The Planning of Libraries

There can be few projects in an architect's career so calculated to stir the imagination as the design of a library. Its purpose is noble, its planning complex. It is surprising and disappointing that so often reality falls short of expectation, and that, faced with the problems of function, the architect sometimes finds solutions that are out of date, unsuitable, or obviously impractical. We can all of us name examples. The medium‐sized public library in England, one of the most beautiful in elevation, that was, just before World War II, designed for the installation of an indicator. The post‐war University library which has so much glass that two public rooms are virtually uninhabitable in summer. The lovely public library designed by Lutyens that had, also, no staff working space whatever.