Ideal library

This lecture by PhDr. Ladislav Kurka from the City Library of Prague and Ing. Martin Svoboda, the director of the State Technical Library, took place at the end of September 2003 during a working seminar titled »Library and Architecture, Library without Barriers«, organized by the Palacký University Library in the premises of the Artistic Center of Palacký University in Olomouc. This and other contributions were subsequently published in a collection, from which we were able to draw with the kind permission of the authors.

Library in Turkish Ephesus from 120 AD.

When looking at the ruins of the library in Greek Ephesus, one immediately thinks of its resemblance to a temple. Such was the respect that society had for the knowledge hidden in books at that time. However, only a tiny fraction of the population could read them. Today’s library is much more open, secular, having descended from the heights to practical life, yet we still feel a mix of pleasant feelings within it. There’s a friendly environment inviting one to spend pleasant free time with a book or headphones, offering a wealth of information on various useful or curious topics, alongside an almost temple-like atmosphere surrounding students of all ages immersed in piles of magazines or onto the monitor.
The organizers of this year’s round of “Libraries and Architecture” asked us to attempt to characterize the ideal library. There are many types of libraries, each with different conditions and purposes, serving different circles of users. “Ideal” therefore means something different in each individual case. Characterizing an ideal with firmly set coefficients, meters, relationships, and so on is impossible, at least unwise. Rather, we will attempt to suggest a path that we believe reasonably approaches that unattainable ideal in a given specific case. It won't be precise, but we must get used to that: almost everything said here is more material for personal reflection than an exact manual. If you expect a “cookbook” from this article with a checklist that, if followed, will make everything smoothly work out, then you might as well stop reading now.

New Philological Library Freie Universität in Berlin by Norman Foster (2005)

To make our life easier, we will relate practical examples and applications of our views and ideas about the ideal library to libraries roughly the size of a small college or a town of around ten thousand inhabitants, hoping that anything we write about a larger library can creatively apply to a smaller library as well. Similarly, whenever we speak of a new building, this can reasonably also relate to reconstruction. Conversely, even when we talk about fairly specific and detailed matters, it’s necessary to understand this always just as an illustration of the idea; it is the idea that matters, not the details (over which hours and hours can be successfully debated). Furthermore, when we talk about the opinions of librarians, we mean opinions formulated in the interest of those for whom the library will serve, that is, readers, students, visitors. Finally, although the library legislation does not recognize such terms, we will traditionally refer to libraries serving unspecified public as “public,” to libraries in universities as “academic,” and libraries with a defined thematic profile as “specialist.”

New Philological Library Freie Universität in Berlin by Norman Foster (2005)

It is no wonder that when we speak of the ideal library, we immediately invoke the Platonic maxim that at the beginning is the idea. Building a library today is certainly different than in pre-internet times. Development is proceeding rapidly, and we also hear prophecies that libraries will disappear. There is no doubt that electronic access to information radically changes much. When we talk about the library of the next age, despite all published skeptical predictions, we hold the opinion that libraries have a future. As Paul Lukez says: “… and above all, the role of the library as a symbol of cultural and social values will be preserved. We are social creatures and need to be perceived as members of a larger group; this gives us strength and strengthens our sense of community. A society based solely on virtual online communities cannot end up anything but virtual and devoid of substance. Libraries – alongside other institutions – respond to our deep human need for community in the misty expanses of cyberspace.” [Luk97].
Indeed, the library is transforming before our eyes into one of the last public spaces. Pubs are dominated by television and “winning” machines, squares are either filled with tourists or deserted. Everyone goes to the library, whether they are studying, or have never studied, including the homeless who might just want to warm up and read the newspapers, while all inadvertently absorb what the library sees fit. The library embodies an arrangement, a system: let’s recall Borges’s Library of Babel. Although the library offers virtual contacts, the world it mediates is real, colorful, yet understandable and verifiable. Perhaps it can also restore the belief that things can be known, that the world has order, that it is not just the ramblings of Lightning Clippings in the Cauldron, that one can communicate and understand each other, even across the chasms of time. In addition to being a space (we apologize to doc. Švách for this), an institution, the library is simultaneously another medium, or rather multimedia: there are newspapers, television, the internet, the collective memory of ages, along with current local information, information about the state of society, art, economics, and so on. It is simultaneously a place for study and focused work, a source of information, a meeting place, and a site of open doors and public services. Therefore, it should be a consistent, coherent work, a Gesamtkunstwerk, where content and form mutually support each other.

