At last Oslo gets a new modern library Building a new main public library in Oslo has been discussed

for the last 14 years. By Liv Steren, Director, Oslo Public Library - Deichmanske bibliotek The main public focus has been where to build about 25 sites have been discussed. The most prestigious site in the city has finally been chosen and an architectural competition was arranged in 2001. In the building programme, the library has a space allocation of 15,500 m2, and an art gallery,Stenersenmuseet, will be built in connection with the library with an area of about 3,000 m2. The City Council has decided that the two institutions should have a total maximum area of 21,000 m2, including technical rooms, etc. There were five entries to the competition: Toyo Ito, Tokyo, Norman Foster, London, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) Rotterdam, Marcel Meili, Zrich, and Niels Torp, Oslo. OMA won the competition. There is still the need for the final formal decisions about actually building the library, and detailed planning has still not started. Library architecture Library architecture seems to be frozen in a typology created late in the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s based on the concept of libraries as institutions for lending out books. Even today, libraries are built with bookshelves as the structuring element, lending as the primary service, and with public work spaces separated both from books and from technology. Thus the design of library premises contributes to strengthening the myths about libraries and works against their modernisation. The archetypes refer to the past, to the traditional functions and working methods of libraries. I will put it strongly: the library buildings and interiors are one of the most important factors in preventing development in the library and for enhancing myths about libraries. Visual communication and physical structures tell you that the library is a place where you shall walk along the shelves, pick up your book, go to the counter and activate the librarian to register your loan, and then leave the building. Librarians in conferences talk about libraries as community centres and information centres, as working places for lifelong learning, as places for meeting and social interaction, even integration. The development of multimedia services, and being in the forefront in the provision of modern information tehnology to citizens are buzz words in libraries. But politicians, both on local and national level, can hardly imagine the public libraries with those functions. I dare say that the picture of a lending institution with rows of shelves is effectively hiding the possibilities of library institutions. Need for new typology A concept of the modern public library as a place for meeting, learning, working and inspiration demands a major change of typology. For me, this is the main reason for focusing on a new library. Not so much the need for more space, but the need for a total new typology of library buildings and interiors. The existing main library is the archetype of the traditional library concept. Its beautiful - you can almost smell the tradition. Still quite a few people oppose the very idea of moving the library from this manifestation of libraryness to something modern and as yet not seen. As mentioned. we are not yet in the phase of detailed planning, but we are preparing the organisation for this process. It is very much a theoretical task. Defining new functions, methods,

future demands on staff competence and the need for organisational changes. For several years we have worked on the interior planning of both the branch libraries and the main library training staff in understanding architects drawings, developing an understanding of visual communication and the impact of the physical environment on the the services and the users. Planning the new library will be a modernizing process, and the success criterion is how we can manage to involve the staff in this planning process. In this preparation we use real-life situations which means planning and changing the interior in small parts of the libraries, or models, which you can see on our web, or developing projects for new services based on new technology, where the design of the physical conditions for delivering the service is of major concern. The big changes in the library framework, for instance, information technology, the amount of information, the media production and the methods in teaching have so far had little influence on the typology of library buildings. We see the need for a shift of focus: In planning the new library there will be a focus on conditions for good learning environments, and good environments for human relations and interaction, and good environments for pushing literature and reading. New typology: A shift from collection orientation to user behaviour orientation. Parameters for planning are facilities for inspiration, production, teamwork, social interaction and support. The collection is in this term, support. New visual communication: The library as an attraction and sensation, with visual aids to guide the user around in the library. Key words are landscapes, atmospheres, scenography, sound, light, design. New efficiency and rationalisation: Intelligent and thorough use of new technology. Self service, self-instructive, self-describing and self-evident interiors combined with a simple and elegant interface to computer services. New functions and services: The library will facilitate and organize varied new forms of services, support and promote learning, support working and meeting activities concerned with printed, digital and multimedia materials. 24 hour services, cafs and shops as part of the library concept. New organisation: Rapid changes in methods, functions and services, according to future changes in media production, ICT, etc, and the integration of functions such as cafs, museums and shops demands flexibility in the building and new organisational structures within the library. The project from OMA gives excellent opportunities for creating a new library typology. The ground floor with approximately 8,000m2 supports the idea of both creating an urban structure and modelling a landscape on the main floor of the library. At the moment we are working theoretically with the elements mentioned above waiting to cooperate with the inventive architects from OMA in the planning of a truly modern library. There are many obstacles still. There are several people working against this modern

architecture, and still some people who want the library to be the monumental building and the temple of the book and who are strongly opposed to an, until now, unseen typology. But since Oslo has an ambition to be the cultural capital of Europe in 2011, I am looking forward to the future building of a library that will make changes in and for the city the library as an urban organizer. The City Council has allocated 73.1 mill EUR in the economic plan for the City to this project.

The Public Library Deichmanske bibliotek was founded 1785 by a donation from Carl Deichman. System: Main library, 13 branches. Special services in prisons and hospitals. Annual expenditures/budget (2003) ca 15,500,000 EUR. 2.5 mill visitors a year in the whole system. Existing main library opened in 1932. Covers 12,000 m2, but only 2000 m2 are accessible to the general public.