Paula Kelly Paull: Video. Whenever you.
Paula Kelly Paull: we've got people continuing to join us, we're looking forward to starting shortly, so lovely that we've had over 500 registrations.
Paula Kelly Paull: which is very exciting right across Australia and New Zealand.
Paula Kelly Paull: and I'll be introducing you to our Webinar panelists and keynote presenters shortly
Paula Kelly Paull: and looking forward to having such a diverse group from all sorts of libraries right across the country.
Paula Kelly Paull: So welcome everyone. We are at the 3 o'clock, Mark, so I'm so delighted to be welcoming you here today to our latest Webinar.
Dean Parker: Disguised it.
Paula Kelly Paull: By Rico and Bibliotecha
Paula Kelly Paull: Dean, might get you to just put your speaker off for a moment. If that's okay. Thank you.
Paula Kelly Paull: Thank you.
Paula Kelly Paull: So my name is Paula Cable. For those of you I haven't met before. It's delightful to be with you here again to present a webinar today, called the inside story. We're looking at library design and saying, it's not just about the pretty cover. We want to look inside libraries and have a look and see what's happening in some really successful, recently developed libraries. Very excited to be here with you. Welcome to everyone who's joining us
Paula Kelly Paull: all around Australasia and beyond. We have over 500 registrations for our webinar this afternoon, and we know that not everyone can join live. But it's fantastic that people have the opportunity, of course, to watch the recording later.
Paula Kelly Paull: we're going to hear just a couple of little things from Bibliotecha and Rayak our sponsors, and we'll be having a video very brief introduction to both those companies
Paula Kelly Paull: starting shortly as they're being switched on and brought onto your screen. I just wanna remind you that we have got the option for people to ask questions across the webinar in the QA. Section so as anything comes up for you, please feel free to pop a question in there, and I'll get on to introducing you to our wonderful keynote presenters.
Paula Kelly Paull: panelists in just a moment. So here's a message from Bibliotechna and Rico.
Paula Kelly Paull: Not sure if our video is playing there. And so I might just leap forward for a second. And you could just perhaps
Paula Kelly Paull: speak to me. If there's something different going on and I'll just launch in, I think, to do some introductions so that we don't lose our right on time. So we'll have those videos later on in the in the proceedings.
Paula Kelly Paull: Now, I am excited to be introducing to you our keynote presenters from the libraries out in the eastern regions of metropolitan Melbourne. And of course we're talking about your library, which is the the new name, if you like, for Eastern Regional library. So we love talking about your library because we're wondering if it's your library, my library, our library, who's library? But it's your library, and of course we have beautiful Sarah
Paula Kelly Paull: Hopkins with us are joining us today. Who is indeed the customer? It's the corporate manager for customer experience at your library. She has had experience across many projects over a number of years. I won't say exactly how many years that you've been there at your library.
Paula Kelly Paull: Sarah. Perhaps you can enlighten us in a moment. But certainly you've had this oversight of the renovation and redevelopment of many of the libraries within that that fold that you have there at the Eastern Reach what was Eastern Regional Libraries Corporation, but is now indeed your library. We're going to hear from Sarah, but also, most importantly
Paula Kelly Paull: in this context of this webinar, we're going to hear from the architect who's been working with Sarah, and that is, must my apologies. I will say correctly. It is. I merely went to our city of Melbourne. Architect, my apologies, Miranda. So we have Miranda Ellis, who's the director of interiors at Mantric architecture. Miranda is actually a specialist in public facility design.
Paula Kelly Paull: and she has largely delivered for local government clients. Her professional experience includes a beautiful and diverse palette, including retail outfits, cafes.
Paula Kelly Paull: nightclubs, commercial offices, community hubs, sports and leisure banks, and even an international airport. And most recently, in more recent years, she's been involved in really honing her local government experience and establishing that strongly in the community hub and early years.
Paula Kelly Paull: Certainly this is involved embracing libraries which are more and more an extension of that hub typology that we're all quite familiar with now, and in that I can attest to that wonderful strong, collaborative design process that Miranda employs
Paula Kelly Paull: through Mantric at that, the the development of these sorts of community facility designs. I had the wonderful privilege of working with Miranda as well. So I know that what she's talking about is absolutely walking the walk and talking, the talk
Paula Kelly Paull: mantrics, advocates for this community centred emphasis for all public projects. It has a real passion for supporting strong and resilient community strategies.
Paula Kelly Paull: She's also Miranda, I should say, is also known as being the go fixer for your library. Which was formerly ahl, and across their 13 branches over the past 16 years. So very long and deep relationship with your library.
Paula Kelly Paull: This also included design for multi-level master plans, comprehensive re-planning light touch fixes to realize new operational improvements that are required over time. And of course, most recently Miranda and Sarah have worked together and collaborated on the Knox counts with the Knox Council to design the New Knox Regional Library at Westfield, Knox Shopping Center.
Paula Kelly Paull: That beautiful library is also known as as Knox Nagu, so to speak, about that experience and the beautiful design that has evolved. We'll hand over shortly to Miranda before we do that I want to also just touch on our other panelists, which, of course, from city of Melbourne
Paula Kelly Paull: and the beautiful new Nam Nagu Library, which is, course, is on the Queen Victoria, or adjacent to the Queen Victoria side. We're going to have Catherine Duncan, who is from the city of Melbourne. Libraries, is the venue and precinct partnership manager and their architect, Mastura Mokhtar from
Paula Kelly Paull: 3 degree. Sorry I was going to say 6 degree architects. I don't know why I've got third degree connection there it must have been from the Linkedin connection that we used to have, that we now have, which is first degree but 6 degrees architects, and we'll hear a little bit about Matsuo shortly, and their architecture company so welcome to all of our presenters and panelists.
