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In an age where libraries have been pushed to the side there is a calling for a revamping of what a library is as an institution. No longer is the library filled with dusty stacks lining the walls, serving as only a place for study with the restrictive librarian shushing rowdy library goers.

The library can be a meeting place, a forum for new ideas, even a retreat. Nonetheless this new concept of what a library can be is not supported by the basic layout of rooms filled with books as well as a circulation and/or reference area.

A library revamped for the modern era would include a lecture hall or a place for groups to meet and discuss various topics, perhaps even a space to work with technology. There would also be a study area equipped with large tables for groups to meet on or individuals to spread out work on.

These ideas of spaces can be incorporated into a library with a specific concentration. Spaces of course will morph slightly to fit the needs of the collection of the library. Different amounts of spaces dedicated to collection rather than study area or lecture area based on whether a library is a media library or a research library.

A technology based library would have a collection of books in topics such as computer science as well as mathematics and more general books on how to use a specific program. A computer area also allows an individual area to try what one is reading about or simply keep up on the latest blogs or check one’s email more innovatively equipped with stations for programming. The study area would have spaces for laptop users to sit and plug in. Recent periodicals should also be available so people can catch up on the newest topics.

The innovation of the space is not only just the integration of the new technology on a user and circulation basis. It can be adapted on within or as a part of a community to fill some basic or forgotten needs. A lecture hall can be designed for not only allowing a single lecturer to present but, it can be made to be seen more as a forum. Not only that but, the space can be adapted for collective work, building or even small avante garde musical gatherings that focus on the adaptation of electronics into musical compositions. This idea of new technological arts is carried throughout the library with different areas for art to be displayed as well as a designated gallery space.

Just a few tweaks here and there and the old version of the library is suddenly refreshed not only incorporating the old but adapting for new and possibly even further into the unseen advances in technology as they present themselves to the world. These changes in the average library format may seem small but the impact of a library that functions in this vain of thought can change what a library means to people, it can give space to a community.