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The Australian Library JournalCritical issues in public library planning: the New South Wales experienceDavid J Jones Manuscript received October 2004 IntroductionIn New South Wales public library buildings are the responsibility of the local government authority. Local councils initiate and carry out library construction, mainly from their own finances, and maintain the buildings once they are commissioned. In 2004 there were 392 public library buildings, ranging in size from under a hundred square metres to over 5500 square metres. The buildings vary as widely in shape as they do in size. Most libraries are custom-built, although a significant number are in buildings which were constructed for a different purpose: a town hall, a department store, a church, a commercial office building, a school of arts, a supermarket. They may be stand-alone or part of a complex. They vary in age from just built to historic, the oldest occupying a building which dates from the early years of the 19th century. At a seminar in Sydney in February 2004 we counted about fifty recent, current or impending public library building projects in New South Wales alone.[1] This rate of activity is necessary, as there are many existing buildings which no longer meet contemporary needs or current standards. The seminar has already stirred some of those attending into further action. What advice can be offered to librarians, planners and architects when they face a new building project? Ten years ago one would probably have started with Harry Faulkner-Brown's 'Ten Commandments', which required library buildings to be flexible, compact, accessible, extendible, varied, organised, comfortable, constant in environment, secure and economic.[2] We used to emphasise these planning and design principles to architects and to our colleagues at every opportunity. Today many of them have become so well accepted that we can almost take them for granted. There are however three issues which we certainly cannot take for granted and which lie at the heart of every successful public library building in recent years: user needs, space and costs. User needsAnyone who has taken an interest in library buildings over the past few years will have witnessed their transformation from process- and collection-centred to people- and services-focussed facilities. We have seen a general recognition of libraries as hubs of their communities.[3] Meeting the needs of each community is a paramount issue. User needs are the reason we are in business. There has never been a one-size-fits-all for library buildings, but today the variety of user needs for which we have to plan is greater than ever. People are spending longer in libraries; in Australia on-site use is outstripping growth in loans. People want a pleasant environment; so we create spaces where they will feel comfortable. Many people want to converse with each other informally: noise levels are generally higher. Some people want a room of their own where they can discuss, plan or argue: group study rooms and seminar rooms are now very common in public libraries. Other people just want a quiet area where they can concentrate: this may require a quiet study room, or a 'homework' room, or simply good layout and acoustics. Users range from children in strollers to elderly people using walking frames or powered chairs. Australia's population is ageing and accessibility standards are becoming more and more stringent. Australians come from many ethnic backgrounds and everyone should be able to feel at home in the library. Community art and public art can be a welcoming feature and can be integral to the design - not just an afterthought. Some people have special language requirements: this may mean multilingual signage or space for language learning. Everyone needs access to computers (for which their appetite shows no abating), as well as to collections and to staff expertise. Good design makes everything approachable and as visible as possible. Some people need little assistance and are quite happy to help themselves, and for them logical layouts and good wayfinding are still important. Other users need a lot of assistance. Some have special needs because of a disability: they may need technical aids as well as accessible design. Most people now have high expectations, not just of libraries, but of services generally. They bring their experiences of other buildings - notably retail and entertainment - into the library with them. The need for visual appeal has led to a 'retail' approach in public libraries. Many lessons learned from supermarket design have been successfully applied to libraries. SpaceSpace - library sites as well as the internal spaces - is a critical issue in a number of ways. The characteristics and availability of suitable sites (or in the case of many cities their lack of availability) has a major influence on design. Scarcity of land in metropolitan areas has also encouraged local authorities to locate more than one facility on the same site. In the past it was common to see community facilities scattered around the local government area. These facilities might include community halls, galleries, museums, baby health centres, meals on wheels services, youth clubs, senior citizens' centres, scout and guide halls, recreation centres, neighbourhood centres and child care centres, as well as libraries. Nowadays the possibility of co-location is examined very closely where circumstances permit. A single large building can be easier to construct, to keep secure and to maintain than several smaller buildings. Sharing car parks, foyers and other common spaces can also make economic sense. Co-located facilities may be more convenient for the community. They may also enable a wide variety of people visiting other facilities to be drawn into contact with the library on a regular basis. Co-location may mean symbiotic relationships. There may be a diversity of services on offer, with the community as the common core. It is significant that in some localities co-location is bringing local government into co-operative arrangements with the state government - there is more than one example of a library sharing a building with a police station or an area health centre. In May 2004 a New South Wales Parliamentary Committee began an inquiry into joint use and co-location of local government facilities with State Government public buildings.