Repost: [Sca-cooks] [Fwd: [Fwd: Yeah so?]]

[Jenne Heise]

Sorry about the last message, elm ate my commentary.

> > > The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every
> > > year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into
> > > account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
> > >
> > Could it also be that the students are using the Library? No that can't be
> > it.

Actually, that they didn't calculate the weight of the books correctly is
much more likely than that the weight of the students using the library is
that much more than a standard building.

Library literature and history is full of the foibles of architects and
engineers whose library designs had serious, major failings because they
didn't know enough about libraries.

In the library I work in, the facilities planners' first response to
complaints that shelving on the top of 8-foot shelving units would make
books inaccessible was, "Can't you put the least used books on the top
shelf?" and the designer, hearing that fewer books were being printed, had
electrical conduit and cube anchors designed into the floors so that when
the library collection shrunk we could put offices in there instead. You
don't even want to ask about the 'reference desk' they designed and
implemented.

A couple of years ago either _American Libraries_ or _Library Journal_ had
an article in the architecture issue on major architectural mistakes in
libraries. My favorite was the open-plan, sealed-building library with the
3-story fountain to splash water on the surrounding tropical plantings...

--
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at mail.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"It's no use trying to be clever-- we are all clever here; just try
to be kind -- a little kind." F.J. Foakes-Jackson