While some cities are turning their libraries into showpieces and centres of cultural life, Greater Victoria’s main library has been stuck in “temporary” space in an office building since 1980. Victoria deserves a building that pulls people into the heart of the city.
Birmingham, England, a city of one million people, has just spent $300 million on what is believed to be the largest library in Europe.
It will combine space for 400,000 books with facilities for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, an art gallery and performances.
Birmingham’s new facility is more than a monument to the printed word. Its shelves are designed to be flexible, so the library can easily make the transition to a world where there are fewer hard-copy books and more digital ones. Multi-screen media walls and tabletop computer screens are devices that even most techno-junkies are unlikely to have at home.
Francine Houben, the architect who designed the building, called it a “people’s palace.” Her goal, and that of chief executive Brian Gambles, is to create a place that will be a hub for the city, pulling in people from around Birmingham who are interested in more than just reading.
Closer to home, Seattle made waves with its new 11-storey downtown library in 2004. The steel-and-glass structure attracted more than twice as many users as expected in its first year.
CitySpaces Consulting’s 2010 report on Greater Victoria’s library needs recommended expanding the total square footage of its 10 branches by 58 per cent over 15 years, to keep up with predicted growth. It said the Central and Emily Carr branches were the biggest problems, and replacement, not renovation, was the only solution.
In April, the library board voted to move the Emily Carr branch out of its building and into the Uptown Mall.
But the main branch still hobbles along, despite studies saying it doesn’t work well and should be replaced. In the CitySpaces evaluation of the central branch, the word “inadequate” recurs frequently.
The risk in following the Birmingham example is the threat to branch libraries. Big central libraries suck money, and Birmingham officials admit some of their 40 branches might have to close. Greater Victoria’s 10 branches are important to their communities, and the library’s 15-year facility plan includes keeping them open.
Doing it all would be expensive. CitySpaces said its recommended 58 per cent expansion would cost $60 million, a figure that does not sit well with politicians in the 10 municipalities served by the library. Nor have voters been enthusiastic about capital spending; they said no in a referendum in 1989 that included a plan for a 70,000-square-foot library.
These days, with bridges to build and the Crystal Pool in need of replacement, the City of Victoria has little room on its priority list for a new library. The other municipalities also have more pressing items on their agendas.
Still, public libraries, if they are more than repositories for hard-copy books, can be centres for learning and community. Combined with theatres and art galleries, offering the latest and best digital connections, drawing people with diverse interests into one building, libraries can feed the cultural and civic life of the city. Beyond that, modern libraries such as Vancouver’s central branch have become gathering places — living rooms for the entire community.
Marrying commercial and cultural endeavours under one roof can also generate revenue that would not be possible in a regular library.
The Victoria library’s strategic plan is full of commitments to engage more people in new ways. Some of that can be done from existing space, but doing it well means spending money for a new home.
