Identify and understand emerging trends in library design and library interiors, while becoming a more critical observer of contemporary library spaces.
Understand the process of working with library consultants, architects, and contractors.
Apply sustainable design strategies and biophilic principles for libraries.
Understanding frameworks for shaping library environments for the next generations of library users.
Explore emerging models and evolving changes in library environments, considering how recent service models, information/communication technology, and community considerations influence contemporary library facility design.
This program is intended for architects and librarians, library staff, and trustees and examines the evolving role and configuration of the physical library in the 21st century, with an additional emphasis on translating essential design principles into built projects.
The course is envisioned as a forum for developing our understanding of future library facilities as:
We will consider how future library buildings can do this while being permanent artifacts of contemporary culture and a moldable environment that stays constantly current and locally relevant. The course is structured to include a site visit, expert in-class presentations and discussions, and group exercises and reviews as we conceive lasting opportunities for library spaces for the coming decades.
We will collectively discuss and determine emerging service initiatives developing along the trajectory of 21st-century library evolution. With this background, we will visit the recently renovated Boston Public Library via guided tour.
Then, using our on-site observations, we will do in-class group exercises to explore frameworks for enhancing spaces to resonate with emerging initiatives.
Additionally, we will explore the influence of external forces shaping library environments, including increasing diverse communities, sustainability, and biophilic design.
For past attendees of this program, we encourage you to return for a once-in-a-lifetime tour of the Boston Public Library, and an all-new session on capital projects in library design, led by Wendy Tressler, President 2023-2024 and Past President 2024-2025 of ALA Core.
