subject: library space
library as place
role of library
Scott Bennett
Sam Demas
Geoffrey Freeman
Bernard Frischer
Kathleen Burr Oliver
Christina Peterson
CLIR Press Releases
For Immediate Release: March 7, 2005
Contact: Kathlin Smith ksmith@clir.org
202-939-4754
Library as Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space
WASHINGTON, D.C.What is the role of a library when users can obtain information from any location? And what does this role change mean for the creation and design of library space? Six authorsan architect, four librarians, and a humanities professorexplore these questions in the new CLIR publication Library as Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space. In their essays, the authors challenge us to think about new potential for the place we call the library and underscore the growing importance of the library as a space for teaching, learning, and research in the digital age.
Contributors include Geoffrey Freeman, a principal with the architectural firm Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott; Scott Bennett, Yale University librarian emeritus and author of Libraries Designed for Learning; Sam Demas, college librarian and senior lecturer at Carleton College; Bernard Frischer, professor of art history and classics and director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia; Kathleen Burr Oliver, associate director of Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University; and Christina A. Peterson, academic services librarian at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San José. The authors provide diverse visions of the library, its services, and its space at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Library as Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space is written for librarians and others involved in library planning as well as for those who invest in libraries, such as provosts, presidents, and business officers. It is available free of charge at https://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub129abst.html. Print copies will soon be available for ordering through CLIR’s Web site, for $20 per copy plus shipping and handling.
The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the management of information for research, teaching, and learning. CLIR works to expand access to information, however recorded and preserved, as a public good.
