A paradigm shift at the end of 20th century has brought many changes to the public library. The concept, function and role of the public libraries have been impacted by the changes of social, cultural and informational environments. Previous studies o...
A paradigm shift at the end of 20th century has brought many changes to the public library. The concept, function and role of the public libraries have been impacted by the changes of social, cultural and informational environments. Previous studies on the public library have demonstrated the changes in the spatial system and spatial configuration of the library in a new era, but the studies on the spatial program are relatively lacking. In domestic policy, cultural and social environment have been developed according to the quantitative expansion of numbers of the public libraries after the year 2000. But the absence of proper guidelines reflecting new changes is the current situation.
In this reason, the study is conducted to the suggestion of the space program model, which could be used as a guideline for construction or renovation of the public libraries. Accordingly, this study examined and analyzed the data of space sizes of the Public Libraries in Korea. In terms of the period, the scope of this study is limited to the libraries after the year 2000. The 140 libraries were selected which correspond to 36% of the public libraries after 2000 and 18% of all public libraries in the country. The 20 libraries were selected from the 140 for the in-depth analysis. The foreign documents from IFLA, the United States, Australia, Spain, France, UK were investigated for the comparison and evaluation.
The traditional book-focused library has transformed to the concept of user-friendly library for communication and interaction. With the advent of the information revolution at the end of 20th century, space of the public library changed to the user-based multi-centric complex space. The spatial organization of the public library has transformed to liberalization and integration with multi functions. The public library functions as the community center for the local residents with the diversification through the convergence of various programs.
In terms of the facility program of the public library, the required spaces had been composed of the collection space and management space. With the recent social changes, the public library requires the additional cultural, educational, community space with diversified programs. The study examined the required spaces and the facility programs from the previous research papers, foreign documents on them, and the current situation of domestic libraries. The facility program of the public library is defined to the five sections, collection and reading, cultural and educational, non-public management, common use and additional section. The collection and reading section is consist of general collection area, digital information area and children’s area. Each areas include segmented areas, such as story-telling room, toddler’s library, A/V room, regional collection room, library for the disabled. The cultural and educational section is consist of class rooms, circle rooms, a multi-purpose hall, exhibition room, study room. The non-public management section is composed of a general office, director’s room, document room, meeting room, staff lounge, volunteer room, closed stack room. The common use section is comprised of a hall, corridors, stairs, elevators, toilets and lounges, cafes, restaurants. The additional section includes a machine room, storage and underground parking lots.
The sizes of program spaces from the 140 local public libraries have been analysed as follows. The ratio of collection and reading section is 35.8% in average, the cultural and educational section showed 19.4%, the non-public management section resulted 11.3% and the common use section, 33.5 %. The additional section is 17.8%. It should be considered as the additional part onto the aggregation of other four sections, because it varies according to the condition. The cultural and educational section with the various programs for local residents occupied 1/5 of the total floor area, which is different from the previous libraries.
The public libraries have hierarchical roles in region according to the size of the library. The public library can be divided into three ranges in terms of size, less than 1,700㎡, 1,700㎡~5,000㎡, more than 5,000㎡, considering the relevant laws, standards and previous studies. Specific characteristics were found according to the each division. As the total floor area increase, the ratio of collection and reading section decreases. In small libraries, the percentage of collection and reading is higher than the bigger ones to perform core function of public library as open archive of information. And the common use section, especially with the ratio of cafes and restaurants, increases to serve regional users. The non-public management section, especially with the ratio of the closed stack room, increases as the library takes a role of the main library of the regional network. The small libraries should provide various programs for local residents as it take a core role of community center.
Construction of the public library for a local community starts from the process reflecting the concept of regional planning. Accordingly, the service population in the local community is the most important factor to estimate the sizes of the library space. Thus, calculation of the numbers and definition of the characteristics of the service population based on the regional features are to be the first step of construction process of the public library. The large cities, small towns and rural areas, each regions have different administration, network systems, population density, social and cultural infrastructure, which affect the configuration and estimation of space program. In case of libraries in the rural areas, the cultural features are higher than the city area because cultural facilities such as museums, cinemas, learning centers are not plenty enough in the region. In case of libraries in the large cities, the percentage of managements and urban requirements, such as closed stack rooms, general offices, study room for students, underground parking, are higher.
Accordingly, the space program of the public library should not be applied on a consistent basis and scale. It should be varied according to the hierarchical ranges and regional characteristics.
From the comparison between the domestic and overseas, the common uses section is identified as excessively large and the collection and reading section is too small. It is required to decrease unnecessary public common use space and to increase the ratio of the collection and reading section which is desirable to provide sufficient comfortable space as a living room in a local community. In the non-public management section, it is suggested to increase the ratio of the stack room according to the hierarchical network system. In the cultural and educational section, the excessive percentage of study room for students is to be decreased despite it is the one of the characteristics of domestic social situation. Instead, it is required to raise up the lifelong learning and community space with regional service program.
As above, this study examined the facility program and space program of the public libraries in Korea after 2000. From the analysis, the space program models can be suggested as the eight different types according to the hierarchical size and regional characteristics. Previously, the guideline for the space program have described with the detailed instructions as area per seat, area per book, with which assumption and calculation of the whole building is difficult to estimate. But, in this study, the guideline is presented in the macroscopic point of view on the basis of the configuration of the total area.
The suggested space program models can be used as a basic guideline for the spatial distribution and configuration in the phase of construction and renovation of the public library. However, they might not be absolute guidelines and the results of this study might not enough for the generalization. The details of the space program such as the number of collection, number of seats, variety of formats, the derivation of more detailed characteristics of region and the detailed exploration of trends would be major research contents for the subsequent studies.