[4] Some of the success stories in co-location have involved libraries. More and more libraries are being located in shopping centres, often as a result of a deal between the local authority and a developer. Shopping centre owners are aware of the large numbers of people who come into libraries, and therefore into their shopping centres, each day. We used to say that the best site for a public library was next to Woolworths. Nowadays it seems the best place for a Woolworths is next to the library. Of course shopping centre space may be expensive and there is usually pressure to keep the size of 'mall' libraries to a minimum. Even so, they can be very effective branch libraries, giving a taste of what is available at a larger central library, or catering for a particular target group within the community. Land values are also encouraging local authorities to try to realise as fully as possible the potential of sites which they own when they have to replace or upgrade community infrastructure. In New South Wales four very large civic renewal projects are currently on the drawing board - at Albury, Chatswood, Newcastle and Parramatta. These projects will involve the regeneration of entire city blocks with public libraries as major 'anchor tenants' in all four schemes. The catalyst for at least one of these projects was the need to replace or extend an outgrown library building. There is no evidence that less space is needed. On the contrary a variety of new functions demands even more space. Growth areas include group study, training, volunteers, meetings and seminars, exhibitions and other public programs, with some spaces accessible even when the library is closed. Population growth, particularly in metropolitan areas, adds to floorspace requirements. Several projects under way at the moment are tripling the floor areas of the 1970s and 1980s buildings they are replacing. Even with large increases in floor area, we are still looking to make the best use of space. Whenever possible spaces are designed for more than one function, accepting that some compromises in the performance of multifunction spaces may be necessary. Realising the potential of available sites and making the most of the floor areas which can be afforded are certainly common themes in current public library planning in New South Wales. CostsFunding new library buildings has never been easy. In New South Wales there is some assistance in new release and growth areas - localities where major new developments are taking place - when new libraries are being built as part of the infrastructure. Section 94 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) provides for developers to make a contribution to help meet the cost of the increased demand on public infrastructure which their developments will generate. This infrastructure can include library buildings, equipment and collections. In areas where little new development is occurring, funding is much more difficult. The price of land and competition for sites with retail and commercial developments compounds the difficulty. Funding is also very difficult in some rural areas, where the local government area may be affected by a low rate base, by drought, by declining populations and by rising costs. There are some opportunities for grant funding for public library buildings in New South Wales, notably the annual Library Development Grants. The maximum grant obtainable is $200 000 and competition for grants is always very strong. Interest in construction and commissioning costs of new libraries has meant much more intensive scrutiny of designs. Closer attention is paid to preliminary planning and design briefs, with greater use made of specialist consultants. Value management is sometimes applied to the design. Local government authorities have adopted the principles of ecologically sustainable development (ESD) and this is reflected in many new library designs. The life-cycle cost of a building is examined much more frequently than before, not just the cost of construction. Economic benefits of co-location were mentioned earlier. Some local authorities are able to include a revenue-generating component in a development, such as a café, bookshop or gymnasium. Rising staff costs are also having an impact on design in several ways. The continuing importance of interaction between staff and users is recognised as a key user need, and a welcoming face close to the entrance is a feature of successful new public libraries. Nonetheless there are opportunities for self service and automation of routine tasks to be adopted in many libraries, enabling stable staff numbers to serve growing user numbers and larger buildings. ConclusionIdentifying user needs, determining space and site requirements, and assessing costs are key issues, particularly at the early stages of a new public library building project. Publications such as People places: a guide for public library buildings in New South Wales can assist the planning process.[5] People places was the result of a desire to describe a planning framework, to endorse a consultative planning process, to set out good design principles and to provide benchmarks (which are really space standards) based on forecast populations and the services provided. The theme of assessment of user needs appears to have struck a chord in New South Wales. Today there is more community consultation on public libraries than ever before ever and the public reception of post-People places buildings is very encouraging. The greatest challenge in public library building projects is certainly the economic one, as funds remain limited and costs steadily rise. Our greatest asset is people: the current healthy library building scene is a tribute to library champions in the community and among elected representatives and council officers, as well as to committed library managers. The importance of the library is acknowledged, even when budgets are tight. There may be vigorous debate about where the library should be located and what it should look like. But few people will argue that the library building is not needed. Footnotes
Biographical information Dr David J Jones has worked at the State Library of New South Wales since 1970. He co-ordinated the Library's new building and refurbishing project between 1983 and 1988 and is now Library Building consultant and principal of the Building and Planning Advisory Service. Since 1989 he has worked on over 200 library building projects in Australia and overseas.
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