commuters who do not have time to visit a library building.

This technology is extending the library’s service delivery model by providing an opportunity to cost-effectively open a new location where previously there was none, without the need to purchase land, nor fund the construction of a building and hire staff to operate it. One machine’s location is at a point serving over 8,000 daily commuters.

During its first two weeks of operation, the machine had nearly 500 circulations and 30% of its collection is checked out at any given time. Additionally, within the first 10 days of service, there were 150 on-site library card registrations at this location.

MEET THE PATRONS LOCATION Baychester Library, Bronx NAME Joel Depercin AGE Fifty-eight OCCUPATION Tutor HOW OFTEN DO YOU VISIT THIS BRANCH? Twice a week. WHY ARE YOU HERE TODAY? I came to use the computer. I live in the community, and don’t have an Internet connection at home.

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World’s Tiniest Library Pops Up in New York City

The “Little Free Library” that recently appeared in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood would seem to have a major design issue: Get more than one person inside, and turning a page suddenly becomes a violent ballet of jousting arms and elbow pokes. But such is the cost of cuteness, which this teeniest of media centers has in spades. The adorable object looks like a big doughnut on stilts or, if you imagine it with a few flourishes, a peevish robot.

The curious reading hovel is the work of Stereotank, a design collaboration between Venezuelan architects Marcelo Ertorteguy and Sara Valente, who were responsible for last summer’s bicycle-powered musical whirligig on Astor Place. The couple built the library at the invitation of the Architectural League of New York and the organizers of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature.

It is one of 10 mini-libraries now scattered in the ‘hoods below 8th Street, which will serve printed words to the public until they disappear in September. So how wee are we talking? Well, if somebody tried to stock it with the complete Encyclopedia Britannica, it would likely pop at the seams. Avoid eating a garlicky gyro or lox-and-onion bagel before entering, because your face will be inches away from any other occupant as you leaf through the literature.

NEW BREEDS OF LIBRARIES

In the tradition of the Little Free Library movement, started by a pair of Wisconsinites in 2009, the books are provided by members of the community and you’re kind of expected to put one in if you take one out. At one point, the banana-colored bookpod housed softcovers by Neil Gaiman and Danielle Steel, Samuel Pepys’ 17th-century diary, journalist Neil Strauss’ investigation of sleazy pick-up artists and Andri Magnason’s LoveStar, a novel about a dystopian future where energy is transmitted through the air. Not a bad selection, considering the library is the size of a tub you’d use to wash your dog.

On their website, the Stereotank partners explain some more about what makes their library unique: The design consisted in creating an ‘inhabitable’ Little Free Library, where users could immerse themselves and take the time to browse through books and borrow or exchange them. The structure is built out of an upside down plastic tank and a wooden frame. Perforations around the tank allow visitors to peek inside and preview the interior, which invites them to duck under and discover the book collection while still outside.

If you want to split hairs, technically this isn’t the smallest library around. That distinction might go to the original, birdhouse-sized “Little Free Libraries” infesting the planet with knowledge or those guerrilla libraries crammed into New York’s payphones.

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III. RENOVATED

NEW BREEDS OF LIBRARIES

Vacant Walmart has New Life as an Airy Public Library

The hulking husk of a vacant Walmart here in the Rio Grande Valley is enjoying an unlikely second act. When the big-box retailer moved to a larger location down the street, the building might have been destined to house yet another large chain or to fall into disrepair. But rather than let it become an eyesore, the city scooped it up and spent $24 million transforming the drab structure into a 123,000-squarefoot public library that serves as a vibrant space for residents here.

The library, which the McAllen Public Library system says “may very well be the largest singlefloor public library in the nation,” has a modern, cheery feel. Twenty-foot ceilings, combined with new skylights and windows, create a bright, airy interior. Large three-dimensional signs that mark the sections hang from the ceilings, creating cozy nooks below. The building includes a computer lab, a cafe, meeting rooms with videoconferencing capabilities and a 180-seat auditorium. It is a major upgrade from the city’s old 40,000-square-foot main library, which had cramped shelves and limited seating.

Library administrators here embrace technology and anticipate a time when printed books are no longer the focal point. “Libraries over the past two decades have been changing. The old stereotype was of a hushed, dark building and a librarian with a bun and sweater set hushing everyone,” said Kate P. Horan, the library director. “They have evolved to be more of a community space.”