University Library IKMZ in Chotěbuz by Herzog & de Meuron (2004)

We believe that the four roles mentioned must be fulfilled by every good modern library, although their significance and mutual proportions vary among different types of libraries. Although they overlap and intertwine, none can be disregarded by any type of library. However, today’s library must change considerably – many have already begun – conceptually and formally, in terms of library management, technical aspects, societal relevance, and architectural design.
In this changing environment, building a new library is akin to shooting at a moving target. With the slight difference that a missed pigeon means lost points, while a “missed” library will haunt those who designed it for many years. Therefore, we consider it extremely important for all parties, on which the outcome depends, to learn to communicate with each other from the very beginning. The dialogue between the librarian – future user, and architect – designer is key. It requires both sides to let go of idiosyncrasies of their respective professions, to formulate their requirements and positions in a way that the other side can understand, and to listen attentively to each other.
Here we could almost conclude, because we might not say anything more important, but the reader might get angry. Thus, we will attempt to at least comment on those parts of the process that begins with the idea and ends with a built and inhabited library (which in turn begins something new) according to our beliefs and experiences.

The order in which we will comment on the mentioned four roles says nothing about their greater or lesser importance. However, we mention the first one first because it is not yet entirely obvious in our country, the Czech Republic.

Meeting Place

University Library IKMZ in Chotěbuz by Herzog & de Meuron (2004)

The library should be a place where readers meet not only with books and information, but also with people: with librarians, with friends, and with strangers – a professor meets a homeless person at the same catalog; primarily, it is an open environment that influences visitors.
What does this mean? The library must offer a pleasant environment for study, not just for individual, but also for group work, and for children, an attractive and stimulating environment that draws them in and allows them to experience small adventures (whether it’s a special or “merely” creatively utilized ordinary furniture). And of course, there must be enough possibilities for ordinary seating where one can talk without disturbing others and where one can enjoy a coffee, for example.
We consider the entrance areas to be an important chapter. To help you understand us, we must immediately say that for us, entrance areas are not just a reception and a telephone booth – to put it very simply. By entrance areas, we mean all spaces that can – and should – be allocated before the checkpoint ¹), so as not to unnecessarily burden the library's operations. Close proximity to the loan desk is often advantageous. Implementing this idea is not simple, and in reconstructed spaces, it can only be enforced at the cost of compromises. The idea is not universally embraced, but that does not discourage us from its continuous promotion.

Seattle Public Library by OMA/LMN (2004)

“Entrance spaces” is perhaps somewhat misleading terminology; sometimes the term accompanying activities is used. This ambiguous terminology has a good reason: “accompanying activities” – that is, things the library doesn’t need to have to still be a library – should be placed so that they can be used even when the library is closed, most likely in entrance areas. These undoubtedly include general information or at least a reception desk, in the case of the largest libraries, a security service, furthermore a bistro that meets all demanding hygiene requirements or at least a beverage vending machine, a rest area, and an exhibition area with a handling store.
Not yet very common solutions include sales of publications and library souvenirs or even a bookstore. However, this can also include book returns, reader registration, and a cashier, as demonstrated at the main office of the City Library in Prague. Finally, we saved a hall in various interpretations: as a congress hall with interpreting booths and a technical staff booth and a manipulation area, or just as a computer classroom or common room. Sufficiently sized public restrooms and cloakrooms with staff as well as self-service lockers should also be included here. All this exists in various libraries; perhaps nowhere do accompanying activities encompass everything we have listed here. If they do, then abroad. The separation of halls with accompanying facilities is also practical from another perspective: it allows for rental by external entities outside the library's operational hours, which also applies to the bistro, bookstore, exhibition hall, etc.
Spaces allowing for gatherings include group study rooms with capacities from two to a maximum of fifteen persons, which create conditions for free exchanges of opinions and teamwork. Such a space can also be an inventive division of the interior with shelves creating different alcoves, complemented with armchairs, forming a semi-private zone that also allows for gatherings.

