Sleepless in Seattle
I’m just back from the fabulous ABA Bricks Bytes and Continuous Renovation conference, held at the University of Washington in Seattle. It was one of the most useful and practical conferences I have been to in a very long time, with some great speakers and tours of fabulous new libraries at the University itself, Seattle University, the new Federal Courthouse and also Microsoft’s Office of the Future. Great to hear librarians and architects talking about new building plans and what went right – and just as important, wrong, when building. What they would do differently if given the chance. People space cam through loud and clear as the most ‘desirable’ factor in building new law school libraries – a mix of seating styles frm silent solitary study to noisy group work spaces. Spaces where students could ‘encounter’ their professors (an idea not always welcome by said professors). Inclusion of cafe spaces – yes, its OK to eat and drink in the library. Sacrifice book space for people – put the books in compact shelving (and they had some verry nice ones at U Wash). Strongly consider getting rid of material readily available online – unless it damages your ABA rankings! And when planning a new space – have plenty of patience and be prepared for the long haul!
Did you get a chance to go to the new public library designed by Rem Koolhaas? It’s apparently fabulous — did everything right, say the librarians, readers and critics. This is a good New Yorker piece on it. http://www.newyorker.com/critics/skyline/?040524crsk_skyline
Yes, its really quite something.
I attended this conference as well. It was, I thought, quite stimulating as the speakers tied many of their speaking points to larger theoretical issues relaing to building and construction. I particularly liked the comments made by Janis Johnston, from the University of Illinois, who brought the discussion of print vs. electronic back to the basic foundation of academic libraries as a place where knowledge is created and preserved in whatever form.
I also liked Dick Danner’s approach that the law library represents a 3rd place in the law school, outside of classrooms and social spaces, where scholarship and study take place. He also had some common sense observations about the use of laptops and pda’s in clasrooms. There is a ongoing complaint that students are not listening in class, but checking email, text messaging, or surfing the web – but is this much different than the doodling and daydreaming that students did in the past?
I saw the Seattle Public Library as well – very impressive. I’m not sure I could work in the space – it had a noted absence of wood, which is odd for a public building on the west coast.
The library should be the agora of each legal community.