In my university career so far I have used the library exactly twice. Once for a paper and we were forced to use the library. The second was to check out the (poor) Japanese movie collection and check out a movie. It dawned on my today why I never used the library. Design. Most libraries simply are not designed with the end user in mind – a problem that plagues most products. They have books from floor to celling and are often poorly lit because of this (light doesn’t travel well through books). I also feel the libraries themselves don’t encourage their own use by being so unwelcoming feeling.

Where did this come from? Everything has an origin. This came while I was reading a magazine Plus 81 I think it was called waiting to get my haircut, and there was a small bit about the library at the Tama Art University. This library was designed to hold about 300,000 books – which is a pretty fair amount. The shelfs are only chest high to promote better light flow and to encourage people to use the windows and look outsides every once in a while. Another interesting thing they do is with the periodicals. They actually have them displayed cover up so you are intrigued by the magazine covers and might read magazines that you normally wouldn’t based upon its name.

It is an interesting thing though – people use things that are better designed and more open feeling than those that aren’t. In fact, just today I was reading an article about how people are congregating at the Apple Stores in New York – which are like most apple stores – brightly lit and open feeling (minus all the people in them!) and hang out there vs more closed feeling stores (most retail stores). So perhaps that is the secret right there – if you want people to actually use your facility (in this case a library) – make it open feeling (and thus relaxing) instead of cramped, dim, and smelly.

Most of the designers and artists studios that I see are exactly that way too. Open. Bright. Let nature and ideas flow.