2002-09-25

Libraries have been part of the building boom that has characterized the cultural world internationally, and particularly the United States, over the last decade. Major new city center public libraries have been completed in Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix, San Antonio, Vancouver, Nîmes, Montpellier and Norwich, and more are presently under construction in Marseilles, Salt Lake City and Seattle. Major projects are planned for Milan, Turin, Amsterdam, Minneapolis and Birmingham, to name but a few. London and Paris have two massive new national libraries. And in Egypt, the new Library of Alexandria conjures up the fame of antiquity as the foundation for 21st century economic and cultural revival. Libraries are oddly fashionable, and the rest of the cultural sector is taking an increasing interest in their success and in the key drivers that have secured it...