Southeast Arkansas Regional Library System: Monticello Branch

The board of trustees have approved the schematic design for the SEARL headquarters and the Monticello branch library. The library will be 20,000 gross square feet and will include 24 public computers, meeting room for 100 people, an outdoor “secret garden,” space for teens, children and adults, dedicated genealogy research room and a print and fax center. MS&R is working with TME (engineering) and ETC Engineers and Architects in Little Rock, Arkansas. Construction is slated to be finished in the fall of 2013.

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Men of the Stacks

http://menofthestacks.com/

“Ten Steps to a Better Library Interior,” by Traci Lesneski

MS&R principal and head of interiors, Traci Lesneski, weighs in with simple, effective, and inexpensive steps that can be taken to reinvigorate your library. See the September 20th online edition of Library Journal.

Are Libraries Doomed?

@LibraryJournal: Public Libraries are Doomed #annoyedlibrarian http://t.co/rke0F4bH

In this editorial by the blogger Annoyed Librarian, the position taken is that libraries are doomed. I would argue that they are not so much doomed as condemned to obsolescence unless they focus on the needs of the community; do critical evaluation of their worth that can be explained in real, economic terms; be prepared to jettison outmoded thinking and bureaucratic structures that preserve status quo rather than elevate innovation; refuse to reconcile the competition for public funds with their own needs; understand that they can be leaders by not panicking but rather reflecting; know that they are doom if they continue to repeat the same mantra of “free services” without some energy behind change. I love my library and will support them as long as I can. However, I am in search of innovation–not calcification. All institutions have to change; this “essay” is yet another wake-up call. Jeffrey A Scherer, FAIA Founding Principal

IFLA Satelite Conference, Emory University “Adjust or Wither”

Jeffrey Scherer presentation “The 21st Century LIbrary Building – Adjust or Wither” can be download from this link:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2333005/IFLA_Scherer_20110810_V2_The%2021st%20Century%20copy.pdf