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The makeover impressed judges from the American Library Association and the International Interior Design Association, who named the library the overall winner of their 2012 Library Interior Design Awards.

Together, they were able to stretch the dollars in the city’s “responsible and modest budget” by reusing the old structure instead of starting from scratch, according to Jack Poling, MS&R’s lead interior architect on the project.

Residents have flocked to the new library, which opened its doors in December. It now serves more than double the number of patrons it did in the old building: about 62,000 people visited in July, up from 28,000 in July 2011.

“You can make a beautiful building, but if it’s not used, it’s not a success,” said Bob Simpson, an architect from Boultinghouse Simpson Gates, the McAllenbased architecture firm hired to lead the project. “The library so far has exceeded expectations.” That firm tapped Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, a Minneapolis firm with three decades of experience designing public libraries, to conceptualize the library’s interior.

Big-box stores are being abandoned at a rapid clip, as retailers expand into larger spaces or go out of business. More than 130 former Walmarts are available for sale or lease around the country, and adaptive reuse of such spaces is only going to become more common in coming years, says Julia Christensen, an assistant professor in Oberlin College’s studio art department who has studied the issue since 2002.

Not everyone was an immediate fan of the location, however. Some frowned upon the idea of moving the main library outside the downtown district, where it had been since the 1920s. But consultants determined that the new location is close to the new geographic center of the city, which is shifting toward the Northwest, according to Mike Perez, McAllen’s city manager.

NEW BREEDS OF LIBRARIES

On a recent afternoon, Alfredo Tobias Nogueira, 72, sat at one of the long white tables in the nonfiction section with several books, and a netbook, spread out around him. Mr. Nogueira, a retired engineer, said he spends four hours a day at the library, reading and browsing the stacks for books on science.

“I’m a library bum” he said. “I’ve been in libraries all of my life, and this is the best one I’ve ever seen. I’m talking about the building — the collection still has a long way to go, but for being a city library it’s pretty good.”

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Restored Central Library Mixes Old and New in Downtown St. Louis

Inside the new atrium, frosted glass behind a library checkout table is inscribed with a friendly “hello.” Amid gleaming new construction, the glass shows a few scuff marks — left from its days as flooring in the seven-story book stacks. Those stacks, and 106 tons of glass flooring, are gone. They were removed in the $70 million restoration of Central Library, showpiece of the St. Louis Public Library system. But the reuse of some of the glass shows how the renovation has married old with new.

In Central Library, century-old treasures now share the same home as a thousand miles of fiber optic cable. Ceilings inspired by Renaissance palaces have been restored, and 100-yearold stained glass and alabaster lamps have been cleaned. But those glories aren’t enough for a 21st-century library, which also needs high-speed wireless access, data closets and dozens of computers.

Cass Gilbert was the original architect for the stunning landmark at 1301 Olive Street. He designed something more complicated than a city-block-size rectangle. Central Library is made up of an oval central pavilion surrounded by rectangular wings, or pavilions. They connect to the oval, which holds the Great Hall, with bridges. It was not a rare design in the early 20th century, when architects called for many windows to let in light, says George Z. Nikolajevich, the Cannon Design architect who planned the library’s renovation. The stack structure was modern for its time, he says.

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NEW BREEDS OF LIBRARIES

But the stacks were fire hazards, and inaccessible to the public, so Nikolajevich replaced them with a soaring atrium that keeps the original exterior wall of windows, which let in beautiful northern light, he says. A detached steel canopy and water feature now give the rear entrance real presence. Inside the atrium, new mobile shelving is visible through glass walls. The lines of books act almost like artwork, he says.

The library renovation was “very complex,” he says with “many little things to resolve.” Overall, the historic parts of the 190,000 square-foot building were restored while space available to public almost doubled.

After the library is rededicated in a short ceremony on December 15, public visitors can decide for themselves which parts of the library they favor. Here’s a guide to some of the highlights, old and new.

This week, Nikolajevich would not commit to having a favorite part of the library, either old or new. “Clearly the entrances are the most impressive,” he says, while giving a nod also to the wellproportioned reading rooms, warm and majestic at the same time.