Place for Study and Focused Work

Seattle Public Library by OMA/LMN (2004)

Particularly in academic and specialized libraries, readers come to study. This requires primarily an offering of a clearly organized collection of books and magazines, mostly in open access (and in open access even in storage, if at all possible). Everything should be accessible through simply understandable electronic catalogs that clearly navigate to the entire library collection. Rich virtual collections must be clearly organized, well searchable, and interconnected. For study and work, there must be sufficient well-lit places with enough space to spread out books, magazines, notes, and a laptop. Study areas should be placed so that books don’t have to be transported far. They should also be graded from large study rooms through classrooms with 15-20 places and group workrooms to individual study rooms, where a doctoral student or visiting professor can store their materials and borrowed documents long-term. The amount of information sources available on the computer network is rapidly increasing. The current level of computing technology is not suitable for studying directly from the network; therefore, there should be enough places where documents can be searched, or printed or downloaded for further use on the visitor’s computer. Accessibility of the network at significant parts of the study places is indispensable. Currently, the most reliable and effective solution is cabling, distributing computer network and electrical connections to each place, but this is developing very quickly and will undoubtedly change.
Regarding the spatial arrangement, logically, the largest study rooms or groups of reading workspaces should be near the most frequented collections, and they should be closely linked to the entrance areas. As one goes deeper into the library, the number of visitors decreases, the specialization of collections and the corresponding study rooms increases – and so does comfort. On the periphery are group, individual, and specialized study rooms; there should also be terraces or atriums where it is possible to study outdoors. Throughout the library, comfortable nooks should also be arranged for rest or quiet discussions.

Source of Information

SLUB State, Regional, and University Library in Dresden by Ortner & Ortner (2002)

Although contemporary libraries still utilize their collections for their visitor services, they increasingly draw on resources outside the library. Own real collections must be searchable through electronic catalogs accessible at many locations, as already mentioned. A library is only as good as its well-profiled selection of collections and how well it organizes them. Thus, the library provides information, depending on its type, from pigeon fancier clubs to timetables, information about businesses, job opportunities, legal advice or at least self-service, standards, collections of laws, and so on. This information is provided by reference services or found by visitors themselves, possibly with assistance on the internet. This requires enough space in reference services for storing reference and guide literature, preferably accessible both physically and to readers. Spatially demanding is having a sufficient number of workstations or a dedicated internet study room, where visitors can search for their subject of interest themselves.

Place of Open Doors and Public Services
The library must further step towards the public. We have much to learn from many countries. This involves working with the elderly, unemployed, disabled, and minorities. It is not essential whether this is organizationally a community center or an unemployment center; what is important is that the service offerings are comprehensive. This includes municipal information, information from employment offices, legal advice. Regional services should have not only a regularly updated offering of activities in the region but also accessible (electronic map) basic information about the region.
It is also about ensuring that a member of a different nationality can find books in their language, so that the visually impaired can turn on a device before entering the library to help navigate to the library, and that floor markings in Braille are present in the elevator so that a wheelchair user can access the building without degrading demands and can move about reasonably within it, that the unemployed can find a list of vacancies in the library, and that the elderly and ill can receive books at home upon request.
The spaces for these services belong to the semi-occupied zone, equipped with an information point and computers.

SLUB State, Regional, and University Library in Dresden by Ortner & Ortner (2002)

How to start? The world has changed and become a dynamic place where everything is in motion, and maintaining interconnections is even more important than ever. For the design of a library capable of standing in such a world, a well-cooperating team of librarians, architects, technicians, information technology specialists, and others is necessary, who must find common language. Only in this way can a viable vision be achieved. For this, it is necessary to learn to speak together, to formulate, draw, write, assess – and again and again to perfection to which there will never be enough time.
We have divided this process into the most important steps. These are: idea, construction program, architectural competition, evaluation of results, design. In reality, “steps” are not so strictly separated; the idea incubates gradually, often modified and developed in discussions or battles. It is advisable to document this process continuously, recording comments and experiences.

