I started out wondering what would happen to the library, now that information is just one mouse click away, and books are getting digitized and put on servers. Would the library even contain books? During the process it became clear to me that, rather than being about books, the library is primarily about people. It is about catering to the human need of socializing, finding things out, improving skills and sharing their knowledge and projects with others. The library is a place in which the city meets itself.
People visiting the library might have different language, ethnicity and background. But the two principal groups of the public library are the young and the old users. It is evident that different expectations exist between them. Whereas the teenager seeks a lively, stimulating and essentially contemporary library where electronic data access is to the fore, the older user seeks a tranquil, comfortable book-based experience. Somehow the library needs to present the ‘pastness of the past’ and the ‘futureness of the present’. Bringing the young and the old users together and the new and old features of the library