Paula Kelly Paull: And also we have Francois Sharon, who I'll be introducing you to from Bibliotecha shortly. Welcome, and I'm going to hand over to firstly, to Miranda. Thank you so much.
Miranda Ellis: Actually, I think we're going to first of all hand over to Sarah. Sarah is ready.
Sarah Hopkins: I'm just going to introduce the Knox Library at Knox Nagu, as we're calling it, and for people who aren't from Victoria or Melbourne, Nagu is a wolverung word, meaning place of learning. So a close translation to the word library. And you, if you're very eagle eye, you'll notice that in Melbourne. It's spelt differently to the way it's spelt in Knox.
Sarah Hopkins: But that's what happens when you're working with a language that isn't written down. So we are what used to be called a regional Library corporation. We run the public libraries for 3 council areas out in the outer east of Melbourne.
Sarah Hopkins: and the library at the Knox Westfield shopping center is the main library for the city of Knox, their biggest
Sarah Hopkins: library. It's slightly confusing, because it's called the Knox library. It's in the city of Knox. It's actually in the suburb of one Turner.
Sarah Hopkins: and it is part of a shopping center, and it has been there.
Sarah Hopkins: I think, since the shopping center was first built in the 80. So it's been well established as a library in a shopping center, and it's been on the cards for redevelopment
Sarah Hopkins: for a long time before I started with your library, which was 7 years ago. So in fact, when I started in 2017, I was told my first job was to get the library ready to move. It was imminent, but here we are in 2024, and we just opened the library in
Sarah Hopkins: March, so.
Paula Kelly Paull: A big.
Sarah Hopkins: Library in a shopping center hasn't really been opened as a big library since Pre. Covid, so there are quite a lot of unknowns in the mix
Sarah Hopkins: and we can talk a bit about how we work through those in the design process.
Sarah Hopkins: Perhaps after Miranda's explained her work.
Paula Kelly Paull: Beautiful. Thank you so much, Sarah, and we're so looking forward to seeing some of these beautiful images of this new library, Miranda, thank you.
Miranda Ellis: Alrighty. Well, I get the fun thing because I get to show off
Miranda Ellis: what the the photos look like.
Miranda Ellis: so that I don't
Miranda Ellis: everything. Okay, my screen's okay. Yep.
Miranda Ellis: beautiful. Thank you.
Miranda Ellis: So just very briefly, mantra architecture is a local government specialist company. So as Paula noted in intro. We we do all sorts of work. Sports, stadiums, aquatic centers lots of community hubs with.
Miranda Ellis: We actually now kind of believe that
Miranda Ellis: virtually all buildings, for in a local government context should be
Miranda Ellis: hubs of some sort. So even our stadiums have really large social engagement spices, cafes, and whatnot to encourage people to stay so rather than coming in finding sport and leaving. People are now coming and staying. There's an event on my there for the whole day. And so that kind of community hub, I guess, spills through for all of our work.
Miranda Ellis: For me personally. Obviously, I'm I've been working at Main Street. I think I've been here for about 17 years or something, and before that I was
Miranda Ellis: doing all sorts of different things, working in
Miranda Ellis: offices cafes. So it was a really good broad mix of experience to come into the local government realm.
Miranda Ellis: Many aons ago I think I worked out it was 2,008. We were brought on board by sharp be our ranges to look at, relocating the Lily Dial library into a tenancy for them.
Miranda Ellis: and we hadn't done any library work before, and my only experience of libraries was
Miranda Ellis: taking my little kids into a library that had a hard floor beautiful. I was paranoid about them, dropping something paranoid about noise.
Miranda Ellis: paranoid about what I might do and not do. And we didn't really go back very often
Miranda Ellis: so in my experience when I met with your library, was, I was amazed at the ethos that I was hearing from from the the CEO and Sarah's I guess. Counterpart
Miranda Ellis: and that was, what are other people doing? What are overseas doing? We want teams in. They make noise. That's okay.
Miranda Ellis: people can eat in here. They can drink in here all these things that I had never experienced.
Miranda Ellis: In my upbringing with libraries, and probably most people. Haven't haven't experienced that if they're not going to the modern library now.
Miranda Ellis: So I was a bit blown away and loved my experience on the library.
Miranda Ellis: So following that I, we had a call to say.
Miranda Ellis: we're looking at a library that's on 3 levels, and we have no idea how to go about this.
Miranda Ellis: So your library sent me up to Queensland to look at the most recent library that was over 3 levels, and sent me all over the place to look at library so that we could help support them through
Miranda Ellis: being the interface, I guess, between the architectural drawings that the shopping center was providing.
Miranda Ellis: and how, whether or not that would work as a library. Many on slide of that was that became real, that that project
Miranda Ellis: all the.
Miranda Ellis: And so that was my experience initially with your library. Since then, as Paula said.
Miranda Ellis: we've been doing lots of fix up, so I get a call, and it might be. People are doing this, and it doesn't work for us. How do we make people move in a different way through the library
Miranda Ellis: or the the way the shelving is oriented means people don't access certain areas because the city is too close.
Miranda Ellis: The operations don't work. So my experience I certainly are. The last decade or so is coming in and fixing up things that are not quite working.
Miranda Ellis: So it was great to start on Knox Library from the beginning. It's a pretty interesting project because
Miranda Ellis: it was starting before the building had been completed, and it was starting really before the design was completed. Because
Miranda Ellis: Westfields, because they're a development arm. They were kind of designing as they went along and discovering things and changing their designs. And the shot front of our of the library changed multiple times. The shape of the library changed multiple times
Miranda Ellis: so initially, all I was doing was find work. Very. So go back to this. This is what the shell of the library looked like. So it was a big concrete bunker with a pretty cool
Miranda Ellis: waffle slab that was in not great nick.