MEET THE PATRONS LOCATION Baychester Library, Bronx NAME Sharan Porper AGE Fifty-three OCCUPATION Semi-retired HOW OFTEN DO YOU VISIT THIS BRANCH? Every day it’s open. WHY ARE YOU HERE TODAY? I came to surf the net and take out a DVD.

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What’s Old LOOK UP Almost every original ceiling on the second floor is something to behold. The Grand Foyer’s ceiling mural may be the most beautiful example of Beaux Arts building painting in the U.S., a Boston consultant told library director Waller McGuire. The old Periodical Room’s ceiling was inspired by Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library. Painted beams in two reading rooms allude to Renaissance palaces. The Fine Arts Room’s ceiling was based on one in La Badia, a church in Florence, Italy, but the library’s plaster had been heavily damaged when fluorescent lights were added decades ago. Shown a 1912 photo, BSI Contractors were told to “match this.” They enlisted Niehaus Construction, one of many St. Louis consultants and subcontractors. Meanwhile, a hidden skylight on the third floor was also uncovered — and repaired.

ART Gorgeous stained glass windows decorate staircases to the third floor. Architect Gilbert specified that they be made by Gorham (which he considered better than Tiffany). Painted ceilings include images of flowers, owls, cupids, ribbons, plants and even dolphins. BUILDING MATERIALS The original white ceramic tile, which was washed, lines the walls of the atrium. The front steps are the original 565 pieces of granite. Exterior walls are of Maine granite; ornate outside lights are still held up by brass turtles. The Great Hall’s walls are Tennessee marble. Marble floors make up main stairways, and patterned brass gates are still used to close off rooms.

QUOTES The exterior of the building is highly decorated with carvings, including the shields and names of printers and quotations and names of illustrious authors, such as Goethe, Milton and the Brontes. One, from Thomas Carlyle, says, “In books lies the soul of the whole past time: The articulate audible voice of the past.” ROOMS The Stedman Library near the Fine Arts Room contains a fine collection of architectural books. The Great Hall and other main floor rooms retain many of the original wood tables and lights. The literature room will be renamed in honor of the library’s executive director, Waller McGuire, who has overseen renovation of Central plus many branches. WHO TO THANK Gilbert, of course, and Andrew Carnegie, the city of St. Louis and hundreds of anonymous workers.

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LOOK UP See clouds on the children’s room and sleek, modern ceilings with oval contours in the Center for the Reader.

QUOTES Literary quotations now are carved on the ceiling of the Center for the Reader. Lines from famous children’s books decorate the Children’s Room. One is from Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree: “Once there was a little tree…and she loved a little boy.” Getting permission to use other quotations and classic children’s images may have been the hardest part of the project, though, McGuire says.

WHO TO THANK Library bonds and private donations. Cannon Design was the architect, BSI Constructors was the general contractor; CLR Consultants was the developer. Numerous subcontractors included Sachs Electric,

What’s New ART Jelly Baby sculptures by Mauro Perucchetti stand outside the Children’s Room (they are on loan from the Gateway Foundation). Artwork by Julie Heller, called “tapestries,” hang in the Fine Arts and other rooms. A water feature on Locust Street is also inscribed with book titles. BUILDING MATERIALS Quartersawn oak paneling is installed horizontally. Marble floor is in the Atrium; marble counters are on new checkout tables. Frosted windows have been replaced with clear glass. A stainless steel canopy covers the north entrance. New cork flooring (also an original element) is in many rooms. New spaces may feature turquoise or red carpeting.

ROOMS The lower level has an auditorium where the coal bin was (it has 244 seats and six spaces for wheelchairs). At least two restrooms are now on each level of the building. A glasswalled Book Club room sits on the first floor near the cafe (not quite ready to open). The Center for the Reader features popular titles and magazines. A teen room includes lounge seating. The Creative Experience room lets visitors explore new technology. A public computer room has been added, and laptops and iPads can be checked out. Eight new data closets hold new wiring. The third floor, formerly offices, now has four large reading rooms — Special Collections, St. Louis Room, History and Genealogy — plus the new Carnegie meeting room.