Background
If we want to build a library, we must convince two groups of partners. First and foremost, our colleagues, whose extensive support we cannot do without, and our superiors, who will decide on the construction and its financing.
The situation where a representative of the city comes to the library director with a persistent wish to build a new stand for the library belongs more to the realm of dreams in the Czech Republic. Therefore, if we come to the conviction that (often long ago) a necessary and reasonable solution to the spatial (and/or other) problems of our library is a fundamental reconstruction or even a new build, the most important thing is to infect everyone we need for the success of this idea with this idea. There are quite a few of them.
These are primarily colleagues and employees who must identify with the idea of a new library, accept it as their own or at least come to terms with it. This is not simple; it means giving up proven – albeit often cursed – certainties of the current library in exchange for “birds in the bush” of the yet completely hypothetical new library. The main metaphors of librarians’ work are order, duration, preservation; therefore the idea of a total change of habitual certainties is traumatic for many. But we are convinced that this is where it must begin. Without honest, dedicated, and thoughtful cooperation of those who work in the library today, it is hardly possible to plan a new library.
A critical moment is the attempt to implant the idea of a new library into the functional and financial priorities of the planner, whether it is a school, city, regional office, or ministry. It is clear that our idea must align with the development plans of the state, region, city, or school. Each library as a public building, moreover built with the prospect of at least fifty years of existence, represents a permanent value, has enormous symbolic significance, and is thus a kind of monument. It testifies – as the Ephesus library did – to the importance attached by the planner or the financier to the library as a symbol of an open society supporting education, beneficial leisure time, solidarity with the less wealthy, and other values. Such arguments can help elevate the construction of the library on the priority ladder.
Alongside domestic and superordinate considerations, it is also essential to remember the wider public. By this, we mean politicians, representatives, or publicly known personalities with influence, as well as colleagues from other libraries, and on the other hand, potential users. However, we believe it is more appropriate to approach them later, once we have something more concrete than just the idea in hand.

Idea and Arguments

Library Fachhochschule Eberswalde by Herzog & de Meuron (1999)

The vision of the new library must look far ahead. In preparing the project for a modern library, it is not enough to merely extrapolate past experience. The strategies of hypothesizing scenarios of possible futures, their critical evaluation, and the selection of probable variants is probably the most promising way to avoid unpleasant surprises in the future.
The new library must be something more than just a new stall for an old institution. Of course, it derives from the needs of the institution and location and considers all local contexts; yet it should also be generous and above all, open. Several fundamental slogans, theses of the concept, focus of the new building, and transformed institution will create a springboard for further thinking. In the new library, much will be different from current experiences. It is necessary to think through the details of each workplace, forget “we have always done it this way,” unleash the imagination, distinguish the essential from the local color, look around the world, and then assemble high-quality groundwork for the preparation of the new library with the utmost care. The idea must be based on credible arguments.
In order to explain the idea of the new library to all of the above and convince them of it, to be able to “sell” our idea to them, we must formulate it clearly and support it with clear and convincing arguments, and that needs to be done in a small space – long explanations will hardly be read by anyone. Essential for the formulation of the idea is a clear vision – expressed in half a page – of what is to be achieved by the new build; just saying “more space” may not sound convincing. Strong arguments include statistics of performance and surveys of reader needs. In this context, it is important not to overlook developments, trends, and plans in the relevant environment of the intended library. By this, we mean both institutions related to or somehow associated with the intended new library and guiding and development plans, as well as the actual physical context of the future new build.
In the age of modern library systems, acquiring quality performance statistics (loans, reference and other services, occupancy of terminals for OPAC and in study rooms, occupancy of study rooms, etc.) has become considerably easier. It is not only absolute numbers in the statistics that matter; comparisons of them and especially their interpretation are far more significant (Winston Churchill famously said: “I don’t believe in any statistics unless I’ve falsified them myself.”). More challenging and laborious is obtaining data on the needs and demands of readers. In any case, it is important to compare the same (and always equally measured) data over time, where trends can be extrapolated into the future with a certain caution while including other influences. All indicators and trends should also be healthily compared with similar data from comparable institutions under comparable conditions both domestically and abroad. It is needless to remind that graphical presentation is far more eloquent than tables and that less is often more.
A healthy idea (and one that appeals to thoughtful administrators) is searching for “strategic partners” or allies, whether they are potential sponsors, future significant users of the new library (in the new location), or possible co-users of the new building. In the Czech Republic, sponsors who would provide the library with significant help, whether material or advantageous rental space, are quite rare. It is to be hoped that with the growth of wealth and education, there will be more such individuals. In many foreign countries, a new library that will serve both the university and the city is often built and financed jointly by the university and the municipality or state. Here, we do not have an example of such rational use of public means (truth be told, not facilitated by our legal framework). Once decisions about investments and the operation of institutions funded from public resources is handed over to regions and municipalities within administrative and financial reforms, prudent managers will undoubtedly apply pressure to create similar alliances here as well. Once the idea is clear, we must figure out where and how large the library should be built, how much space it should have for open access, for storage, how many readers it is intended for, how many of what type of study rooms it should have, and so on. This prepares the next step – preparing the construction program.

