Planning Academic and Research Library Buildings (3rd ed.)

No one asked to review a book with over 900 pages on the subject of library buildings agrees to do so without considerable thought. However, if that request comes at a time when a new library building is under discussion, and the scale and difficulty of the task are beginning to dawn, there is a much better chance of a positive response.

The first edition of this book was written in the early 1960s by Keyes D. Metcalf and was the product of his experience of almost 60 years of involvement in building projects. The book was widely regarded as a classic and was so closely associated with the thinking of that giant of librarianship that the present authors must have approached with some trepidation the task of writing the second edition in 1985. The third edition attempts to take account of the impact of communication and information technologies on library buildings and the greater recognition of the need to make provision for those with a physical disability.

The book consists of 15 chapters and over 200 pages of appendices. It follows the process through from the preliminary stages of looking at the institution and its needs, and considering alternatives to building a new library, to the occupation of the new library and the settling in period. In between, chapters deal with such diverse issues as building the planning team and fund‐raising. It is truly comprehensive and it is unlikely that any seeker after information will turn to it without finding what is needed.

The heart of the book is the section on the development of what is referred to as the “program”. This document is designed to serve a number of purposes including allowing the librarian to state the essential needs of the library, winning approval for the project and stating the basic criteria on which the architect can plan a suitable building. Writing the document forces the institution to answer a number of basic questions including how far into the future it wishes to plan for, what growth factors should be taken into account, where the new building will be placed and what it will contain in addition to reader spaces and shelving.

The appendices basically help the planner to turn answers into areas. So, for example, if the library is to contain 2,000,000 volumes of which 50 per cent will be on standard shelves and 50 per cent on compact shelving, formulae and tables will allow the reader to calculate how much space will be required. While quoting the George Bernard Shaw maxim: “the golden rule is that there are no golden rules”, the book proceeds to tell us, for example, the area required for various types of seating accommodation, the number of years it will take for a collection to increase from two‐thirds to six‐sevenths of full capacity and the percentage of books in an academic collection below different depths measured from the back of the spine to the fore‐edge of the covers.

Most readers who are seriously considering building a new library will be drawn to those sections that aim to help calculate the size the building needs to be. Academic institutions will want to build a library of sufficient size to last at least 20 years but not so large as to be wasteful both of initial capital and recurrent costs. While the starting‐point has to be our present situation it is difficult to avoid feeling that we are making inspired guesses when we try to assess how much space will be needed for collections and users in 2021. Will we need many more reader places because student numbers and student dependence on the library increase or will there be a reduction in demand because students never come to the library through changing study patterns or almost exclusive reliance on electronic resources? Will we need to allow for the same rate of growth in shelf space, as print publishing grows apace, or less as print publishing becomes less significant and existing publications are digitised?

Leighton and Weber attempt to answer these very questions but state quite clearly that they are not aiming to provide answers for a specific library but rather to assist discussion. They suggest, for example, that the demand for seating will increase by 1 per cent per year in addition to any increase in student numbers. They also believe that collections, especially in the larger research libraries, will continue to grow. Obviously any institution planning a new library will have to decide whether or not to accept such suggestions.

Anyone outside the USA who is using this book to plan a library building may wonder if the origins of the book reduce its usefulness. This is true to an extent. Most of the examples relate to North American libraries, it is set in the context of US legislation and standards and it relates to a country where investment in libraries is traditionally much greater than most places in the world. However, given the lack of a comparable book, the reduction in usefulness must be regarded as marginal.

No librarian seeking to start down the road towards a new library can afford to be without this book. Indeed the likelihood is that estates managers and architects will want to make off with the librarian’s copy when they become involved in the project. (This should be resisted at all costs as they can afford to buy their own copy!) It presents in one admittedly large volume a body of information and thinking that would take an enormous time to discover. Anyone baulking at paying the price of the book should think what it would cost in time to find the information elsewhere.