The Unique Challenges of Library Design

Library design is different from all of my other industry disciplines.  I actually started out with the intent to design for residential clients.  But then I got a taste of commercial design when I worked my internship for a local commercial architectural firm while I was in my senior year of design school at Brenau University.  Once that happened, my entire plan for a future in the Interior Design world shifted dramatically.  I knew commercial was where I wanted to be and I knew I could grow and thrive there.

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What I did NOT see coming was my desire to specialize in the Library industry.  And while it makes so much sense to me now, it was not the most obvious next step at the time.  I actually started out doing a lot of church work; which I loved.  My first major project was a youth area for a church in Vidalia, Georgia and it was a fun project.  They let me tap into my creative mind and didn't put a whole lot of limitations on me.  So we packed that space with colorful digital wallcoverings that depicted familiar Bible stories and even got to design a 3 Dimensional Boat front for a check-in desk.  

This project and other youth projects that would eventually come my way, gave me the desire to delve into children's spaces more frequently.  Adult spaces are wonderful, don't get me wrong.  I love to put together a useful, functional and beautiful office space, medical building, government offices, that people can work in every day and feel good in the space they're in.  

But children's spaces almost always lend themselves to so much more creativity and excitement.

Years into my career, I was introduced to my first Library project and it was such an amazing experience.  The Library professionals on that team I was working with were some of my best clients to this day.  I learned so much about the Library industry and why it takes more than just a building designer to design these detailed buildings.  They taught me just as much, if not more, than I taught them about the design industry.  

And it was this project that set my Library design career in motion.

But most people don't realize all that encompasses a full Library design project.  For starters, a Library, more specifically a public Library, must provide services for a multitude of users.  In an office building, you've typically got adult employees.  You might find yourself in a building that serves staff and customers.  Medical is generally staff and patients.  

But no other industry serves such a wide variety of people than a Library.  Granted, schools come pretty close.  But they're not usually as fun to design.

In a Library, you have staff members and volunteers.  You have your adult patrons but in that group alone, you have different age groups that must be considered when designing your space.  You have children, but again they come in all different ages and developmental stages of life that require very specific design to meet their needs.  Then you have your teens and tweens that need to be separate from children as well as adults and all of this must be crammed into what is generally never enough space.

When designing a Library, the programming phase of design is often the most tedious and time-consuming part of the project.  EVERY SINGLE SPACE and program must be thought through so nothing is missed when the final building is opened up to the public. 

Just to give you some perspective, assuming you're not already elbow-deep in your own Library design project, past, present or future, here are just a few of the spaces and needs that are often requested in our Libraries:

• Circulation
• Reference desks for adults, teens and children
• A/V
• Large print books
• Magazines
• Children, ages infant to tweens
• Tweens and teens
• Storytime rooms
• Study rooms (never enough of these)
• Storage (like it's going out of style)
• Café spaces sometimes
• Friends of the Library rooms for sorting and storing
• Adult workrooms
• Youth workrooms
• Meeting rooms
• Genealogy rooms
• Technology rooms
• Computer training rooms
• Office space for staff
• Breakrooms
• Restrooms of course, but don't forget family restrooms too
• Conference rooms
• Janitor areas
• Mechanical and electrical
• Elevator rooms
• Plumbing risers
• Shipping and receiving
• IT room with server racks
• Book drops, both inside and outside
• Multi-purpose rooms

And these are just a few.  I feel sure you can think of 12 more that didn't make this list.  

The Library industry carries a myriad of disciplines and all of them must be considered and designed for appropriately.  Shelving systems alone could be their own specialty when you get right down to it.  Which is why working with specialized Library designers is so very important.  

But it's also why putting together the perfect design team from your own staff members is such a vital role to developing the Library that will serve your community best.  No one knows your Library like you do.  Not even the best of professional designers.  Having that perfect combination of both will give you your best outcome.  

I absolutely love designing for Libraries.  Getting to know the people that will be using these spaces teaches me something new every single time.  But the thing I learn without fail with each and every new project, is how vastly different all of these buildings can be and how no two are ever the same.

I have now designed multiple Libraries and am running an online Library design program that teaches courses on all the different aspects of Library design.  I'm even coaching Library professionals through their own spaces.  And while this isn't the exact vision I had of my design career when I started my first job as a design intern, I am so pleased with the work I get to do.  Helping people design better Libraries for their communities is something I take great pride in.  And in the meantime I'm having a blast doing it.