A fact from Surrey City Centre Public Library appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 24 April 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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Latest comment: 12 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Just curious if you know from the "ideabook" and such... looking at this picture, it looks like this library falls squarely into the design trend for libraries over the past 30 years that I've seen in the U.S. - namely, to have as expensive a building as possible, designed to have as little space as possible turned over to the actual storage of books. Why is that? Why has it become so passe to cram floor after floor full of every volume you can get your hands on? Why do you have to have a cathedral vault instead of a top floor, a spiral staircase wide enough to fit an Atlas missile? Wnt (talk) 04:32, 24 April 2012 (UTC)Reply
As for the ideas in the ideasbook, I'm not certain, but i think features like the prayer room (oriented to Mecca) and the video games room were part of it. Also the huge windows for natural light. (although these will be less effective when the rest of the planned mega-development sprouts up) I suppose there are a few factors at work regarding the size of the print collection; there's a philosophy that the library should be a "third place" - a public spot for people to congregate, relax, listen to music, do homework, etc. Therre's actually a fireplace on the second floor. Another factor would be the absence of serials, these are almost all electronically delivered now. The staff at this library call it the cruise ship, it has that feel inside and out. I've only spent a couple hours here, so I can't really comment on whether the design/functionality is a success or flop. But you definitely could house an ICBM in the middle, there's even a skylight for egress. The Interior(Talk) 11:56, 24 April 2012 (UTC)Reply
