Flexible library spaces are key to future planning
As library patrons demand more from their libraries, space needs change. Libraries are no longer simple book warehouses. Today, they serve as technology hubs, community centers, and learning spaces. As the needs of the library patron change, it’s important that modern libraries keep pace with these needs.
But how does one keep pace with such rapidly changing needs, with minimal time and without breaking the bank? The key is to develop flexible library spaces that work now, but that will also work in the future without time-consuming, expensive renovations.
Consider Collaboration
Today’s libraries double as community centers where people come together to learn, trade ideas, and create. Instead of static furniture that allows just a few configurations, furnish your library with moveable furniture that can be arranged in several different ways – for the classroom, for group study, or for meetings. Flexible furniture ensures that one room can serve the needs of many, with just a little rearrangement.
Renovation On Wheels
Many library furniture manufacturers offer bookshelves on wheels as well as modular bookshelves that can be configured in several different ways. This enables you to move your bookshelves, minimize them, enlarge them, or otherwise change them to suit the room’s needs. Easily moved, flexible furniture enables you to change the entire look, feel, and purpose of a room, without the cost of major renovations.
Double-Duty Furniture
Library furniture makers know that keeping pace with change is key, and so they’ve designed furniture that does double duty. Book and magazine holders that double as computer desks, comfortable chairs that double as listening pods, and computer stations that can be adjusted to suit the users specific needs are all ways that library furniture makers are helping libraries become the quick-change artists that their patrons are asking them to be.
For more information on designing and planning flexible library spaces, visit BCI Libraries.