Miranda Ellis: and and some good windows. The saving grace of it
Miranda Ellis: was it was really cool.
Miranda Ellis: So so it was actually a pretty great space, but it was pretty hard to tell. On the early days when we first had a look.
Miranda Ellis: We also had an interesting scenario. That council were our client, but Westfield
Miranda Ellis: controlled
Miranda Ellis: what the facade was going to look like.
Miranda Ellis: and I
Miranda Ellis: had views on
Miranda Ellis: or on what the design looked like. So we were having to work with council and our stakeholder group, of which your your library was part of, and getting them across the line with something. But then we would go to Westfield, and they would not necessarily agree with the direction we were heading.
Miranda Ellis: So it was a really challenging project to get up and running
Miranda Ellis: so initially Westfield had real views on what the facade should be, and then we come back with a whole lot of different things, not to Westfield, but to our client and the group that we really wanted to be happy to say, what do you want out of this library, you know? Is it playful? Is it? Is it an environmental?
Miranda Ellis: So by philic response, is it
Miranda Ellis: fun? Is it?
Miranda Ellis: Is it a reading eye folly, is it? You know what?
Miranda Ellis: What is the direction that we want to take this library.
Miranda Ellis: and ultimately surprised. But the
Miranda Ellis: came back and said, We want something that's fun.
Miranda Ellis: and and has an identity that stands out in them in. What was this shopping center?
Miranda Ellis: So they wanted a big fish tank.
Miranda Ellis: And and so we work through a number of options of what this might look like in the space
Miranda Ellis: while we were doing that we were testing. How is this library going to operate?
Miranda Ellis: Sorry
Miranda Ellis: we knew we had north facing windows. We have all facing windows. We were up a level. So most people would actually experience this from below.
Miranda Ellis: And we needed to make sure that the library itself was. Gonna so we went through what exercises to say, what happens if the lounge is here? What happens if the returns area is here in the admin space. Can we separate them? Do they need to be together? Should they be connected to the custom service area? Where do we count the kids? Do we want kids front and the back
Miranda Ellis: where our quiet areas where our loud areas.
Miranda Ellis: And so we went through lots of exercises to actually establish
Miranda Ellis: how we thought the space might best be laid out.
Miranda Ellis: and that is where we were utilizing your library, our experience, but also your library. They're the ones that are going to be running the space. So they're the ones that need to make sure that operates correctly.
Miranda Ellis: At the end of this
Miranda Ellis: process the project went out to market.
Miranda Ellis: Luckily we want it again. So that was all good.
Miranda Ellis: So then we started that development. The shape of the facade was locked in the shape of the tenancy was locked in, so we went back to mud mapping, taking the principles we had before, and applying them to this new shape.
Miranda Ellis: and I guess the key things for your library was
Miranda Ellis: from the main entry. They wanted customer service to be close by. They wanted their customer service staff to be able to
Miranda Ellis: deal with returns when they were quiet.
Miranda Ellis: And so that started the connection of
Miranda Ellis: mail entry. We move the entry from. We will still have it.
Miranda Ellis: and returns and customer service and working were all upfront.
Miranda Ellis: Not gonna light it over, but at the same time we were back with the facade.
Miranda Ellis: So Westfield decided that they didn't want our curvy facade. They wanted a structure, a very vertical
Miranda Ellis: facade that basically extended the outside of the building inside the building, which meant. We were really tying into the architecture and not
Miranda Ellis: having a separate identity.
Miranda Ellis: So we had quite the tussle with Westfields.
Miranda Ellis: and went through lots of exercises to try and come up with a happy compromise.
Miranda Ellis: And this was where we ended up, where we they allowed us to go white, so that it wasn't so dominant that facade wasn't so dominant.
Miranda Ellis: The feedback we were getting from your library is, books are really busy.
Miranda Ellis: so we don't want a really busy facade. We don't want really busy finishes when books actually are really busy.
Miranda Ellis: So we were taking this information back to Westville and trying to challenge them on what
Miranda Ellis: Adam.
Miranda Ellis: While we were doing this, the concept plans develop further. We were starting to look at shelving layouts, quantities of shelves, that sort of thing.
Miranda Ellis: maybe. And then what does this gotta look like.
Miranda Ellis: is we? There was no clear direction at that point from the stakeholder group
Miranda Ellis: or council, so we were testing things out, is it? Is there lots of nature in the space? Westfield had already said that.
Miranda Ellis: We proposed a garden in one of our spaces.
Miranda Ellis: and Westfield loved that idea, and they actually developed that further and put planting along the facade as well.
Miranda Ellis: So we knew that there was going to be garden facted into this. But what else was it? It's a big concrete space.
Miranda Ellis: direct Delinea. So how do we actually move people through so that they flow through the space
Miranda Ellis: rather than kind of move jerkily through it. I guess
Miranda Ellis: wrong.
Miranda Ellis: And so we were testing them. Okay, we know where the spaces are. But what are they?
Miranda Ellis: How do we let people walk through this space
Miranda Ellis: and want to experience more, want to move further through the space rather than just going to the area that they were after.
Miranda Ellis: With the garden came the idea of a journey and a secret garden. So, playing off the book.
Miranda Ellis: This idea of
Miranda Ellis: that you can't see everything from when you first walk in, and that you you can see enough to orient yourself, but not enough that you feel like you
Miranda Ellis: don't need to explore.
Miranda Ellis: So the shapes of the spaces, these that you walked under were all about encouraging people to wander through the space and not just go to their destination.
