Planning Library Buildings; the background work

Upali AmarasiriDirector/NILIS

NILIS seminar/workshop Series16th October 2008

National Institute of Library and Information Sciences,University of Colombo

Need Assessment Is it necessary to have a new building? Alternatives to a new building; new space

planning, shared facilities, decentralisation, high tech/modern furniture/equipment etc.

Present and future needs of the library; expansion of the collection, services, clientele & ICT facilities etc.

Development goals/targets of the mother institute

How to Finance the Project

Annual institutional/organisation budget? How reliable?

As a part of the foreign funded project? New building fund – cost of the building, fittings,

furniture, equipments, professional advisory fee (architect, engineers, interior designer, library consultant etc.), other expenses

Space for annual inflation and unexpected expenditure

Explore ways of secure the necessary additional funds, if necessary

Preparation of the architect’s brief What services you expect the library to

provide? (lending, reference, ICT, children, conservation etc.)

Non-library activities (seminars, conferences, exhibitions etc.)

Collection size at present and in 10 years time Sub collections and their special requirements

(reference, lending, restricted reference, audio-visual materials, electronic materials, manuscripts etc.)

Number of users at present and in 5 to 10 years time

Characteristics of the users (researchers, academics, students, general public, children, elderly, disable, etc.)

Requirements for the in-house activities (library staff, technical services etc.)

Special library requirements (close access, open access, silence areas, climate control, security of the collection, easy for surveillance etc.)

Provide a chart with the workflow and interconnected services

Identify the project management team

Membership depends on the type of organisation In local authority set up it is the mayor/chairman,

commissioner/secretary, works engineer/technical officer, librarian and others

University/institutional set up; Registrar/Director, works engineer, librarian, architect and a number of other members

Advisable to have a member from the library advisory committee

Small libraries can always seek the assistance from the NLDSB

For a large library buildings it is always advisable to get the services of a library consultant, an architect and a interior designer

Insist to have quality project management team

Provide the architect enough opportunities to understand the needs of the library

Show him a few quality, as well as poorly designed library buildings

Provide him the literature on library building/interior planning (NL,NILIS,SLLA, Kelaniya university, USIS, Internet)

Arrange a discussion with senior librarians who know the subject

Provide a list of ‘do s and don’t s’ (e.g. no too many entry exit points, reference area should not be located closer to a busy area)

Study the draft plan

Study the draft plan critically Discuss it with your staff and with colleagues

in the profession Identify the weak areas Identify the areas that can be improved Identify the possible alternatives Balance between Aesthetic versus Functional Discuss them with the architect/project m.

team

Beware Don’t let the management to exclude the

librarian in the building planning process Don’t blindly accept the plan/s of the architect

or management Librarian should play her/his role properly and

impress the others If the librarian does not have adequate

knowledge on the subject acquire it or get professional help

Attend the planning meetings well prepared

If librarian finds difficult to express his/her argument at the meeting find alternate ways (brief the committee chairman in advance, brief another committee member or the architect in advance, write a short memo and table it etc.)

Prepare the architect’s brief professionally which can avoid a lot of problems subsequently

Be always alert about the time schedule of the construction and proper supervision at every stage

Thank youThank you