Wiegmann Associates, Niehaus Construction, PaintSmiths. The St. Louis Public Library Foundation and president Rick Simoncelli were charged with raising $20 million toward renovation; the capital campaign was chaired by Thomas F. Schlafly and Alison Nichols Ferring. Biggest single donor, Emerson, has a tile on floor of the atrium. Modest signage notes “gifts” of various rooms, but the only name for sale is for the auditorium (no one has yet spent $3 million for naming rights).

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From The AIGA St.Louis Blog: Following the library renovation, AIGA St. Louis put on an event as part of STL Design Week 2013 called DISCOVERED: An Art Party with a Cause.

With the theme of children’s literacy in mind, AIGA St. Louis’ Design-for-a-Cause event partners with the newly renovated downtown St. Louis Public Library to present 40 selected artists and designers who will exhibit and auction their donated artwork reinterpreting and repurposing used books, to benefit the St. Louis Public Library Foundation. Live music, bar, hors d’oeuvres, live letterpress printing and kids area on side.

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VOTE YES FOR LIBRARIES

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Libraries Fare Well at the Ballot Box Voters showed their library love at the polls November 6, 2012 by supporting a series of millages and bond issues for operations and construction around the nation, although there were also some notable disappointments. What follows is a quick snapshot of library-related election results.

COLORADO Thanks to the passage of Measure 2A in Denver, which enables the city to keep $68 million in property-tax refunds a year beginning in 2013 despite Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights law, Denver Public Library will be able to expand its service hours 40% to a minimum of 48 per week. “Denver Public Library will be hiring in 2013! Thank you, voters,” tweeted Children’s Collection Specialist Gwen Vanderhage.

ILLINOIS A whopping 81% yes vote for a $4.1 million library building referendum will fund the repair and expansion of the Broadview Public Library District’s facility. When completed, the 21,300-squarefoot library will be accessible to people with physical disabilities; feature technology such as smart boards, self-checkout, and an updated computer lab; and offer a dedicated teen space and media creation lab with free access to AV materials with a Redbox-like kiosk. KENTUCKY Campbell County’s proposal to build a new South branch was defeated in the polls 62% to 38%. In order to build a new library facility, the county would have had to increase the library millage on property taxes 2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, which would have amounted to a 27% hike.

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OREGON Multnomah County voters approved the formation of a permanent financing district that will raise $65 million annually to fund operations at Multnomah County Library. The yes vote ended a 36-year history of returning to voters every 3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;5 years to renew temporary operating levies. This measure is intended to prevent reductions in services, programs, activities, and hours.

WASHINGTON Proposition 1 passed with a 58.78% majority in the unincorporated area of the Sedro-Woolley School District, enabling officials to form the Rural Partial-County Library District there through a property-tax levy capped at 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

WYOMING A temporary 1-cent sales-tax hike for library construction was passed by 57% of Converse County voters to fund a $23 million expansion of two branches of the Converse County Library. An initiative to raise $29.7 million for a new library building in Natrona County lost by 588 votes. The margin of defeat narrowed from the margin in 2008 that nixed a more ambitious $43 million proposal for a 96,000-squarefoot facility, to be raised through the same temporary funding mechanism.

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Sequestration Hits Libraries Hard Congress made significant reductions in discretionary spending, which went into effect with the automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration on March 1, 2013. The sequester had been delayed as part of the deal reached in the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which Congress passed and the president signed into law at year’s end, but which kicked in only after Congress and the White House could not reach an agreement on further deficit reduction. The full effects of sequestration on libraries and patrons will become known as time passes, but some were already painfully clear. The budget for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), for example, has been cut by about 5%, or $12 million, which includes $7.87 million in cuts to the Library Services and Technology Act.

State programs will be cut, and each state will decide how the reduced budgets will affect the library services delivered to the public, such as summer reading programs, database subscriptions, workforce development programs (including employment skills and job searching), and services to people with disabilities. Future IMLS grant-program budgets will probably be cut as well, though grants already awarded will not be affected. IMLS Director Susan Hildreth said innovative programs provided by libraries and museums to help schoolchildren, job-seekers, and underserved communities will probably be casualties of sequestration. “There are a lot of good ideas we simply won’t be able to fund,” including some that would have paid dividends for decades, said Hildreth in Seattle, where she was city librarian from 2009 to 2011. “The less funding we have, the less innovation we’ll have.”

