Preparing for the April 8 Glendale community meeting on renovation plans for the Central Library, I reviewed my notes on two books recently borrowed from the library:
The Architecture of Knowledge: The Library of the Future, checked out in print form
The Architecture of Happiness, downloaded from the 3M Cloud Library
Learning, reading, and synthesizing information are all essential for civic life, but how will they be conducted and experienced in digital age public libraries? The first book reports on a 2009 symposium addressing these issues. One contributor noted that a public library symbolizes a repository of history and culture extending far beyond any one individual’s capacity for reading and learning. Therefore a public reading space / collection communicates the need for and extent of knowledge. Other contributors explored the relationship between new media and society, offering insights for collection display and management, as well as reading and learning spaces.
The second book, read electronically and then checked out in hard copy form (to view its many photographs), discusses how architecture encourages and sustains ways of life. Author Alain de Botton calls the architectural impulse “a longing for communication and commemoration, a longing to declare ourselves to the world…” Libraries are a public expression of these impulses. de Botton also stresses that discussions about architecture should center on ways designs will best promote values, rather than on strictly visual aspects.
Check out these books, and many others on design, architecture, libraries, the digital age and more. And be sure to come to the April 8 community meeting to learn how Glendale’s Library Arts and Culture Department is planning to renovate and update its Central Library space for the digital age.