When Louise Schaper opened the new Fayetteville Public Library (FPL) in Arkansas in 2004, she brought the state's second LEED Silver-certified building to completion. The green building fulfilled a community expectation for sustainable innovation established through complex public dialog, and the library went on to become the "2005 LJ/Gale Library…

Beyond the sprawling Denver International Airport, there's little to put Adams County, Colorado, on the map. The region's light rail only stretches south, so Adams County, a mostly working-class zone to the northeast, has come late to growth. There's no central city; the community is dominated by strip malls, big-box stores, and new developments.…

The latest calamities to befall the economy aren't reflected in the 2008 compilation of building projects. This article discusses how public and academic buildings combine for 213 projects in 2008. The 183 public libraries and 30 academic facilities, completed between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008, squeaked through before the repercussions from…

Sandwiched between Los Angeles and San Diego counties, nudging up to Riverside and San Bernardino to the east, Orange County, California is far more diverse than the stereotype. Orange County has no dominant city; its two largest, Santa Ana and Anaheim--each with populations around 350,000--are, respectively, home to lower-income Latinos and a…

In the past three years, the Union County Carnegie Library (UCCL) in South Carolina has "been transformed." The library board, selected by the county supervisors, knew something had to be done. In October 2005, the board hired Nancy E. Rosenwald as UCCL director. Longing to get back to South Carolina from western Connecticut, Rosenwald…

Public library service is a critical service that must be preserved. Despite a current (FY08) budget cut of $5 million and the threat of reductions of nearly $20 million more in the next budget, the Queens Library has maintained massive and excellent programs of service and incredibly high levels of use by a public that lines up at every one of…

To the individual, garden areas link to the natural world, offering solace, refuge, inspiration, and purpose. To a low-income neighborhood, where often the only greenery sprouts from between cracks in concrete, their impact can be monumental, signaling sustainability, beautifying, attesting to value and worth--even prompting civic change. A 2000…

For years, patrons have been able to access library services from home and in the library building, but in the world of Google, Yahoo, YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, library web sites and catalogs are too often not the first place people go to look for information. The innovative use of toolbars could change this. Toolbars have been popular for…

The instant library program described is designed to extend library service to previously unreached coal towns, mountain hollows, and sparsely populated areas of West Virginia. (Author/NH)

A county library's support to the local judicial system, by making video equipment and staff available for the recording of depositions has resulted in an increase in good will toward the library in the business community. Cost recovery fees are charged. (JPF)

With a mission in mind to change the world, one bibliographic corner at a time Christine Schultz, began with a dream of being in charge. In the Fall of 2004, she was promoted to the position of Library Director at a small, private liberal arts college. In this article, she shares how she overcame the challenges of a tight budget, and a building…

Few public buildings, and no libraries, have ever received the sort of acclaim that Seattle's central library garnered even before it opened in May 2004. "The Seattle building is thrilling from top to bottom," wrote Paul Goldberger in "The New Yorker." Herbert Muschamp, in the "New York Times," agreed: "In more…

The emphasis of this look at today's public libraries and their future is on the policies of these libraries rather than their funding. (NH)

For this survey a Learning Resources Center is defined as: a building containing any combination of the following services: library, audio-visual, skills center, learning laboratory or reprography." (Author/NH)

Explains the revamping of library services in London's East End that will begin with the library buildings being sold and replaced with Idea Stores, positioned in high-density shopping areas. Discusses combining traditional library services with adult education, performance space, daycare, and retail style. (LRW)