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| Issue 5 Home | Editorial | Features | Regular Columns | News & Events | Misc. | ||
By Godfrey Oswald - October 2001
Have you ever wondered which university in the world has the largest library? Do you the name of Europe’s oldest public library? What year was the first CD-ROM book released? What was the name of the first library school in Europe for training librarians? When was the first major computer database released? To find the answers of these questions, you are probably will first think about the well known Guinness Book of Records, but it does not cover a lot of information about libraries, however all the answers are actually in a new book soon to be published, and called The Book of Library Records. Godfrey Oswald, the author, enlightens us.
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The Book of Library Records started way back in 1997 on the web as the Info Connect List of Library Records. It was subsequently updated again in 1999 on the web. Due to its popularity, work started on a book version in early 2000. But the old 1999 web version is still on the Internet [1] (though many records listed are now out of date).
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| The National Library of Germany The National Library of Germany or the Die Deutches Bibliothek is based in Frankfurt not Berlin the nation's capital. It was formed in 1990 following the merging of the former East German National Library in Leipzig (Deutches Bucherei) with the Deutches Bibliothek in former West Germany. There is no sign outside telling you that its a national library, so for first visitors to the city passing by the building, it looks rather like a university. |
A lot of inspiration for writing the book actually came from e-mails from readers of the old Internet version who wondered if another update was forthcoming and perhaps as a book this time around. At the time I was receiving the e-mails, I contemplated the pros and cons of embarking on a book version, because of the enormity of the research project involved, but realization that a book version would be very beneficial, galvanized me to start work. In the course of compiling the book, countless trips were made to libraries all over the UK and Europe. While extra information and data came in the from of e-mails from all over the world as far as Singapore, Alaska, Oman, Cuba, South Africa, Brazil, Jamaica, India to name a few. And not just from librarians, but also students, lecturers, and businessmen. Just about everyone who heard about the ongoing book project on the internet grapevine and was curious sent in something!
In the course of writing the book, every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, in particular all dates and volume of books given are official or estimated and verified from several independent and reliable sources.
One of the new entries for the ongoing book project has been focused on the most fascinating library buildings in the world.
As we may appreciate library buildings are nowadays are as fascinating as their book collections. Often the appearance of a building outside gives us some insight of what to expect inside. In fact every second year since 1988, the International Federation of Library Associations, the IFLA, holds The International Seminar on Library Buildings, The seminar is open to anybody interested in library buildings. The 13th seminar was held in 2001. One frightening question asked by a guest speaker at the 1999 seminar in Shanghai, China was: So do we still need buildings to store library materials, now that we can digitize them? There was a sign of relief when the speaker said yes!
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| The National Library of France This is the National Library of France new building in southern Paris. It was established in 1994, and from 1996 the first reading rooms was opened to the public. The library building is actually composed of 4 separate skyscrapers, all facing each other and a nice big garden in the centre. |
During the months of March and April 2001, I specifically sent out e-mails to several Internet based bulletin boards for librarians around the world, asking for a vote on the most fascinating library buildings in the world.
The four new categories voted for were:
a. 10 Most fascinating national library buildings in the world.
b. 10 Most fascinating university library buildings in the world.
c. 10 Most fascinating public library buildings in the world.
d. 10 Most fascinating special library buildings in the world.
Each respondent voted for one or more of the four categories.
The response for my request for votes was beyond my expectations. I received over 279 e-mails in the 2-month period, with some still arriving late. The origin of e-mails received was diverse as expected with any communication on the Internet, thus making the search for the most fascinating library buildings in the world a truly global quest!
What really makes a library building fascinating? The size of the building, the shape of the building, the age of the building? Perhaps the architecture of the building is groundbreaking, or perhaps it is simply a very expensive library building!
While I will not reveal the results of the votes for the most fascinating library buildings in the world, until the publication of the book later this year, the old 1999 Internet edition of the Book of Library Records does give some insight to the diversity of library buildings around the world. For instance, Sao Paulo Municipal Library (or the Mario de Andrade Library), in Brazil, has the tallest skyscraper library building in Latin America. This is significant because most of the skyscrapers in this city (the financial nerve center of Brazil), are either banks or corporate buildings. Across the other side of the world, in the National Library of China, Beijing, the main building is the largest single library building in the world, giving 140,000 square meters of floor space. [2], [3].
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| The University of Massachusetts Library - The tallest library in the world. Image courtesy of University of Massachusetts Library, Amherst |
I will resist here for once, the temptation to at least provide some information on one votes for the fascinating university library buildings in the world received. It is a vote for the University of Massachusetts Library, in Amherst in the United States. According to the voter in the also based in the US, (and later verified by myself from three independent sources at the British Library), this American academic library, which opened in 1973, is the holder of the “prestigious” title of the tallest library building in the world. It has 28 floors, scaling over 295 feet from the base. Now how many bank buildings in the UK have more than 20 floors? But grand as the building might be, can you imagine if a librarian at the University of Massachusetts Library told you that a text book you urgently needed for your exams due in a few hours time, was on the 28th floor and the lift had broken down!
My own vote for the most fascinating public library building in the world went to the Peckham Public Library in London. Its architectural design is breathtaking. In fact a new arrival to London would probably mistake the library building for a shopping mall or a big theatre.
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| Peckham Public Library Image courtesy of Alsop Architects Photograph taken by Roderick Coyne |
The search for the most fascinating library buildings in the world is over, if you you are eager to find out more, please wait for the book’s publication. Thank you.
Finally you may wonder if there will be a Book of Library
Records 2? Well certainly the first printed edition of the
Book of Library of Library Records, could not have listed
all possible mouth watering facts about libraries around the
world, so certainly a next all-new edition of the Book of
Library Records is in the pipeline. If you would like to
among the first to contribute to the Book of Library Records
2, the e-mail address is: infolibrary@yahoo.co.uk
Remember to use the subject heading: Book of Library records 2. All e-mails will be individually acknowledged.
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Godfrey Oswald, BSc, MSc.
I am an information scientist based in London, UK. I hold a
biomedical first degree from London University, and a masters
degree in Information Science, from City University, London.
Although my specialised interest is in online biomedical
information retrieval, by expanding my horizons, my information
science / librarianship career has over the years been in
multi-disciplinary fields, which has included professional work
in law and academic libraries, as well as specialised libraries
and information centres in the pharmaceutical, business and
biomedical fields. Apart from being the author of the Info
Connect LIS Directory (http://www.geocities.com/infolibrary/Page1.htm
) and
the Internet edition of the Book of Library Records , (http://www.geocities.com/infolibrary/Page16.htm
)
first written in 1997 and updated in 1999, I contributed for the
recently published ASLIB book Tips and Tricks for Web Site
Managers. ISBN. 0851424392 (http://www.webtipsandtricks.com/contributors.html
).
(Published April 2001).
My current ongoing book project is the printed version of the Book of Library Records.
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For citation purposes:
Oswald, G. "The Search for the most Fascinating Library Buildings in the World", Cultivate Interactive, issue
5, 1 October 2001
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/buildings/>
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