Designing libraries round human beings

Libraries have traditionally been designed to fit the needs of printed materials and organisational processes that have evolved to handle them. Users have had to adjust to these systems. Also, because of the limitations of printed matter, the services offered were ‘bulk’ services, not easily adaptable to individual requirements. Developments in information technology lead users to have greater expectations and make more complex demands. In consequence, librarians are having to consider less what material they can collect and more what services users want. They therefore have to find out much more about how people operate when seeking and using information, and then to consider how they can supply them with the necessary information in the way they want it — which may be at least partly individualised.