Miranda Ellis: So these images are just some of the concept images that we played with
Miranda Ellis: through the process. We had to take money out of out of the job and most of the ceilings out. So we exposed the waffle flag.
Miranda Ellis: So we use ceilings that we could have as a way of leading people through the space.
Miranda Ellis: And this idea of journey and being under elements having doubled light in those spices, so it feels like trees.
Miranda Ellis: and just making sure that each space had a little element. That was a discovery for somebody to look at.
Miranda Ellis: While we were doing this we worked with council to
Miranda Ellis: Layer over some indigenous artwork and worked out some key areas that we would like that to
Miranda Ellis: come through the space.
Miranda Ellis: And and so we gave a brief to council and council, went out to the market, and this painting was designed
Miranda Ellis: to represent what we were trying to do with the library.
Miranda Ellis: I've been.
Miranda Ellis: we lose this lot, this
Miranda Ellis: painting, to then bring that that artwork through the space and incorporate it into the library, so become ceiling elements and glazing elements around the facade of the library.
Miranda Ellis: So this is it in the flesh, here, up here in the ceiling.
Miranda Ellis: and then some of the spices on the outside, so the boxes that that we're still wanted us to have, that we tweaked to something that we were happy with, then became our avenue for artwork.
Miranda Ellis: One of the other things that we explored was.
Miranda Ellis: how can we make the shelving look a little more fluid and softer edged.
Miranda Ellis: and we work with Rico to
Miranda Ellis: test out a number of ways
Miranda Ellis: that we could do it. Course, we came up with lots of ways that were really really expensive.
Miranda Ellis: And then we worked. And through that process with right now we came up with an idea that just soften the edges. There's a lot of shelving in 2,000 m² of library. So just a simple act of
Miranda Ellis: curbing off the edges
Miranda Ellis: meant that
Miranda Ellis: the shelving flowed with the idea of what we're trying to do with space.
Miranda Ellis: The other thing that we wanted to do was we had some different colored children with this area.
Miranda Ellis: We tested different colors, and ultimately what we decided was
Miranda Ellis: that we would have some 2 time shelving. So that's actually 3 different types of
Miranda Ellis: timber and black shelving. So sometimes we ended up with black ends. Sometimes we ended up. Tiba ends.
Miranda Ellis: But that idea that the black makes the timber seem rather than the timber, just being a sea of color that's signed.
Miranda Ellis: So you know I've just got some
Miranda Ellis: images from the library.
Miranda Ellis: and that's it for me. So if you want to chat, I'm not sure if you can chat while I'm just showing those different slides.
Miranda Ellis: So I'm all support.
Paula Kelly Paull: Yes, beautiful. Thank you so much, Miranda, for showing us these gorgeous images of this library. So, Sarah, you know some comments.
Sarah Hopkins: I can chat in my last 2 min. I mean, the library is beautiful, and luckily that's what the community thinks as well. So the library opened on the eighth of March.
Sarah Hopkins: and I think the technical term is that it's gone off like a cracker. We've had thousands of people through the door every day since we opened. The lines have gone through the roof. New memberships have gone through the roof. The we've had, we thought, you know 2,000 m² is a lot of space, and we put in a lot of chairs and tables, and we've had days when every single one of them has been occupied, which is, you know, librarians drive.
Paula Kelly Paull: Now.
Sarah Hopkins: So it's been really successful, really popular. The being so visible in the shopping center has brought a whole range of people into the library that either hadn't been in before or hadn't been in for a long time. In the first 3 days I saw the most
Sarah Hopkins: bedraggled old Eastern regional library cards coming out of people's wallets I've never seen before, like I don't know if this still works. It's like, Oh, don't worry. We'll sign you up
Sarah Hopkins: and lots of civic pride, lots of people coming and saying, we have waited so long. We are so happy to see this, you know.
Sarah Hopkins: for us. So I think, you know, on lots of different levels. It's been very successful. I can talk more at the end about how we designed the staff space, because it was very important to me that it. This is a library that is easy for the staff to work. It's a it's a big space. We have quite lean staffing model
Sarah Hopkins: at your library. Sorry it had to be that the staff could do as much as possible with the least uptake of their energy, so they have their energy to deal with the people and help them.
Sarah Hopkins: And so far all our design solutions are working really well, and the other thing that we're really happy with is that people are borrowing the books. So they're not just rushing into use. The computers, the loans have really
Sarah Hopkins: gone up. And you know, in libraries, where is the breakdown between the physical and the digital way, is it? Gonna land is is, you know, an ongoing question, but it is good to say that the physical collection is really working out, and of course the children's collection is just, you know, practically decimated. So.
Paula Kelly Paull: That's me!
Sarah Hopkins: Lying out the door.
Sarah Hopkins: so yes, we couldn't.
Paula Kelly Paull: A.
Sarah Hopkins: Could not have been happy. In fact, I kept texting Miranda after we open 2,000 people came in today. 3,000 people came in today. So
Sarah Hopkins: yeah, it's Bakrish.