The Library of Congress also took a hit and warned its employees that the cuts would probably require four days of unpaid leave. Sequestration will also have an impact on all libraries served by their state library agencies. Through it all, the library community and the American Library Association (ALA) continued to explore various opportunities to secure funding for libraries, all the while educating members of Congress on how libraries are playing a significant role in assisting the public during the economic downturn. The ALA Washington Office in particular met with members of Congress and reached out to staff to keep them informed of the services libraries provide to help out everyday Americans.

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“The less funding we have, the less innovation we’ll have.” MEET THE PATRONS LOCATION Jackson Heights Library, Queens NAME Tomas Alcantara AGE Fifty-seven OCCUPATION Cleaner HOW OFTEN DO YOU VISIT THIS BRANCH? Almost everyday. WHY ARE YOU HERE TODAY? I’m doing some research for a book I’m writing.

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50% of library patrons say they visit to get help from a librarian

54% visit to research topics of interest

46%

visit to use a research database

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MEET THE LIBRARIAN

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An Interview with Martha Alcott, Assistant Library Director of the Chappaqua Library

My junior year of high school, I got my very first job as a Computer Page for my town library, where I was warmly welcomed into a community of knowledgeable and passionate librarians. The library offered free computer help to members of the community, and I spent nine hours a week teaching patrons how to buy movie tickets online, how to make PowerPoint presentations or look for work, or even how to move a mouse to drag a scroll bar. The job brought the joys of teaching, but it also connected me to incredible people in my community, some that would come for lessons week after week. I worked under the direction of Martha Alcott, who couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe how much Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d grown when I recently met up with her to hear her angle on the modern library.

MEET THE LIBRARIAN

JULIE SAFFERSTEIN What’s changed at this library since 2010?

JULIE Where do you see the Chappaqua Library in five years?

MARTHA ALCOTT The big thing is that a lot of people are bringing in their own devices and a lot of what we spend our time on now is explaining to people how to download ebooks and audiobooks onto their own devices. That’s a lot of what the computer pages do now. So we’re moving in that direction, away from hard copy to e-content, so people don’t actually have to be in the library to access our resources.

MARTHA I see us moving more toward downloadable books and information and entertainment – movies, music. Next week we’re having an architect come in talking about how to reconfigure the space in the next few years and we’re all thinking that, like, magazines will probably disappear, they’ll be available online. Music definitely will, so we won’t have CDs anymore, DVDs will eventually be streaming, so you won’t have the DVDs circulating.

And we now have downloadable music. There’s a service called Freegal. Through it you have access to a very large portion of the SONY catalog, a huge music publisher, so there’s a lot that’s available, and patrons can download three tracks per week. Anybody with a library card.

Books I’m not quite so sure about. I mean, a book is a really highly developed piece of technology. It’s been around for over 500 years and they’ve kind of got it down. You have the random access memory, you can just look anywhere you want. And they’re beautiful physical objects, too.

We now have magazines through a product called Zinio. You can download magazines. We have maybe twenty titles that are available online, and they’re specifically formatted for tablets, and they look really fabulous. The image is crisp and clear and it looks really good.

One of the changes we made was to bring all the oversize books to the front, and we like to think of the front as like a living room where people can pull out the big coffee table books and just look at them and enjoy them.

And then there’s the ebooks and the e-audiobooks, and the ebooks have just taken off like crazy. The growth has been exponential because more and more people are getting their own devices. Kindle now plays with libraries, it didn’t used to.

We do a lot of programming and we like to see ourselves as the town living room – we’re a meeting place and a community center for people to come and gather and we’re still fulfilling our mission to be a place of cultural transmission. It’s a place for people to come and talk about ideas. We have our book groups, we have a lot of lectures, we have musical performances, we have our art gallery still.

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JULIE So the Chappaqua Library is part of the Westchester Library System. What makes the Chappaqua Library unique? MARTHA Each library is funded by its own community. The Chappaqua Library is funded through taxpayers’ money and our budget is voted on every year, so we’re chartered to serve people that live in the Chappaqua school district, so we have to be responsive to those people’s needs. Every community is a little bit different and each library is going to be reflective of its community. As an example, we do have some foreign language books and we at one point bought a lot of Spanish language books, and they didn’t go out at all because we don’t have a very large Spanish community here in Chappaqua. However, we have a very large Chinese language collection, because we have a lot of Chinese readers in the community. Actually, that collection serves a larger part of the county as well, but we have the means to develop that collection because of the makeup of our community.

