The Public Library

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31973, 28 April 1969, Page 12

The Public Library

That Christchurch urgently needs a bigger, better public library, as the City Librarian (Mr J. E. D. Stringleman) argued in his report to the City Council last week, will be disputed by few ratepayers and by fewer of the regular users of the library. The old two storeyed building on the corner of Hereford Street and Cambridge Terrace is crammed with books and, at peak periods, overcrowded with borrowers. The library is housed in 19,000 square feet of floor space—less than a third of the space desirable in a library serving a city the size of Christchurch, according to a formula widely used overseas.

Urgent though the library’s needs are, no hasty decision which might prejudice the longer-term needs of the city and the wider area it serves should be considered. The City Council and the neighbouring local bodies must first decide what kind of library service they want 20 or 30 years hence, and where it should be based. The Town Hall complex provides for a building of 80,000 square feet, including 15,000 square feet at ground level, to house the public library. But this building is scheduled for stage 3 of the development of the site, which puts it perhaps 10 or 20 years away. By 1980 the library will probably require some 90,000 square feet, by 1990 110,000 square feet.

A building of this size would radically alter the balance and proportions of the Town Hall complex. The winning design for the site envisages only one very tall building on the site—the administration block, of 11 storeys providing 80,000 square feet of office space. The design shows the 60,000 sq. ft library block as a compact five-storey building providing a pleasing contrast in height and dimensions to the nearby administration block. Moreover, the greater demands for library services now envisaged would entail the provision of considerable off-street parking space. Probably only a parking building on the site could provide sufficient space. If the city’s library in 1990 is to be part of the Town Hall complex the development of the site must obviously take a different form from anything hitherto considered. The site might well have to be extended; perhaps the ideal would be to locate the library near the new law courts.

The staff and users of the library may hope that their new library will be available in less than 20 years. It would be far from realistic to count upon it And what of this next 20 years? Although the present building cannot be altered, it could be extended to provide an extra 50,000 square feet of floor space. A new building of several storeys, with a frontage to Cambridge Terrace, should have a good resale value in 10 or 20 years, when the proceeds would help to finance the building of the new library. Some of the demands on the library's space will be alleviated by the development of suburban branch libraries, along the lines laid down in Mr Stringleman’s report Better branch libraries, a new building on the present site, and finally a new building on the Town Hall complex will cost much more than Christchurch has been accustomed to spending on library services. It is to be hoped that the other local bodies whose ratepayers share the benefits of the library will contribute, proportionately with the Citv Council, to the costs. J