Countdown to a New Library: Managing the Building Project (review)

Countdown to a New Library: Managing the Building Project, Jeannette Woodward. Chicago: American Library Association, 2000. 205p. $48 (ISBN (0-8389-0767-9)

Lucky librarians get to build a library or renovate a building once in their careers. Very lucky librarians get to do more than one large-scale project and can apply their hard-won knowledge from the first one to the next. Woodward's very practical, sensible book will be a boon to both novice and veteran librarians in that position.

Woodward provides guidance for the building project manager in ten chapters, treating topics such as initial planning, dealing with architects and contractors, the building's shell, technology and infrastructure, wall covering and flooring materials, and surviving construction and phased moves. She even includes advice on how to comport oneself at the building dedication ceremony. That guidance takes several forms. Woodward, assistant director of the David Adamany Undergraduate Library at Wayne State University and a building project veteran, brings a hands-on, "hardhat" perspective to her complex topic. She provides context, analysis, and explanation for every stage of the process and the many issues that need to be considered. Her clear, declarative prose explains what happens (or should happen) in each stage, the issues at stake, the complexities and complications that can arise, what can go wrong, and things to anticipate and plan for. Both her narrative and occasional checklists of considerations, interspersed throughout the chapters, are equally applicable to public and academic library projects. Issues peculiar to a particular type of library receive their due, however.

In addition to expository narrative and checklists, Woodward equips most chapters with a useful concluding bibliography and contact information on resources, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act Document Center and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. The bibliographies emphasize publications of the past decade on specialized topics and, by their omission, assume (perhaps carelessly) familiarity with standard works such as Leighton and Weber's Planning Academic and Research Library Buildings (3d ed., Chicago: American Library Association, 1999) and Sannwald and Smith's Checklist of Library Building Design Considerations (Chicago: Library Administration and Management Association, 1988). Succinct "Tips and Tales"--some printed in wide margins thoughtfully provided for personal annotation, others within the main page layout as chapter subsections--are every bit as useful as the content of online discussion lists. Such lists are the apparent source of the varied opinions expressed in these dispensable sections. Glossaries of terms (e.g., types of lighting, HVAC terminology) incorporated into some chapters are more informative and useful.

Woodward depicts the librarian-architect relationship as almost inherently adversarial and doomed to sour swiftly from lack of shared vision and commitment. Even if that has been her experience, it is neither universal nor inevitable. The somewhat sanctimonious tenor of some statements in which she vents frustrations (e.g., "Site selection is often a foregone conclusion determined by the availability of a lot that the county doesn't know what to do with or a piece of useless land a citizen or alumnus has contributed in exchange for a hefty tax deduction.") ought to have been toned down during the editing process.

These occasional flaws can and should be easily overlooked in favor of Woodward's lucid explanations of myriad matters, such as optimum configuration and placement of light switch panels; selecting color schemes that will age gracefully; specifying the desired energy efficiency rating for water heaters; or keeping photocopies of brochures, installation instructions, and warranty materials that come with specialized construction materials. Anyone who embarks on a major building project will spend literally thousands of hours dealing with the details that inform and energize the plan; the hours invested in reading this book as an introductory text and then in returning to it as a reference guide will pay ongoing dividends.

James Rettig
University of Richmond <jrettig@richmond.edu>

...