JULIE It seems like children use library resources and then teens use it then there’s this big gap where kids go to college and use their college libraries, but then the next big group of library users are parents. MARTHA Right, they come back when their kids are little, that’s when we see them again. Not a lot of twenty-somethings hang out in Chappaqua. But it’s a free resource, and that’s at an age where you’re typically strapped for cash. It’s a good free resource. That’s why I love going to conferences, because you see a lot of really young librarians that have all this great energy, and I just hope that libraries survive so people like that can continue to work in the profession. One of the trends in urban libaries, like in San Francisco and New York, is that librarians are really going out to the public as opposed to being more passive and sitting in the library waiting for people to come to them. They’re going out with all of their devices and they’re very technically savvy, and they have all these great apps and they’ll just do work in the field. It’s like guerrilla reference work. They’ll go to a big festival and just say “Hi, I’m a reference librarian, what do you want to know about? Let me teach you how to find all this great information!” That’s really cool.

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“A book is a really highly developed piece of technology.” MEET THE PATRONS LOCATION Jackson Heights Library, Queens NAME Karen Wellington AGE Fifty-eight OCCUPATION Retired Teacher HOW OFTEN DO YOU VISIT THIS BRANCH? Two to three times per week. WHY ARE YOU HERE TODAY? I volunteer with a children’s afterschool program.

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MEET THE DESIGNER

An Interview with Bonnie Siegler, Founder of Eight and a Half Design Studio

Eight and a Half is the Brooklyn-based design studio responsible for recognizable work such as the Saturday Night Live logo or the graphics for BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn summer music festival. The studio designed a new logo for the Brooklyn Public Library as part of the library’s strategic plan for 2013, which focused on revisiting the institution’s programming and services in light of the profound external changes in the way information is disseminated and accessed. The Brooklyn Public Library serves the borough’s 2.5 million residents, offering thousands of public programs, millions of books, and use of more than 1,000 free computers. Eight and a Half replaced the library’s previous black box logo with a bold blue acronym: Bklyn. As a library blog post put it, “Gone is the sad little black box that for so long meekly defined our presence in the digital realm. There’s something invigorating about the facelift that comes with rebranding — it seems to signify a fresh start, a new direction.” Bonnie Siegler, founder of Eight and a Half, graciously agreed to answer some questions about the library rebrand and about her experience with the public library system.

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JULIE SAFFERSTEIN What was the goal of the rebrand? Were there specific messages that the library was looking to communicate? BONNIE SIEGLER Libraries across America are changing, by necessity, and the Brooklyn Public Library is no different. They wanted to create an identity that brought them into this century and beyond. JULIE What was changed as a result of the rebrand? The logo change got the most attention, but what else was altered, added, or removed?

JULIE Was there a target audience in mind? BONNIE The community at large really; people who have children, people who don’t have computers, people who have Kindles, people who like to learn. Everyone. JULIE Did you learn anything unexpected about the Brooklyn Public Library during the process? About libraries in general? BONNIE I learned about how the library accepted its changing role and adapted incredibly well. All libraries will eventually have to do that.

BONNIE All the materials that the library used to communicate with the community changed as well.

JULIE What makes the new brand sustainable?

JULIE Why was the decision made to cut out some of the letters in “Brooklyn”?

BONNIE I hope, the fact that it is simple, classic and timeless.

BONNIE The library today is more about access to information than about book borrowing. We used the shorthand spelling (also the official postal abbreviation) because no one has the time for all those letters.

BEFORE

MEET THE DESIGNER

JULIE And now some bonus library questions! Do you consider yourself a library user? BONNIE I have a library card, but I don’t go often enough. JULIE When was the last time you went to the library? What for? How was the experience? BONNIE To help my son finds book for a research paper. It was terrific but we needed a librarian to get us to the right spot. JULIE What is the last book you read? Did you read a paper copy or was it on an e-reader? BONNIE I don’t read on an e-reader. I am reading Middlemarch.

