A library is an organized collection of information
resources made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing. It
provides physical or digital access to material, and may be a physical building
or room, or a virtual space. A library's
collection can include books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, films,
maps, prints, documents, microform, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, Blu-ray
Discs, e-books, audiobooks, databases, and other formats.
The Library: A World
History by James WP
Campbell, fellow in architecture and history of art at Queen’s College,
Cambridge, with luminous photography by Will Pryce, is a magnificent book
documenting 82 libraries in 20 countries. It is a story of how libraries have
evolved to reflect contemporary book production, reading habits and the value
placed on knowledge. And of how what has often been a passion for books has
sparked the imagination of patrons, librarians, readers and architects alike.
01) The Tripitaka Koreana is a vast
collection of Buddhist scriptures carved onto wooden slabs in the 13th Century.
02) Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s beautiful
library at the Glasgow School of Art shows the Scottish architect and
designer’s particular take on Art Nouveau.
03) The Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Centre at
Berlin’s Humboldt University was designed by the Swiss architect Max Dudler and
opened in 2009.
04) The Long Room of Trinity College Library
in Dublin houses the collection’s oldest books and is lined with marble busts
of great writers, philosophers and patrons of the college.
05) At the time it was built, the huge reading room of the
New York Public Library was the largest of its kind at 297ft (91m) long and
51ft (16m) high.
06) Berlin’s State Library (‘Stabi’ to locals) is the
location of a famous scene in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire in which angels eavesdrop
on patrons’ thoughts.
07) The highly ornamented library of
Altenburg Abbey in lower Austria is the work of the Baroque architect Joseph
Muggenast and is decorated with frescoes by Paul Troger.
08) A brightly colored concrete staircase
winds its way through the library of the Brandenburg Technical University in
Cottbus, Germany.
09) A skylight soars over five cast-iron
ornamental balconies in the George Peabody Library at Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore.
10) Jürgen Engel’s National Library of
China in Beijing houses approximately 12m books and is visited by an estimated
12,000 people each day.
