Better Library and Learning Space

Informed and informative, Better Library and Learning Spaces: Projects, trends and ideas is an invaluable and seminal contribution to the field of Library Science and is highly recommended for professional and academic library reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

-- Midwest Book Review

This book is a must-read for anyone involved in planning a new build library, redesigning an existing library or evaluating the use of space. It will be of interest to many disciplines beyond librarianship, including educators, learners and policymakers.

-- CILIP Health Libraries Group Newsletter

Editor Watson, a consultant in technology-enhanced learning environments, gathers 24 librarians, architects, designers, educators, and educational technologists to explore emerging ideas and innovative projects in the design of library spaces for learning. Real-life projects and trends are profiled in the UK, China, the US, Hong Kong, Europe, and Australasia. Trends examined include the learning studio as media-age library, learning landscapes at the University of Lincoln, and library and learning furniture of today and tomorrow. The book includes many b&w photos of buildings, indoor spaces, furniture, and equipment. Its readership includes librarians and LIS services managers in public school, academic, and specialist libraries. The book will also be of interest to architects and interior designers. The editor teaches at the University of Lincoln.

-- Reference and Research Book News

Better Library and Learning Space: Projects, trends and ideas should prove a very useful contribution to library space planning, in particular for university and college libraries, the main focus of the book...it can be recommended to library managers who would welcome advice on designing 'new library learning space [which] has the potential to excite and inspire'.

-- An Leabharlann

It should be noted that this book is not a how-to guide for planning and developing library and learning space. Rather it is intended to encourage re-thinking library and learning spaces, especially around softer values such as creativity that are much harder to assess. There is frequent reference to creating the "wow" factor in these spaces: this is evidenced in the case studies, but also balanced by considerations of how library users use the space and how architecture and design can enhance or detract from the use of the space, particularly in terms of conversational spaces. Though useful for anyone about to embark on the design or redesign of a library space, it is also useful for librarians to help them examine whether their own library space is indeed a learning space.

-- Australian Academic & Research Libraries