Paula Kelly Paull: That's a great story, Sarah, and it really is a fantastic Testament to the partnership that your library has with Mantrk and with Miranda Ellis in particular. Thank you so much. That's wonderful. We are going to hear from you later on in the in the show, and we are going to hand over now, though, to another lovely library example. And I'm just going to remind people, if you've got some questions as our presenters are speaking, please put your question in the Q&A section down in the bottom of your screen
Paula Kelly Paull: screen, you can see a Q&A there, you can type a question in there, and we will come to asking and answering your questions as many as we can in the panel section at the end. So we're handing over now to Matsura, Mokhtar and Catherine Duncan and Matsura, of course, is the architect who's been working on the beautiful new city of Melbourne libraries
Paula Kelly Paull: precinct area with the Queen Victoria as the backdrop Queen Victoria Market, I should say, as the backdrop with the wonderful Nam Nagu. It's a beautiful library, and matsura has joined the team, been working on this project for some time, as we know, they are iterative, and of course I was interested. Matsura to notice
Paula Kelly Paull: that you'll what the naming of your company how that came about. It was lovely in in looking back on that and hearing that there are 6 architects in this wonderful group, who joined all as graduate architects and love that idea. Having lived in Cremon, near the Nile X. Factory, where the temperature. Readout used to be, of course, and these 6 architects together were thinking, what are we going to call ourselves?
Paula Kelly Paull: And they looked up, happened to be 6 degrees on the dialect sign at the time, so I love that.
Mastura Mokhtar: Exactly. Yeah.
Paula Kelly Paull: That's great matsuro. So welcome, Matsura, and of course, welcome to Catherine Duncan, who is one of my ex colleagues from the city of Melbourne, of course, and, as I mentioned earlier, is the venue and precinct
Paula Kelly Paull: partnership manager for the city of Melbourne libraries. She's passionate about working and leading and developing people, and together with her team, has been developing and delivering a library service that welcomes and grows the communities. We are really excited to hear a bit more about your beautiful library down there, Matsura and Catherine over to you.
Kathryn Donkin: It's a magical.
Mastura Mokhtar: Yeah, Catherine's going to start off, and then I'll
Mastura Mokhtar: piggyback off of that.
Kathryn Donkin: Thanks so much, Matt. And thank you, Paul, and thank you. Everyone. I'm speaking from Nam Nagu Library, which is located on the Ranger country, and I pay respects to the traditional owners of this beautiful land, past, present, and emerging
Kathryn Donkin: Nam Nagu Library opened at the end of November 2023. And I know a lot of you have been through. We've had about 81,000 people through the the doors, which is very exciting.
Kathryn Donkin: Similarly to Knox Nagu. We're on 3 levels. So that made it challenging for 6 degrees in the design. I'm just gonna do a brief overview of the library, and then I will hand over to my to describe the journey further.
Kathryn Donkin: City of city of Melbourne libraries. One of their 3 strategic principles was about celebrating and learning about aboriginal culture and heritage, so luckily we were part of arts, Melbourne as well. So we were able to incorporate a lot of
Kathryn Donkin: first Nations art into the design which I know that the architects took into mind. As far as the initial research, the leadership team worked in consultation with Row Andrew Council from the beginning. As I said, we have a lot of first nations artworks as well as heritage. Victoria Art works
Kathryn Donkin: the library. It is a public library within an art gallery, and also, like Sorry Roy, we were wrong. Language expert was used to name key areas throughout the building.
Kathryn Donkin: We are also a shared facility. So family services on is on level 3 along with our children's library, and as well as that.
Kathryn Donkin: no, let me talk through the flaws so level one is where our concierge
Kathryn Donkin: and safety staff greet people as they come into the library, because it is on 3 floors. It's quite complex. So it is important to welcome people into the space. They can then direct the traffic and tell them which floor where to go. On level one. We have a big open reading room, which, similarly to Sarah's Knox library, is full of
Kathryn Donkin: people on chairs. Every chair is used by the end of the day. We have public Pcs to podcasting studios and make a space, a couple of meeting rooms and
Kathryn Donkin: as well as a changing places. Facility on level 2. We have the base, the the major adult collection. Reflecting the diverse community within the city. Community languages, learn English books, magazines, quite study room
Kathryn Donkin: as well as the main customer service or library experience. Technicians
Kathryn Donkin: where they welcome people in a book sorta, and and a staff room is on level 2 on level 3 is the children's library. If you've been here, it's down a corridor which, when we looked at that concrete shell. Mass.
Kathryn Donkin: We, we were told down there will be a passage to the children's library, and all we saw was concrete, and we thought, oh, my goodness, how how is that going to be welcoming amazingly Murray Clark's team of artists have created this beautiful mirrored wall like a forest, with beautiful artistic carpet.
Kathryn Donkin: leading kids and kids hopscotch down the corridor so it couldn't be better to welcome people into the space. There's also a beautiful terrace on the third floor, which has a lot of native plantings and plants that are reflected along with the animals that are reflected throughout the building as well as another meeting room, so I'll just hand over to Maz to to offer up some more knowledge.
Mastura Mokhtar: Sure. Thanks, Katherine. Katherine. That was like a really good introduction.
Mastura Mokhtar: Let me just share my screen.
Mastura Mokhtar: I can find it.
Paula Kelly Paull: And the bottom name is.
Paula Kelly Paull: okay.
Mastura Mokhtar: Give me a sec. Just can't find the adobe screen. Give me a sec.
Mastura Mokhtar: It worked before, when we were practising.
Paula Kelly Paull: While you're doing that I'll just mention. You know I've had the privilege of having a look at this beautiful library, and it is very clever. What they've done with that walkway, Catherine you mentioned, you know you feel like you're being enticed down it rather than Oh, my God, I'm walking down this, you know.
Paula Kelly Paull: Awful tunnel. It's really
Paula Kelly Paull: I have a team.
Mastura Mokhtar: But it's funny you mentioned about that corridor, because the original thought that was that we wanted to drive kids through the corridor. So they get to the children's library
Mastura Mokhtar: as fast as they can, so the intention was to scare them to push them down a corridor, but now they actually linger around and actually have fun in the corridor. So it's quite. It's quite good.
Mastura Mokhtar: Okay? So to start, Hello, my name is Mastura, and I'm an associate at 6 degrees architects.
