The 25 Most Modern Libraries in the World
With a touch of irony, perhaps, an excellent selection of twenty-five of the most modern "brick and mortar" libraries in the world appeared on a blog in the virtual global library we call the Internet. Yet most modern libraries are repositories for electronic information as well as traditional media on paper or on film, and some larger libraries are developing functions as meeting places, or even eating places, along with their traditional functions for reading and research.
In the category of Architecture the blogger, Christina Laun, selected eight libraries from around the world, including two in the United States--the fantastic Seattle Public Library designed by Rem Koolhaas, and the Geisel Library at the University of California at San Diego. The Seattle Public Library is my absolute favorite of recently constructed library buildings. I have attached images that I took during a visit in 2006.
In the category of Innovation the author selected eleven libraries, of which, surprising to me, eight are in the United States. The most unusual was an English library concept called the Ideastore. Why not, for kids used to finding what they want at other "stores"?For Digital Collections the blogger selected four national libraries from the United States, Japan, England, and Australia, and the Bavarian State Library in Germany. Here, I suspect, selecting was more difficult, as many large academic or state libraries have vast digital repositories available on the web.
Labels: architecture, Internet, libraries
posted by Jeremy Norman @ 1:24 PM
0 Comments
