[Libs-Or] Library square footage

[Ruth Metz]

Sara, you might find the following useful.  Please keep in mind that this is something I posted in 2015 when the OLA standards were being revised.  I recommend looking at the standards.  I think those and the following information will be of help to you in addressing the question.  Ruth Metz

 

Ruth Metz Associates

Portland, OR

503-422-8024

www.ruthmetzassociates.com <http://www.ruthmetzassociates.com> 

 

 

From: Ruth Metz [mailto:ruthmetz at spiretech.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 9, 2013 7:36 PM
To: 'Maureen Cole' <mcole at ci.oregon-city.or.us>
Subject: FW: [Libs-Or] Public library Sq footage trends and norms and OLA Standards

 

 

Mo, see the url in the message below.  R

 

 

From: libs-or-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us <mailto:libs-or-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>  [mailto:libs-or-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Ruth Metz
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 2:45 PM
To: libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us <mailto:libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us> 
Subject: [Libs-Or] Public library Sq footage trends and norms and OLA Standards

 

 

Dear colleagues,

 

Public libraries are undergoing a great deal of change, much of this influenced by technology. My consulting work includes library facility assessment and planning which I do in association with architects. Typically, communities are looking for square footage standards to help guide their planning.  Frequently, these days one hears someone say that public libraries can be smaller because of e-books, digital content, and so forth. I believe this is, in general, a mistaken assumption. 

 

As I help plan libraries, what I hear in community needs assessment after community needs assessment is that residents want  spaces in the library, people space – – small meeting spaces, conference rooms, programming space for children, for teens, and for adults, meeting room space for communities, maker spaces, silent space, quiet space, collaborative space – – in other words, space for people. 

 

Public libraries are first about people. And while it is likely that our physical collections will become smaller because of e- content, our service populations have generally grown since our libraries were first built, and will continue to grow. This combined with the multi-various ways people want to use the library accounts for why new public libraries are larger per capita than in the past. 

 

I submit that it would be helpful if our revised state standards pointed people in the direction of national norms for new construction of public libraries. For example, I recently calculated square footage of new main library buildings in 2012, using data from Library Journal  http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/11/buildings/year-in-architecture-2012-public-library-data/.  LJ provides this data annually for public and academic libraries. LJ also provides a multi-year summary that includes construction costs, and other useful data.

 

Of 33 new library construction projects, I pulled out the main library projects (as distinct from branches or system headquarters). I calculated the square footage per capita and they range from a low of .91 to over 3 SF/per capita.  The median of the 8 main library projects is 1.31 – 1.63 SF/capita.  (I limited my analysis to main library projects because I was doing this for a client with a main library project.) 

 

It is reasonable to assume that these new constructions are calculated with due consideration for new technologies and community input and deliberation over contemporary and future service needs.  Paying attention to them and pointing our library community to national norms and trends is as useful a guide as any other.  

 

I hope that the revised OLA standards for facilities will retain the essence of the opening paragraph and respectfully suggest that in addition the standards either point people to the LJ data, or better yet, provide the analysis of the data, which essentially would establish a square footage per capita range. 

 

Respectfully yours, Ruth Metz

 

Ruth Metz

 

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