LIBRARY BUILDING

Libraries come in various types and  sizes  to fulfill certain specific needs of the community it is established to serve. Thus we  can have a single room village panchayat or school library to gigantic edifices spread over acres of national library. It may serve a lay clientele who have barely mastered the rudiments of the three R's or highly sophisticated, erudite cream of  the society. It may handle a couple of reluctant readers a day or may have to cope with a huge rush of knowledge seekers as in a public or university library. The range is enormous, demands are endless and variety limitless. Needless to say, planning  for  providing services to this diverse clientele has to be different, to suit the needs of a particular group of clientele. It is not possible  to frame rigid guidelines which will be equally applicable under all conditions. What we shall try  here is to elaborate some guiding principles which should be kept in mind while planning a new library set-up.