Mastura Mokhtar: I was a project lead for the the Queen, the Monroe Development Building, which now houses the Namga go library and family services.
Mastura Mokhtar: So to start to start, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the project site and and also the site that we are operating from today
Mastura Mokhtar: the wounded warrior people. As a traditional custodians
Mastura Mokhtar: we pay our deepest respects to elders, past and present.
Mastura Mokhtar: So for those who are not familiar with Melbourne.
Mastura Mokhtar: this is where the library is located. So it's to the north of the huddle grid in in the in the larger precinct for the Queen Victoria market.
Mastura Mokhtar: So where you're looking at in red. There, that's where the project is, and we're flanked by
Mastura Mokhtar: Queen Street and Thiry Street, so you wouldn't miss the building if you were in that area
Mastura Mokhtar: 3D view of the building. So
Mastura Mokhtar: again, as I said, it's hard to miss. You will see the red and white facade. That's an artwork done by Rose Nolan.
Mastura Mokhtar: And the library sits within this building right here in the corner. So just a bit of back story.
Mastura Mokhtar: This building? Well, this project started, landed on our desks around 2015, and back. Then the building was intended to be a very different to have a very different purpose. It was meant to be a community hub with a childcare center
Mastura Mokhtar: fast forward to, you know, 2 years, 2, 3 years ago, Post, Covid, City of Melbourne, regrouped and decided that
Mastura Mokhtar: this building needs to have a better purpose to serve the city.
Mastura Mokhtar: and what they've done was a community survey. They they they collected a lot of information from the local residents, asking them, what would you like to have in the city? What would you? What kind of facility would you like to have in the building, and and what kind of library would you like to have?
Mastura Mokhtar: And A lot of the feedback were very positive, and and
Mastura Mokhtar: the biggest, I think.
Mastura Mokhtar: need that the community wanted with an extension of their city living. So when you live in the city. You don't really have a big living room. You don't have, you know, a work from Home Office. Say, if you lived in an apartment you need, you know, additional space to do your work, to to have private conversations, or have meetings, and those with sort of information that we're
Mastura Mokhtar: collected to inform the design for this library, and I felt that
Mastura Mokhtar: that back all that work in the background by city of Melbourne was was what was successful about this library, and
Mastura Mokhtar: now that the building is a library, I think it was an amazing offering to the market and the the wider precinct, and it was the best decision. I felt that that was made by seat of Melbourne.
Mastura Mokhtar: So when you approach the building, you can see there's a there's this, there's a few entries of the building. So to the left of the screen, there, where all the trees are. That's that's flanking the edge of the Queen Victoria Market. So that's Theory Street and you enter the building from you. Sorry you enter the library from Theory Street just to the south of that. Just the bottom of that red and white screen.
Mastura Mokhtar: and the other entry you have is from the Queen Queen Street, where my mouse is there. So so there's 2 entries. So the Queen Street entry in the future will open up to the wider Queen Victoria Market precinct. But right now the main entry is at 3 30 Street.
Mastura Mokhtar: So what I'll do next is just run through some design principles. So based on what you've heard from Katherine before, just. I'm just gonna reiterate some of the points that that she'd mentioned. So
Mastura Mokhtar: the design principles for the library. The first thing was celebration of country.
Mastura Mokhtar: It. W. It was important that we embrace countries through waivering language and and artwork, storytelling and landscape, and and, for example, the library itself is called Namga, meaning Melbourne knowledge.
Mastura Mokhtar: And and throughout the building
Mastura Mokhtar: main rooms and spaces have dual names for their identities. The next bit that was important for the design was, it places a strong focus on the people where accessibility is important and a safe space is available for everyone from all walks of life.
Mastura Mokhtar: As Catherine mentioned, the building has a changing places facility, and it's the first in the precinct that is open to the public, and and this reaffirms the design principle of being accessible to all.
Mastura Mokhtar: And and the last principle is,
Mastura Mokhtar: the library and family services celebrates knowledge not only in the form of books, but also embracing modern day learning methods through facilities such as the maker space, sound studios for podcast recordings and and the event space for public talks. So the image we're looking at in the background is actually called the Bagonga room, which is a reading room.
Mastura Mokhtar: That's also Con can be converted into an event space where you have retractable seating towards the back and a curtain closing it off. I was there one Saturday, and they had a sustainability talk. They were talking about how to upcycle clothes, and and on one side you have the meet. You have the event. Someone speaking, and on the other side. You just have like a swap meet for all the clothes. So so it's quite impressive how the building has been used since since it's opening
Mastura Mokhtar: so with the next couple of slides, I'm gonna show. I'm just gonna show you some, you know, really
Mastura Mokhtar: great shots of the library. Just you know some eye candy showing what the library actually looks like. But I I would encourage everyone who who's in Melbourne, or who is coming to Melbourne to come and visit library in person, because
Mastura Mokhtar: the the I think
Mastura Mokhtar: it it's very different. Looking at it through photos as compared to being there in person. So numbers.
Paula Kelly Paull: And Atlanta.
Mastura Mokhtar: Yeah.
Paula Kelly Paull: Absolutely. It's a really incredible experience, so lovely. If you can just flick us through some of those images.
Mastura Mokhtar: Well, they're.
Paula Kelly Paull: And know that, of course. For both these libraries. Both for Catherine and Sarah. I know that they would welcome visits, and for people to talk to them about their library development. So Jan, just flip us through mess.
Mastura Mokhtar: Yeah, for sure. So this is the main collection for the library. So this is on level 2, as Katherine mentioned before, this is where all the main books are for the for adults. And okay, I'm not endorsed by Rico or sponsored by Rico here. But we worked really closely with Lisa Sharp from Rico and it was really.
