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July 30, 2007
We Just Can't Wait
The most exciting part of designing the New Darien Library has been planning ways to improve customer service and provide even better access to our books, DVDs, books on CD and other materials.
Some of the planning gets pretty detailed. Here are Kim Huffard, President of the Library Board, and Peter Gisolfi, the Library's architect, together with Cheng Hsun Wu, also of Peter Gisolfi Associates, deep in an examination of a model of the New Darien Library's central core -- Main Street, with the Reference Room above and the Power Library below:
We won't be moving into the new building until late fall 2008, so it's almost 18 months until patrons will be able to experience some of our new design ideas. But here's a sneak preview of our thinking about the best way to make now books and books on CD available -- we've created a bookshop on Main Street, which will be stacked high with all our recent arrivals:
Library visitors will probably enter from the door on the lower left, and they'll then be in the Main Street area, with a welcome desk in front of them. Main Street goes from the left (where the auditorium, cafe, DVDs, CDs and older fiction stacks are, to the right, where the Children's Room is. In the middle is Main Street, with cafe tables and chairs set on the streetscape, and behind it the bookshop, with all our newest books, some of them set out in front, on the sidewalk.
There will be an area of shelves in the back left where patrons can pick up their own reserved books, and self-check stations where books and other items can be checked out quickly. Library staff will be freed up to spend more time helping patrons find just the books they want, since they won't be chained to a circulation desk. We expect our design will allow patrons who are looking for our newest fiction and non-fiction books to get what they want and get going in record time. Or, they can grab a couple of new books, and sit down to look them over, while having some coffee and talking to friends.
By the way, this is a study model, and what's missing is a sense of the wonderful design elements Peter Gisolfi has used -- patterned tile floor, brick, wood, lighting and technology -- that will make this a stunning space. For that, you're just going to have to wait for the grand opening. It'll be worth it.
Posted by Alan Kirk Gray at July 30, 2007 08:37 PM
Comments
You are calling this a "bookshop" on Main Street - will you be selling books?
Posted by: Anonymous at July 31, 2007 08:06 PM
We want it to have the feeling of a bookshop on a busy street, but we won't be selling books, just circulating them as fast as we can.
Posted by: Alan at July 31, 2007 09:16 PM