Maria Inês Cruz, Lozana Rossenova (eds.): Bookspace: Collected Essays on Libraries (2015)

“Bookspace: Collected Essays on Libraries focuses on the current development of library spaces as public institutions through the perspective of architects, writers, librarians, and readers. The book addresses the architecture of modern public spaces, and the development of library collections in the age of digital information, in order to discuss the larger social context of library institutions. It provides an insight into their management and how their functions are changing.

A comprehensive look at the social role of libraries is a key part of the book. In the Western World, constant funding cuts – justified with austerity measures in the current economic climate – affect the functioning and closing of libraries. While in the Middle East and Northern Africa, the challenges arise from socio-political conditions and military regimes, thus, threatening the preservation and sharing of knowledge, and overshadowing those libraries’ historical roots and social roles.

Recognising how patterns of information distribution and consumption are changing driven by both technical and social developments, we aim to suggest how they might evolve in the future.”

Contributions by David Pearson, Heba El-Sherif, Marie Lécrivain, Julius Motal, Jorge Reis, João Torres, and Tom Vandeputte.

Publisher Inland Editions, London, 2015
133 pages

Publisher (archived), Twitter
WorldCat

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