Public Library Flashback - Poole

Just to resolve questions about my sanity, I did not start touring libraries as soon as I landed in the UK. Actually, I took a holiday break in the seaside town of Poole, and everything went swimmingly until the rainy day I went to the mall. And on the top level of the mall, inconspicuous from the outside, was the public library of the future - and boy, was that annoying.

I recently took a course on the design of public libraries, with an international student roster. While the goal of the class was to design ground-breaking public libraries, we were handicapped by our lack of knowledge about international libraries practices. We were ignorant of the best instances of the library of the present, such as this library in Poole. Despite IFLA and other international professional organizations, one big gap in library scholarship and library school education is comparative international studies.

In the process of reviewing each other's work for novelty, we recognized our lack of knowledge of international public library design. U.S. students learned that Australian, British and New Zealand libraries were already integral to the local government, sometimes providing staffed health services and local records. Governments in these countries had studied social inclusion ad nauseum and used the findings in the design of services. Even more exciting to the puritans, some libraries in other countries contained cafes that served wine! Meanwhile, the bold architectural statements and technology of U.S. libraries design surprised students from other countries.

I hope librarians to realize that by learning about other countries we can play leapfrog when designing libraries, instead of painstakingly reinventing old solutions.

Coming up next - so what was in that library in Poole, anyway?