Mastura Mokhtar: it was really interesting how
Mastura Mokhtar: many products they have available, and how easy it was to specify or identify, or
Mastura Mokhtar: so, then, what our needs were in terms of like displaying all the books, and and I think the fact that city of Melbourne, as well, very familiar with Rico products, made it very easy to, you know, select the product and have it on display as as how they want it to be. So, yeah, just just yeah. Pick thumbs up to Rico.
Mastura Mokhtar: But what we're looking at here is the main collection library, and as you can see, it's very colorful.
Mastura Mokhtar: and the carpet is actually designed by Marie Clark and her team.
Mastura Mokhtar: So they they did an amazing job, bringing in the market's vibrancy into the artworks and internal space of the library, and and because the artwork is very colorful and very vibrant for us as as as the architects, we sort of paired back
Mastura Mokhtar: the internal space, just so that the artwork and the books shine more. Because that's that's the main attraction for the library. So with the shelving. We were quite
Mastura Mokhtar: restrained with the colors. We kept it black powder coat, and and it sort of lent a bit of an industrial vibe, which is sort of the look we were going for with the library lending, you know.
Mastura Mokhtar: a bit of homage to the the industrial parts of the site. So that's that's sort of the aesthetic we were going for, you know, very industrial surrounds. And then the live, and then the books and the and the carpets sort of shined
Mastura Mokhtar: with seating as well, because that was one of the big things that came out of the survey. People want an extension of the living room. So we sort of introduce a range of different seating options you have quiet seating for, for you know, studying or working, and you have a bit more loungey
Mastura Mokhtar: seats, and and you have, you know, cafe style, banquet seats, and and we sort of tried to mingle them around with the shelving, so that, you know, you have people sitting in quiet corners, but but also, you know, a bit more interaction between, you know, people borrowing books and people just sitting around having a nice coffee in a book.
Paula Kelly Paull: 2.
Mastura Mokhtar: Some few shots looking through level 2
Mastura Mokhtar: and then now on level 3 children's library. So on level 3, as Katherine mentioned, it's it's dedicated to family and children, where you have family services on one end of level 3, but also on the other side of level 3. You have the Main Children's Library, Bob Bubbup, Willem Library, and then you have the main terrace outside.
Mastura Mokhtar: so which which makes it really great because level 3 is all dedicated to family and children. It makes it a very
Mastura Mokhtar: safe and secure place.
Mastura Mokhtar: So going through Children's library and and also the children's library. Correct me if I'm wrong, Catherine, but it's one of the first dedicated Children's Library for city of Melbourne. I mean, there are children, Section, and then other libraries within city of Melbourne. But this one is dedicated for children, and and the layout itself. It's it on one end. It has for older children. You have your bit more young adult books, and you have video games. And then on the other end you have a bit more
Mastura Mokhtar: books catered for younger children, and and and again Rico products made it made all the books really shine. So with this one can't remember what the shoving was, but we we had to select sort of one like a browser tab, so that kids can just like ruff ruffle through all the books. And then another one was more of a picture book like a tier display if you can see in the background there.
Mastura Mokhtar: So it's just different
Mastura Mokhtar: ways of displaying the books because I think what was important. And this was expressed by Shirley from city of Melbourne is that these books are merchandise, and we need to display them so that people are attracted to them and and borrow more books. So so it was quite an interesting exercise, you know, learning how to merchandise books and display them. So people would just, you know, gravitate towards them.
Mastura Mokhtar: And and so this is just a look from the kids library
Mastura Mokhtar: bit of a close up of some of the display shells.
Paula Kelly Paull: That's why you're flipping through that. I just wanna say it's such an important point. You know, around having this book front and center, and of course, Shirley Prescott, who works at the city of Melbourne, has been a great advocate of red development and of promoting collections which is lovely. So it's beautiful to see this being taken
Paula Kelly Paull: so seriously within the custodianship, if you like, of the collections and what they're providing for the communities, and just beautiful to see this.
Mastura Mokhtar: Yeah, absolutely. And and I didn't mention it before. But even on level 2, you can see there's a mix of shelving where some of them have the spine display, and some have the front display, and and that was strategically positioned. So that when you walk through the main thoroughfare you actually see the book front face. And so you know, you know what what that book is. So you more attracted to that shelf that sort of thing. So it was. It was very clever strategy, I think. The way they position all the books. So second last slide here, just a just a
Mastura Mokhtar: image from the children's library. So, as I said before, that it's not just about books with this library. There's also activity. Spaces, so say for the adults. You have the maker space where it's all laser cutting. You know, 3D printing and stuff. But for children we have this space towards the northern end where it's a flexible space where you could do storytelling gunk making, you know, reading books or all that things. So it's it's really important to have all these flexible spaces, so
Mastura Mokhtar: the libraries can evolve with time, but also it can. It can accommodate different kinds of activities.
Paula Kelly Paull: And evolve community too, maz, I think, as well.
Mastura Mokhtar: Excellent. Thank you.
Paula Kelly Paull: So this has just been a gorgeous overview of this beautiful.
Mastura Mokhtar: All right.
Paula Kelly Paull: As we'll come back to you. In the panel. We're just gonna move on. Now, if that's okay for your.
Mastura Mokhtar: Yeah, that's good. Is that this is the last slide. It was perfect timing.
Paula Kelly Paull: Okay, lovely. We're going to flip now to. I'm going to introduce to Francois Sharon again, who is actually at Biblioteca. He is the Australia and New Zealand sales manager and and Francis welcome. He's going to introduce us to a couple of international libraries that been in the lights, the headlights of late. So over you, Francois, and just a reminder for people to pop your questions in the QA. Section, and then I'll be answering those shortly in the panel section.