Construction Program

City Library José Hierro in the Usera district of Madrid by Ábalos & Herreros (2002)

The construction program is a reflection of the vision into specific needs. It should detail the necessary spaces and generally specify their necessary connections; ideally, it should only state the essential minimum about how specifically they should be situated, particularly if an architectural competition will take place (for which the construction program is a fundamental basis).
This may seem like an exaggerated assertion, but in our opinion, these first two phases, forming the idea and developing the construction program, have a decisive influence on the success of the entire project. At the very start, it is crucial – at a phase where it hardly seems necessary to anyone – to channel as much energy and teamwork as possible. Of course, it depends on the project and the capabilities and diligence of the contracting company how well our vision materializes. However, an unthought-through or weak idea and mistakes or omissions in the construction program are very hard to correct during the course of either the design or even the construction itself; if this is managed, it usually comes at a cost of delay and increased expenses.
The construction program translates the idea of the new library into the dry language of numbers: the number of volumes in open access and in storage, the number of places in study rooms, classrooms, cafés, and at terminals, the numbers of employees in individual departments, places for technical staff and their equipment, for security, kitchenettes, and rest spaces, lecture or exhibition halls and their backgrounds, cloakrooms and toilets, and so on, all of which must be converted into square meters according to corresponding standards and conventions. Where necessary, requirements for direct lighting and ventilation, climate control, and similar aspects need to be specified. Connections between individual functional units are then captured in an operational diagram which also reflects the pathways of documents and operational materials on one side, and visitors to the library and employees on the other side. This is no longer work solely for librarians; cooperation with qualified professionals is essential.
The construction program is a crucial basis for all further steps, it also serves as a pivotal basis for the architectural competition commission and for determining the approximate construction costs.
One pitfall of creating a construction program is the fact that on the one hand, it is necessary to think through the spaces needed for operations and their connections, while on the other hand, the builder should consciously resist the temptation to “design” and eradicate his opinions on possible spatial arrangements or even specific implementations from the construction program, so that he does not unnecessarily limit and influence what will be translated from the construction program into architectural study. The construction program should formulate requirements for spaces and their connections, accessibility, and usability at the conceptual level and should not preempt solutions. Thus, not “the night study room will be on the ground floor next to the security office,” but “the night study room must be accessible seven times 24 hours a week, with a demand for library staff reduced to a minimum or zero, while ensuring security for all library spaces.” By preordaining requirements, we deprive ourselves of interesting unconventional solutions that the architect might dare not use for fear of being eliminated from the competition for noncompliance with the construction program.
Because mistakes, deficiencies, or omissions in the construction program have serious consequences in the further stages of preparation and the very construction itself, it is useful – we would rather say essential – to subject the construction program to various levels of checks. A review by library staff is a matter of course. The next level is the peer review of independent experts. Suggestions from those who have already gone through the challenges of preparation are extremely valuable. They can save a number of mistakes and errors or perhaps just facilitate decision-making on seemingly equally viable alternatives. Especially with costly investments, it may be useful to verify the consistency and non-contradiction of the construction program with a so-called verification project. Its purpose is to determine whether the demands set by the construction program can be located within the space delineated by the building parcel and any other limiting conditions and whether there are no internally contradictory demands of the operational diagram.
The gross construction price obtained on the basis of the quantities from the construction program is at this stage the most accurate possible basis for estimating future costs. This gross figure includes costs for internal furnishing, project costs (four levels: project for zoning approval, project for building permits, documentation for contractor selection, and finally, the actual implementation project), project management costs, as well as the costs for the architectural or architectural-urbanistic competition. At least a rough outline of the construction program is needed in a very early phase of thinking about the new library, in order to gain a rough estimate of the costs of the future building for discussion with the planner. The cost estimate is then refined with each stage of the project preparation.

