Libraries - A Design Manual

The library is a service institution. A collection made accessible to a particular community, the library is defined by its contents and the society it serves. The development of the library is inextricably linked with the evolution of these two elements.

As the concepts of the collection and its accessibility shift through time with cycles of seminal discoveries and the changes brought about by such inventions, they redefine the library s role in society. In the handbook Libraries - A Design Manual by experts Nolan Lushington, Lilian Wong, and Wolfgang Rudorf readers are presented with the various conversations and intricacies when it comes to designing a library.

Containing international case studies from the late 1990s to the present, Libraries - A Design Manual is a handbook on the design and the planning of libraries a particularly prestigious design task that underwent significant changes since the introduction of digital technology in the late 1990s. Comprehensive contributions by experts from architecture and library science - Nolan Lushington, Lilian Wong, and Wolfgang Rudorf each analyze specific aspects of the building type. A typology of some 40 exemplary international projects provides inspiration and a range of options.

Studying the evolution of the role of libraries within society, from a private resource to living room of the city, Libraries - A Design Manual brings to the forefront the multiplicity of roles of the modern-day library and its intertwining design.