Birmingham City Council looked into relocating the library for many years.

The original plan was to build a new library in the emerging Eastside district,[8] which had been opened up to the city centre following the demolition of Masshouse Circus.[9] A library was designed by Richard Rogers on a site in the area. However, for financial reasons and reservations about the location this plan was shelved. The Council suggested that the Library be split between a new building built between the Rep Theatre and Baskerville House at Centenary Square, which until 2009 was a public car park (to house the main lending library) and a building at Millennium Point in "Eastside" (to house the archives and special collections).

In August 2006, the Council confirmed the area between the Rep Theatre and Baskerville House as the future site for the library. Capita Symonds had been appointed as Project Managers for the Library of Birmingham. The council's intention was to create a "world class" landmark civic building in Centenary Square.[10] Not long after this, the two-sites idea was scrapped and the archives and special collections will move to the site at Centenary Square.[11][12]

After an international design competition, run by the Royal Institute of British Architects, a shortlist of seven architects was announced on 27 March 2008. They were chosen from a list of over 100 architects. The architects chosen were: Foreign Office Architects, Foster and Partners, Hopkins Architects, Mecanoo, OMA, Schmidt hammer lassen and Wilkinson Eyre.[13]

In early August 2008, Mecanoo and multi-discipline engineers, Buro Happold, were announced as the winner of the design competition.[14] More detailed plans for the library were revealed by the council in conjunction with the architects at a launch event held on 2 April 2009.

The previous Central Library failed for the second time to gain status as a listed building. Work is scheduled to begin on demolishing the old library to make way for the redevelopment of Paradise Circus.[15] Reception Cladding on the exterior of the building

Reaction to the planned library was generally positive. Then-Poet Laureate Andrew Motion said that "These plans are properly ambitious to preserve the best traditional practice, while also opening the building to new ideas about what a library should bethe heart of the community, fulfilling all manner of social needs as well as scholarly, research-based and pleasurable ones." Philip Pullman said "The new

Library of Birmingham sounds as if it will be lovely and should attract even more users than the present one with its impressive visitor total of 5,000 a day." Sir Alan Ayckbourn said "I wholeheartedly support the proposed exciting new plans to develop the new Birmingham library" and Irvine Welsh said "[It's] an audacious and compelling initiative which promises to redefine and modernise the entire notion of public library services, and in the process create the greatest public information resource in Europe ... Writers will love it, and so will readers."[16] Architect of the Birmingham Central Library, John Madin, criticised the building as not fit for purpose in 2011. Madin said "They are spending all this money on a new library which is no better than the existing one. Eighty per cent of it will not have natural light and does not meet the standards of the existing building."[17] Construction The interior, seen in the week before opening

Preparation of the ground for building, and archaeological work between Baskerville House and The Rep had begun before planning permission had been granted.[18] Planning permission was finally granted and approved by Birmingham City Council in December 2009. Building work, which was undertaken by Carillion,[19] commenced in January 2010, with a completion schedule for 3 September 2013.[20] A topping out ceremony to mark the completion of the highest part of the building took place on 14 September 2011.[21]

Opening

The formal opening on 3 September 2013 was conducted by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Taliban assassination attempt, and who now lives in Birmingham.[22] Before unveiling a plaque, she said "Let us not forget that even one book, one pen, one teacher can change the world".[23] The Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey was also in attendance. Architecture

The library utilises an "aquifer ground source system" as a source of energy. Cold groundwater will be pumped up from within the earth and used in the air conditioning system. The water will then flow back into the ground via another drilled well. The use of groundwater as a source of renewable energy will lower the library's CO2 emissions.[24] Collections

The library has a number of nationally and internationally significant collections, including the Boulton and Watt archives, the Bournville Village Trust Archive, the Charles Parker Archive,[25] the Parker collection of children's books,[26] the Wingate Bett transport ticket collection,[26] the Warwickshire photographic survey,[26] the British Institute of Organ Studies archive and the Railway and Canal Historical Society Library.

The specialist Shakespeare Memorial Room was designed in 1882 by John Henry Chamberlain for the first Central Library.[27] When the old building was demolished in 1974 Chamberlain's room was dismantled and later fitted into the new concrete shell of the new library complex.[27] When the Library of Birmingham was built, it was again moved, to the top floor.[27] It houses Britains most important Shakespeare collection, and one of the two most important Shakespeare collections in the world; the other being held by the Folger Shakespeare Library. The collection contains 43,000 books[22] including rare items such as a copy of the First Folio 1623; copies of the four earliest Folio editions;[22] over 70 editions of separate plays printed before 1709 including three "Pavier" quartos published in 1619 but falsely dated. There are significant collections from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, a near complete collection of Collected Works, significant numbers of adaptations, anthologies and individual editions