Architectural Competition

Idea Store Whitechapel in London by David Adjaye (2005)

The architectural or architectural-urbanistic competition is an internationally recognized method of finding the most suitable solution to the project task given by the construction program, building parcel, and other limiting conditions, as well as a designer capable of resolving this task.
The result of an architectural competition is a large number of designs, most of which appear to have been created unnecessarily. But this is not the case; even non-winning designs may serve as inspiration in transforming the architectural study into further phases of the project.
Although it is not compulsory even for public buildings, an architectural competition should undoubtedly be standard for large new buildings and total reconstructions. In the current legal framework of the Czech Republic (September 2003), there is a significant gap: the law regulating competitions (Act No. 199/1994 on public procurement) does not recognize the concept of architectural competition in its current form at all. After the architectural competition takes place, selecting a designer today requires further selection processes, whereby according to the law, participation or even winning in the architectural competition cannot be a decisive criterion. This means that the winner of the architectural competition may fall out of the selection process for trivial errors or for a dumping price offered by another designer. However, that designer is unlikely to gain consent from the author of the winning design – the copyright holder – to design according to the winning proposal, resulting in a deadlock. This should finally be removed by a long-prepared amendment to the public procurement law expected possibly by the end of this year.
The rules for organizing a competition, deadlines, jury composition, and procedures for its work are described in detail in the competitive regulations of the Czech Chamber of Architects, so compiling competitive conditions, preparing competitive materials, and announcing the competition is relatively simple. It is important to embed into the evaluation criteria of designs within the competition conditions, in addition to generally architectural-urbanistic criteria, sufficiently general requirements for flexibility and (especially operational) economy of the proposal.
Perhaps the most critical aspect – besides funding for prizes and conducting the competition – is to secure renowned architects in the jury. Experience clearly shows that the quality of the jury largely predetermines the quality of entries submitted.
The final exhibition of the results of the architectural competition can be used for public promotion, whether among the truly broad public in the case of a public library or “public” of the school, i.e., students and the academic staff of the academic library. This is for whom the library is built; they will be using it, honoring or criticizing its builders. Their voice should be heard, even though it is evident that obtaining consistent opinions from a diverse readership is pure utopia. Nevertheless, garnering public support for the idea of a new library is essential; its backing may prove crucial in critical moments in the project's life.

5 Evaluation
If everything goes well and there is someone to contract the design, it is advisable to again thoroughly confront the construction program and the winning architectural study, among other things, in light of other successful proposals, and to document these findings in a user discussion. This is one of the steps in the ongoing dialogue between the builder/investor, the designer, and the contractor of the construction itself.
What should our nearly ideal library be like? Generally, it should have all 5P, thus it should be:
\ friendly, attractive, and professional for users;
\ comfortable for librarians;
\ favorable for collections;
\ impressive from the outside and also in its interior;
\ accessible in its location for users.
Friendliness to the reader is expressed in a diverse offering and clearly arranged professional information resources and services, as reflected in the information system. This includes options for pleasant seating with a book or with headphones or at a PC, seating with friends, refreshments in a bistro or at least from a vending machine, well-functioning lighting, and a pleasant internal climate. It depends more on people – the librarians – than on the building, but that is for another seminar.
Comfort for librarians: one might expect that librarians would not overlook themselves when preparing the construction program, but the opposite is often the case. This is not so much about office jobs, where each worker in a shift work process assumes that they will have their own desk somewhere, which is generally neither necessary nor possible. Instead, it is more about effective, ergonomic, and as little strenuous as possible functioning, starting from the supply ramp for receiving mail and books, transport means providing vertical and horizontal movement of people and cargo throughout the library, to equipping with suitable computers. In the working background, it also involves the number, size, location, and equipment of tea kitchens, break rooms, and cloakrooms.
Favorability for books and magazines, created by a constant temperature and humidity without sunlight, can be relatively easily achieved in storage areas either without windows or with north-facing windows, with strict stock control. These requirements are much more challenging to meet in open access, where the need for daylight for readers clashes with the exclusion of daylight for the books. The care of library collections also includes protection of books against theft, for which there must be some control gate somewhere along the route between the public entrance and open access. Similar considerations are necessary for other auditory or audiovisual media.
The impressiveness of the building and the interior is a subjective aspect. Its assessment – apart from a few trivial principles mentioned later – we will leave more than all else to the architect's opinion.
Accessibility of the library is a requirement established in IFLA recommendations and is entirely legitimate. The library must be located so that it is easily accessible – on foot or by public transport, located in the center of a city or university campus, or in another naturally central place. IFLA recommendations even define the accessibility of the library temporally: a public library should be accessible within 15 minutes (by bus plus on foot). And all libraries should be barrier-free.
All these factors and influences should be suitably reflected in the idea.

