28 | SPECIAL REPORT: LIBR ARIES | CAMPUS SERVICES
LIBRARIES ARE USUALLY synonymous with three things: books, space, and silence. Even while freshers’ week brings in teenagers looking to toy with social tact, the library still acts as a safe haven for solitary study. But since the digital revolution, many universities have started latching on to the idea of the 'learning space'. These open study areas embrace sound – from tapping keys to background banter, it’s all proof that people are learning. No wonder then, that most modern university libraries like to welcome students to sit, chat and collaborate down on the ground floor, while the sound dissipates between the bookshelves upstairs. The University of Leeds have taken
this approach with the layout for their new Laidlaw Library. The building will provide 1,000 new study areas, with the quiet, individual spaces nestled between the books on the second and third floors, while the first floor offers both large teaching rooms and smaller student support spaces for people to speak to staff and faculty members. On the ground level, meanwhile, are the group work areas, with a café and courtyard providing somewhere to take a break. “Naturally there will be lots of PCs and Wi-Fi throughout,” says Stella Butler, University Librarian and Keeper of the Brotherton Collection at Leeds. “But we are also providing cuting-edge technology to allow students to connect and share information from whatever sort of mobile device they normally use – laptops, tablets and smartphones.” Leeds have already shown an eye for
flair when it comes to library design in the past: their Edward Boyle Library benefits from Brutalist walkways branching out overhead, while the Grade II listed Brotherton Library is home to a grand Beaux-Arts central study area.But Laidlaw Library, which is due to open this spring, focuses more on function than form. “The new building [will have] equal emphasis on access to core undergraduate texts (both physical and electronic), study spaces to meet a variety of needs and styles, and services which help students develop their academic skills,” says Butler. The library is named after Irvine
Laidlaw, a wealthy alumnus who recently donated £9m to the project. His donation is one of thousands given towards the University’s Making a World of Difference Campaign, which seeks to raise £60m to help with key research projects at the University while also providing support to underprivileged children
“What we needed to do was to provide the kind of library that students needed going forward for the next 50 years”
looking to gain a place at the University. Whereas Leeds already have two
beautifully designed libraries to rely on, the University of Birmingham is going back to the drawing board. Back in 2009, they selected Birmingham-based group Associated Architects to do a feasibility study on improving the existing library from the 1950s, and the group came to the conclusion that it would cause too much disruption and time to refurbish the old building. Beter, then, to demolish
it and start over. “The building just wasn’t serving [the students’] needs,” says Diane Job, Director of Library Services at the University. “For instance, students need to be able to plug their laptops in, but an awful lot of our individual study spaces [at the old library] don’t have plug sockets. What we needed to do was to provide the kind of library that students needed going forward for the next 50 years.” Associated Architects set out to ensure that the finished product
Greenwich Stockwell Street Library interior © Paul Ellis. Exterior © Hufton Crow
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