Historical Library Buildings: When a Warehouse Won't Work

Historical buildings are often used to house library buildings. Sometimes they are purpose-built as libraries and sometimes they are adapted to house the library later. Let us look at what that can entail.

“The standard conception of heritage concerns the body of things left as a legacy, things of value preserved by one generation for future ones” (Renovating historic and old buildings by Santi Romero, p. 2). Romero leads us into what it means to preserve a historical library, a building not necessarily mean to be a library, but where one now or will soon reside. It is with careful consideration that we should renovate and preserve these buildings for future generations. They are a great window into our past and a good guide for the future of the building. After all, libraries are constantly changing, with a fluctuating userbase, and that will be reflected in the use of rooms within a library and what those rooms are used for.

“Because of its condition as a territorial cultural service, the library has become a main focus of attention within this conservation policy” (Renovating historic and old buildings by Santi Romero, p. 2). Conservation policy guides what a library can do with its space. If a majority of usable rooms are on the second floor, there may be conservation policy limitations to install a elevator, even if one is needed. Instead, there might need to be consideration of how to attach one to the building with minimal invasiveness. This is where things can be tricky when developing a library in an existing building - particularly if there is a conservation policy already in place. A library will have to consider what changes it is able to make and anticipate what changes it will have to make in the future. While public pressure to adapt a new library in an old location might be in place, it could be that the location is inhospitable to the keeping of items or books.

“When plans are being made to convert a heritage building into a library, it is advisable to analyze all the historic, architectural, technical and financial aspects to evaluate the scope of the intervention” (Renovating historic and old buildings by Santi Romero, p. 5). The consideration Romero is making here is that there may be external factors that the library will not be able to change. There are pros and cons to any location and sometimes the cons may be vastly more than the pros. Take a well-lit warehouse building. If there are too many windows, light could damage the books. The space is hard to keep temperature controlled. There are few or no dividing walls to create individual rooms. While it offers a lot of space, for the wrong budget, making it into a usable space may be harder than is possible for a library.

“A heritage building needs to be viewed in two ways: as a historic document and as an architectural object” (Renovating historic and old buildings by Santi Romero, p. 6). The building is both historical, a place to see the past in the very stonework, but it is also still a building. If it cannot be adapted into a good library, all the history in the world will not be able to save the modern-day use and function of it. When considering your library building, think about what use the building will need to carry out - in the present, but also in the future. Will it be able to withstand changing times, or should a different location be considered? But on the flip-side, the historical nature can add prestige and attention to a building which might otherwise not be allocated to the library.