Design

Morgan Library in New York by Renzo Piano (2006)

Anyone wishing to come closer to the ideal library must ensure perfect project preparation. Once the planner has accepted the idea of the library and based on it has allocated land (a huge victory), the project preparation begins with the project for zoning approval, the result of which is a decision regarding the location of the building.
All phases of project preparation are governed by Act No. 50/1976 Coll., as amended regarding spatial planning and building regulations known as the Building Act.
The most important phase of project preparation is the project for building permits. Its basic postulates are given by the Building Act. The project for building permission is a summary of partial projects according to the most important professions: architectural-construction, power and low current electrical engineering, statics, health technology, air conditioning, heating technology, fire project. And we strongly recommend that this project for building permission include so-called quality standards, which – as the name suggests – bind the contractor to a certain degree of quality. And from the bitter experience of one of us, we advise: do not hesitate to use the form of a review assessment for some parts of the project, e.g. air conditioning. The designer must meet all the requirements of the Building Act so that the relevant building authority can issue a building permit based on this project, after consultation with all affected bodies (there may be as many as twenty) and based on a local inquiry.
It is absolutely essential that a study of the interior is created at the latest simultaneous with the project for building permission, which ensures that central heating, lighting, structured cabling, etc., are resolved according to both the needs of the construction and the interior.
Once the building permit has been issued, it is the designer's duty to incorporate into the project all comments from the relevant bodies accepted by the building authority and thus incorporated into the building permit. In the case of a smaller building, the project preparation ends with the development of the interior project. For larger buildings, a more detailed realization project or tender documents or other ongoing project documentation is created, responding to the progress of construction.
The interior project comes into being at the end of project preparation. This involves not only drawings of various types of furniture and their layout in the library (so-called spatial arrangement), but also color solutions for spaces, an information system, and here we also recommend specifying quality standards in the project. An important and wholly practical part of the project should be a list and counts of all proposed types of furniture and the counts of these types in individual rooms. For users, it is certainly more convenient if the same designer (or the same design studio) that worked on the building project also processes the interior project.
The designer should oversee the production and quality of the furniture and also assist in its placement.
And one more thing: at the end of the construction project, a so-called documentation of actual implementation is created, which documents the resulting construction for future needs. A great defect – though we do not say all – of some designers is to stamp the original project for building permission with “Actual Implementation.” However, this original project usually differs, even if only slightly, from the actual implementation, and later, for instance during network adjustments, it is a puzzle to find out where the cables actually are.

Spatial Arrangement

Tama Art University Library in Tokyo by Toyo Ito (2007)

The spatial arrangement is almost a magical activity that deals primarily with where different activities will be situated in the library and how and where people and books move throughout the library. Practice shows that certain tested principles should be adhered to.
1\ The paths of readers, books, and employees should not cross. In reconstructed spaces, this principle is poorly adhered to, if it can be adhered to at all. As a rule, separation of paths usually implies that the entrance for readers is different from the entrance for employees and that books are brought into the building through another entrance with the shortest route to the collections processing department and from there to the binding department. But that’s not all. It also involves a rigorous
separation of reader and employee spaces and passing through the building via cards or at least codes when establishing the principles of a so-called key mode, meaning a hierarchy of employee entrances respecting, for example, strict inventory regime.
2\ It is necessary to agree on which spaces belong to the busy, semi-busy, and quiet zones, and arrange them accordingly in the spatial arrangement. Of course, some entrance areas and hallways will be in the busy zone, whereas quiet spaces will certainly include study spaces. Further distinctions depend on the characteristics of the activities in that library.
3\ Vertical transportation should be preferred. We do not mean an expensive telelift for our conditions, but elevators – whether passenger, freight, or book elevators. Even a small library dislocated over two (or more) floors should have an elevator. And if both floors are to be accessible to readers, then an elevator or at least a lift is an obligation imposed by regulation No. 369/2001 Coll., due to mobility-impaired persons. By the way, common sense and foresight should lead to the demand for an elevator in a multi-floor building in every case. It should be say that “the larger the library, the more elevators.”
4\ World directions and the nearest surroundings of the library (tall buildings, trees, noisy streets, etc.) should be taken into account. Employees must have access to natural light at their workplace according to sanitary regulations, on the other hand, daylight is not suitable for books and magazines, and at least storage should be in spaces without natural light or with windows to the north. Computers should also be placed as far from south- or west-facing windows as possible.
5\ Communications and walls should not take up more than 30% of the usable area. Especially hallways including entrances need to be resolved rationally, so that unnecessarily long distances are not created (e.g., distance from toilets and tea kitchens to offices, loan services, study rooms).
6\ The last principle, valid only for public libraries: a partial separation of adult and children readers is needed, either by dislocating them to different floors or at least preventing one category from having to pass through spaces reserved for the other, while keeping mutual permeability of these spaces.