AFTER

JULIE Though there are many resources for reading material, a library fosters interaction and learning in a social setting. Where do you go to socialize? Where do you go for information? BONNIE I socialize in restaurants and dining rooms. I get my info from the inter web. JULIE Is print dying? Is it already dead? Should it be saved, and if so, how? BONNIE The ways we receive information are changing. They always have and they will continue to. If we’re lucky. It’s an exciting time.

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“The library accepted its changing role and adapted incredibly well.”

Late one evening during the start of my semester abroad in Florence, Italy, I passed glowing orange lights on a street off the Piazza del Duomo and assumed they were signage for a club. I soon found out that those lights marked the entrance to La Biblioteca Delle Oblate, a city library, and I registered for a library card. I found myself spending more and more time there, meeting friends to write art history essays in the courtyard or seeking solitary morning shelter during that rainy Florentine spring. For me, La Biblioteca Delle Oblate was a resource for combating homesickness and claiming a home base where I essentially had none. A library can be more than the contents of its pages. Libraries will not be lost to the digital age, just reshaped. How are you contributing to the creation of the modern library?

Be a library person.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Alcott, Martha. Personal interview. 9 Jan. 2014. Goldberg, Beverly, and Jordan Brandes. “Libraries Fare Well Overall at the Ballot Box.” American Libraries Magazine. American Library Association, 14 Nov. 2012. Greenfield, Jeremy. “What Is Going On With Library E-Book Lending?” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 22 June 2012.

Metcalfe, John. “World’s Tiniest Library Pops Up In New York City.” The Atlantic Cities. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 30 May 2013. Miller, Claire C., and Julie Bosman. “Siding With Google, Judge Says Book Search Does Not Infringe Copyright.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Nov. 2013. Siegler, Bonnie. E-mail interview. 4 Mar. 2014.

Greenfield, Jeremy. “What’s New With Libraries And Ebooks? In Conversation With The American Library Association.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 03 Oct. 2013. Web. Henderson, Jane. “Restored Central Library Mixes Old and New in Downtown St. Louis.” Stltoday.com. Stltoday.com, 09 Dec. 2012. Hiebert, Paul. “Photo Essay: Meet New York’s Loyal Public Library Patrons.” Flavorwire. Flavorpill Productions, LLC, 23 Jan. 2013. “Library-a-Go-Go.” Urban Libraries Council. Urban Libraries Council, 2010.

Smith, Sonia. “Big-Box Store Has New Life as an Airy Public Library.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2012. The State of America’s Libraries. Rep. American Library Association, 2013. Stern, Joanna. “The First Bookless Public Library: Texas to Have BiblioTech.” ABC News. ABC News Network, 14 Jan. 2013. Sydell, Laura. “Combining The Nation’s Digitized Libraries, All In One Place.” NPR. NPR, 19 Aug. 2013. Zickuhr, Kathryn, Lee Rainie, and Kristen Purcell. “Library Services in the Digital Age.” Pew Internet. The Pew Charitable Trusts, 22 Jan. 2013.

Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Computer Lab. 2012. SmugMug. Web. <http://mcallen.smugmug.com/Library/New-Main-Library/ New-Main/Photo-Tour-February-2012/i-kFmkWkx/A>.

Library 2.0. N.d. Design Bazaar. Web. <http://design-bazaar.nl/wp-content/uploads/ 2013/05/20130530-204259.jpg>.

Hursley, Tim. 2012. Architizer. Web. <http://architizer.com/projects/st-louis-publiclibrary-central-library-renovation/media/380205/>.

Lounge Seating. 2012. SmugMug. Web. <http://mcallen.smugmug.com/Library/New-Main-Library/ New-Main/Photo-Tour-February-2012/i-zJ8xPcd/A>.

Hursley, Tim. 2012. Architizer. Web. <http://architizer.com/projects/st-louis-publiclibrary-central-library-renovation/media/386245/>.

Service Desk. 2012. SmugMug. Web. <http://mcallen.smugmug.com/Library/New-Main-Library/ New-Main/Photo-Tour-February-2012/i-xwbChD4/A>.

IMAGE CREDITS

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& THANK YOUS This book would not have been possible without the much-appreciated guidance and insights of my studiomates and professors, particularly Sarah Birdsall and Benjamin Franklin. This book was curated, designed, and illustrated by Julie Safferstein during the spring of 2014 for her Senior Seminar in Communication Design at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

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