A library for all times: Malmo's new public library as vision and reality.

A library for all times: Malmo's new public library as vision and reality by Sven Nilsson. Stockholm, Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs 1997 179pp price unknown ISBN 91 38 31207 7.

Obtainable from WildellGruppen Malmo, Box 4060, S-203 11 Malmo, Sweden or from CE Fritzes AB, S-106 47 Stockholm, Sweden

Malmo is the major commercial centre of southern Sweden, and with a quarter of a million inhabitants its third most populous municipality. In May 1997, after many years of planning and not a little controversy, Malmo celebrated the opening of its new public library. The city library had spent the first half of this century in seven rooms of a hotel, until a castle-like former museum building was converted for its use in 1946. By the 1960s the `castle' was bursting at the seams, and the future of the library became a protracted political issue for the municipality's 61 councillors. In 1992 there was a limited architectural competition for a new building, won by the Danish architect Henning Larsen with an unashamedly modern glazed cube linked by a cylindrical building to the existing historic library.

Construction started in 1994, with police protection required at one stage because environmentalists protested against the impact of the building on its park setting. Stage 1, the new building, opened three years later, and Stage 2, the refurbishing of the historic building, was completed last year. It was worth the effort. The new building reveals itself to the world through a seventeen metre high glass facade, offering its occupants a `calendar of light' varying with the seasons, from high summer's golden glow to the diffused whiteness of a winter's day, and the ever changing colouration of the foliage in the neighbouring park.

A library for all times is a celebration and an exploration of the new library and the years of planning which brought it to fruition, through the words of some of the main participants, quotations from key briefing documents and lively photographs by Merja Vesquez Diaz. The prospect of a new building often precipitates changes to work methods and philosophies, and it is clear that from the very beginning of the project those involved relished the opportunity to free themselves and their users from the straitjacket of their old building. The library already had something of a progressive tradition: there had even been time and motion studies to help devise new work methods, and in the 1990s productivity had already increased by 100%.

A critical issue was the expected growth in demand for the new facility. How could a limited staff cope with four times the floor area, and the expected 1.5 million loans and 1.5 million visitors each year? In meeting this challenge a starting point was the conviction that `most people simply want to manage on their own in the library' (p100) and that most users were hunters, browsers and grazers. Staff could be deployed to concentrate on satisfying needs which could not be met by signage, computerised instruction and direction, brochures and easily apprehended layout of services and resources. Self service thus became a necessary primary objective, carried to its logical conclusion not only by self service loans but also by self service returns and two robots sorting returns at a rate of 1200 items per hour in their own sorting chamber.

The new building prompted a change of mindset and a questioning of many traditional library layout and organisational principles. This led to grouping of resources by subject rather than by form, an approach flowing from study of patterns of use. Layouts needed enough organisation to find one's way around but not enough to become boring. Signage became secondary to logical organisation, with a simple hierarchical system, sparing use and very close attention to colour; placement, typeface selection, size and visibility. Similarly the nature of study space--there are 1000 seats in the library--required rethinking. The resulting mix of formal and informal seating sprang from close study of learning and study modes and preferences.

The design of furniture and fittings came in for close attention. Prototyping was employed extensively to assist the final design of workstations and shelving. Full scale models and samples were installed in a test room. Judging by the illustrations the results speak for themselves: stylish and apparently functional, as one would expect from Scandinavian design. There are slender antennae ending in light pods to illuminate shelving in high ceiling areas. Wiring disappears into furniture at desktop level and links to the access floor below. Shelving breaks away from the cantilever stereotype, equally able to accommodate faceout displays, locked cabinets and tilted bottom shelves. It all looks as if it works, and what is more, it resounds with quality and taste.

The book has a very practical approach to the diversity of its subject matter, which ranges from studies of user behaviour--Malmo certainly knows its customers extremely well--to intricacies of IT configuration. We learn how environmentally friendly it is with its solid oak floor, limestone foyer, linoleum and energy efficient heat pumps. We read of the site and its constraints--historic buildings, high water table, precious parkland and nearby lake. But this is much more than a prosaic exposition of the building and the mechanical process of translating brief into reality. The book delves into the philosophy of the conceivers of the project, the nature of users, the potential of the network of which Malmo is a key part, the changing information environment and the quest for `high technological efficiency and humanist values' (p49). Little by little the thinking behind the building is revealed to us, and the economic and social background which helped to drive its design.

`The economy has forced us to create perhaps the world's most efficient large library,' declares former city librarian Sven Nilsson, the author of several chapters in this fascinating miscellany (p155). It has not been an easy process politically or practically. There were anxious moments. For example, when fire authorities demanded that shelving units have their own sprinklers because of the high ceilings in certain areas, a ruling waived when the project team's own investigations demonstrated that books were not intrinsically hazardous. Nor must it have been easy to secure funding for this 9350 square metre net (14,000 square metre gross) building, which cost 243 million krona (A$45 million) to construct and fit out. But just look at what they have got for their money. Readers in designer lounge chairs looking out upon the glinting foliage of the park in the background. Mini lights in the foyer shining through the reflection of the setting sun like early evening stars. The simple good taste and functionality of the fittings and furniture. The obvious quality of the finishes. The clear attention to detail.

Will it be `a library for all times'? Time will tell, but it certainly contains much of the best today has to offer, and this book neatly encapsulates the project from concept to completion. And you should definitely put the city library on your itinerary if you are ever fortunate enough to be within cooee of Malmo.

Dr David Jones Library Building Consultant State Library of New South Wales