Flexibility, Elegance, Ecology, Robustness
It may seem that these four properties contradict each other; we do not think so. On the contrary, we believe that they are considerably characteristic of the quality of the design and realization of our ideal library.
In formulating requirements in the construction program, we must honestly admit that many things will change in the coming years, but today we cannot say how. In a time of libraries changing increasingly rapidly, it is necessary to prevent unnecessary demolitions, reconstructions of partitions, and other constructions that temporally limit the operation of the library, and are often financially costly as well from changes or adjustments in library activities. How to prevent this? By emphasizing flexibility, both external and internal, already in the design stage.
External flexibility is somewhat like sci-fi, but nevertheless: in all considerations regarding the building, it should be accounted for the favorable area that could later be used for an extension of the library building.
Internal flexibility, in short, primarily means a minimum of partitions; necessary separation of spaces can also be achieved just with library furniture (especially shelves). Movable shelving or cabinet partitions can also be a source of flexibility. However, this is the visible aspect of the problem. Wiring of electrical and computer networks, or even better integrated structured cabling systems serving electronic fire alarms, electronic security signaling, telephone networks, intercom, and public address systems, electronic access control, space monitoring by cameras, of course the computer network, and other, as yet unknown applications, is nowadays almost a given. A development towards wireless data transmission can be expected here, relieving the builder of problems while routing cables in troughs, grids, ceilings, or in floor skirting. And as a side note: do not forget about the necessary outlets for electronic security systems at the police desk and for fire alarm systems at the fire department desk.
One of the requirements for the design should also be the minimization of operational costs. Securing resources for building a new library is extraordinarily difficult. Even more challenging – because it never ends – is to secure annual resources for the operation of a new library. Therefore, it is extremely important for the building to be energy-efficient, to require minimal maintenance of the facade, both in terms of regular cleaning and in terms of the long-term durability of the materials and construction solutions used. The internal furnishings should also be robust, durable, and at the same time meet high aesthetic standards. All this speaks in favor of the necessity to not skimp on the quality of execution; savings must be made on a well-thought-out overall concept.

Just Before the Conclusion

UNED University Library in Madrid by José Ignacio Linazasoro (1993)

In the entire process of project preparation and subsequent construction, which had to fit into a few pages here, it is important that a well-functioning quadrilateral of investor-user-designer-contractor has emerged, in which each has their irreplaceable role. And perhaps you will forgive us for highlighting the key role of the user – the builder. Why? He is the one who in the premises that will arise – have arisen will serve his readers and visitors, thereby fulfilling the idea with which he entered the whole process. The others rarely return to the scene of the crime where the user will remain for years and face the reality they helped bring about. And that is precisely why we grant the user the right to advocate for opinions advocating functional solutions, even at the cost of conflicts, and to be persistent in finding solutions that prioritize the needs of readers and librarians. Of course, the money of the investor, the skills of the contractor, and the capabilities of the designer will all be in play, and against all of this will stand the inexorable passage of time, but doesn't an optimally functioning library organism serving hundreds and thousands of visitors deserve it?

Conclusion
Designing a good library today that will still be good decades from now is a challenging task. We have attempted to identify four main roles of the modern library and some fundamental ideas that good design should respect. We have commented on the process of preparing a new library from the birth of the idea to the project. Hopefully, this will serve in the preparation of other constructions.

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¹) By checkpoint, we consider a visually protected and – better yet – electronically secured entrance and exit that is common to all reader spaces.

Literature
Hav86 Havelka, Eugen. Matoušková, Ivanka. Public Libraries: Typization Guidelines MK. Prague: Ministry of Culture, 1986.
Neu95 Neufert, Ernst. Designing Buildings: Handbook for Builders, Builders, and Students. 1st ed. Prague: Consultinvest, 1995. 581 pp. ISBN 80-901486-4-6.
Luk97 Lukez, Paul. Whither://multi-media.(cyber).libraries? In: Library Builders. London: A.D. Academy Editions, 1997.

Notes
All previously published collections can be found on the website, specifically 2001 2003 2005. Last year's collection, which is currently being distributed to seminar participants, can be obtained from the library director Dana Lošťáková.
There is a small irregularly updated database about libraries on the STK pages.