BOSTON — An old joke about libraries goes
like this: A boy walks into a library and asks for a burger and fries. “Young
man!” the startled librarian reprimands. “You are in a library.” So the boy
repeats his order, only this time, he whispers.
So much has changed in libraries in recent
years that such a scene may not be so far-fetched. Many libraries have become
bustling community centers where talking out loud and even eating are perfectly
acceptable.
The Boston Public Library, which was founded
in 1848 and is the oldest public urban library in the country, is moving rapidly
in that direction. With a major renovation underway, this Copley Square
institution is breaking out of its granite shell to show an airier, more
welcoming side to the passing multitudes. Interior plans include new retail
space, a souped-up section for teenagers, and a high-stool bar where patrons can
bring their laptops and look out over Boylston Street.
“You’ll be able to sit here and work and see
the world go by,” said Amy Ryan, president of the library, on a recent tour.
“We’re turning ourselves outward.”
Such plans might shock anyone who thought
that in the digital age, libraries — those hushed sanctuaries of the past — had
gone the way of the Postal Service.
“Just the opposite,” said Susan Benton,
president and chief executive of the Urban Libraries Council. “Physical visits
and virtual visits are off the charts.”
At Boston’s central library alone, the number
of physical visits jumped to 1.72 million in 2013, up by almost half a million
from 2012.
Library usage has increased across the
country for a variety of reasons, librarians say, including the recession, the
availability of new technology and because libraries have been reimagining
themselves — a necessity for staying relevant as municipal budgets are slashed
and e-books are on the rise. Among the more innovative is the Chicago Public
Library, which offers a free Maker
Lab, with access to 3-D printers, laser cutters and milling machines. The
Lopez Island Library in Washington State offers musical instruments for
checkout. In upstate New York, the Library Farm in Cicero, part of the
Northern Onondaga Public Library, lends out plots of land on which
patrons can learn organic growing practices.
“This is what’s happening at a lot of
libraries, the creation of an open, physical environment,” said Joe Murphy, a
librarian and library futures consultant based in Reno, Nev. “The idea of being
inviting isn’t just to boost attendance but to maximize people’s
creativity.”
Libraries have long facilitated the “finding”
of information, he said. “Now they are facilitating the creating of
information.”
That will be evident at the Boston library’s
new section for teenagers. Teen Central is to become what is known as “homago”
space — where teenagers can “hang out, mess around and geek out.” It will
include lounges, restaurant booths, game rooms and digital labs, as well as
software and equipment to record music and create comic books. The vibe will be
that of an industrial loft, with exposed pipes and polished concrete floors,
what Ms. Ryan called “eco-urban chic.”
“The sand is shifting under our business,”
she said.
“When I started out in the ’70s, you would
walk up to the reference desk and ask a question and I would find an answer.
Today it’s the opposite. People turn to librarians to help them sift through the
10 million answers they find on the Internet. We’re more like navigators.”
At least the Boston library will still
feature books. One library, in San Antonio, has done away with them. The BiblioTech
is nothing but rows of computers, e-readers and an “iPad bar.”
Its goal is the same as that of traditional
libraries: To help patrons access information. But whether the community will
take to it is another question. The Santa Rosa branch library
in Tucson went all digital in 2002, but a few years later, it brought back
books. A lot of content was not available digitally, and patrons wanted
print.
While e-books are gaining popularity, print
is still king. In 2012, 28 percent of adults nationwide read an e-book,
according to the Pew Research Center, while 69 percent read a print book. Only 4
percent of readers are “e-book only,” the center reported.
In Boston, the physical changes reflect the
evolving nature of libraries. All renovations are to the Johnson building,
designed by Philip Johnson and opened in 1972, when libraries were more monastic
and inward looking.
William L. Rawn III, the architect whose firm
is overseeing the project, said his goal was the opposite, to “get the energy of
the city into the library and the energy of the library out to the city.”
The Johnson building was built as an addition
to the original, much-loved classic library, which contains stunning features
like Bates Hall, its cathedral-like main reading room.
The addition is an imposing, gray granite
behemoth whose floor-to-ceiling windows are blocked from street view by 112
large vertical granite slabs that ring the outside of the building. The entryway
is an empty cavern with all the warmth of an armed fortress.
“The big granite walls inside are incredibly
stultifying,” Mr. Rawn said. “That space is just a miserable space to walk
through. It’s like you’re traversing a DMZ.”
The reimagined lobby will have an open lounge
area with new books and casual seating, and retail space, which could be
anything, Ms. Ryan said, “from a coffee shop to a high-tech experimental outlet
to an exercise space with stationary bikes.”
The exterior has been declared a landmark, so
the Boston Landmarks Commission must approve each change. But plans now call for
the removal of 95 of the granite slabs, so the lounge and retail space will be
visible from the street, and for the tinted glass to be replaced with clear
glass, brightening the interior.
Clifford V. Gayley, a principal architect in
Mr. Rawn’s firm, said the new entryway would create a sense of “porosity,” with
“easy flow in and out.”
As it happens, the entrance, on Boylston
Street, is close to the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where bombs last
year killed three people and injured more than 260 others. With this wound at
their front door, the architects are even more determined for the library to be
inviting.
“This is a strong statement of pride in the
city and its civic life, in spite of what happened across the street,” Mr.
Gayley said. “The library is opening its doors and not retreating behind solid
walls.”
from: NY Times
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