Monday 3 February 2014

Library of Birmingham

I visited the Library of Birmingham last year when I was in Birmingham for an Association for Learning Technology meeting at Aston Business School.
The library is an impressive building from the outside, a great landmark for the city.






The entrance foyer is spacious with plenty of room for people to gather and to wander around and enjoy the space.  There are lots of colourful displays and appealing things to look at.  There are books on each floor but the overwhelming impression is of space and places to explore and find out information.  There were a lot of people about but it didn't seem crowded and it wasn't noisy.





On the ground floor / lower ground floor there was a great space to look at books and sit and read.  These red chairs pictured below were very popular and perfect for relaxing and escaping.


The groovy blue escalators give the library a wow factor and I explored each floor.  At first I was a bit disappointed that the first floor didn't have many books but it was a good space to wander around and to sit and read or chat with groups of people and friends.






As you make your way up the floors there are more books although some of the subject areas were not obvious to me but I assume this would be easier if i had been looking for something specific.  Also I was expecting to find the layout familiar on my first visit which wasn't the case.








The library has definitely got the wow factor and is a very positive space with lots of users.
From my point of view I do think the space is important - a library space or a learning space or a being safe space - sometimes more important than the contents.









No comments:

Post a Comment