François Charon: Thank you, Paula. Good afternoon, everyone
François Charon: 2 of the 4 libraries shortlisted for the Public Library of a year in 2023 by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Ifla were biotech customers.
François Charon: So the finalists were Shanghai Library east in China and Gabriel Garcia Marquez Library in Spain.
François Charon: So we're really proud of this as a company. This achievement really showcases the company's commitment to empowering libraries worldwide with innovative and transformative solutions.
François Charon: The public library of a year award recognizes libraries that successfully combine open functional
François Charon: architecture with creative it solutions. So at digital developments and also local culture. So let's take a look at those 2 short videos of those 2 amazing libraries.
Paula Kelly Paull: Thanks, Francois beautiful can't wait to have a look. And of course, while that's starting we know that the beautiful Gabriel Garcia Marines library. Marquez Library actually won the Public Love Library of the year award the Systemic Public Library of the year award at Ifl. So let's have a look.
Paula Kelly Paull: The beautiful
Paula Kelly Paull: East Shanghai Library, Shanghai East, the most advanced libraries in China.
Paula Kelly Paull: The East Library of Shanghai Library
Paula Kelly Paull: officially opened on September 2820 22,
Paula Kelly Paull: the 115,000 square metre library spans 9 floors, 7 above ground and 2 below, and offers nearly 6,000 seats to accommodate the thousands of lectures and academic activities planned each year.
Paula Kelly Paull: At present Shanghai Library ranks among the top libraries in the world with a collection of more than 57 million items and the ability to serve 4 million patrons annually
Paula Kelly Paull: as a global advocate of innovative library solutions. Biblioteca is proud to have been involved in the design and construction of the advanced automation system of the new Shanghai Library. East Biblioteca provides self-service, checkout and returns automatic sorting and automated materials. Transportation solutions to the library.
Paula Kelly Paull: The east library of Shanghai operates 2 automated material handlers. Amh. The fully transparent sorting and transfer centre on the first floor, allows patrons to see the advanced workflow of a modern library in action.
Paula Kelly Paull: Patrons can watch as materials are automatically sorted and transported via conveyors and elevators to different floors of the library.
Paula Kelly Paull: A larger flex amh system on a lower floor increases convenience for patrons, allowing them to return items borrowed from other libraries to the east library of Shanghai.
Paula Kelly Paull: the flex amh sorts, these items so they can be distributed to the correct libraries.
Paula Kelly Paull: Currently, the Bibliotecha flax, Amh. System can handle book returns of up to 20,000 books per day, with a maximum capacity of 1,200 book returns per hour. It has a sorting capacity of 2,400 books per hour, and the book drop can handle up to 600. Book returns per hour.
Paula Kelly Paull: This flex amh system can be customized and built to meet the needs of libraries, providing an efficient workflow for libraries and a convenient and seamless user experience for readers.
Paula Kelly Paull: Sorry, a beautiful library, but certainly a huge collection that they're dealing with. There. Of course. Let's let's quickly flip on to Gabrielle Garcia and have a quick look, and then we're going to go to a couple of poll questions and some questions from the the participants. Thanks so much, Francois.
François Charon: Thank you.
Paula Kelly Paull: Just while that's coming up, Francois, I just might say to people, we'll go to some poll questions in a moment, but I will get the panel to be thinking about a couple of the questions that are coming in the QA. So we have one of them which is saying, how do you determine which design to use for each of the communities? Is it through a customer brief, or is it through some other way of getting that response. So let's have a look at Gabriel Garcia very quickly, and then we'll come back to the panel. Questions.
Paula Kelly Paull: Aa.
Paula Kelly Paull: Oh, no.
Paula Kelly Paull: I've been working on some research, any sources so badly. I'll meet you at the library. There's no place around the.
Paula Kelly Paull: They are in what I need.
Paula Kelly Paull: Need some online sources.
Paula Kelly Paull: I need the library
Paula Kelly Paull: with knowledge everywhere. It's harder to be where get? Ain't just what you need.
Paula Kelly Paull: Tovan can help you. There help you become a word that much is guaranteed.
Paula Kelly Paull: Give me research. I've completed
Paula Kelly Paull: to heart, and let's use
Paula Kelly Paull: a
Paula Kelly Paull: knowing the
Paula Kelly Paull: everything.
Paula Kelly Paull: and I am reading. There's no place.
Paula Kelly Paull: no, no.
Paula Kelly Paull: and nothing.
Paula Kelly Paull: Some done already.
Paula Kelly Paull: Need to find some more.
Paula Kelly Paull: It also central.
Paula Kelly Paull: So nothing's incomplete.
Paula Kelly Paull: The library's purpose.
Paula Kelly Paull: It's a ring
Paula Kelly Paull: E.
Paula Kelly Paull: Time.
Paula Kelly Paull: I'm in the library.
Paula Kelly Paull: There's no faces.
Paula Kelly Paull: The
Paula Kelly Paull: god is to
Paula Kelly Paull: getting just what you need
Paula Kelly Paull: first.
Paula Kelly Paull: That much is guarantee. I love not.
Paula Kelly Paull: but I can't help but saying, Franco, I was bopping along to that fabulous song, let alone the beautiful images of that wonderful library. There is a company called Brantham that actually works with community organizations to create your own anthem for your brand. Just wanted to put that in there for Dean Menzel a little bit of a plug.
Paula Kelly Paull: Having said that, let's go back to the panel. So we've got time before we go. Quick message from Rico, and then we're going to come to the the channel. I know we need to get a few minutes for people to be on. Ask the questions. Stay with us
Paula Kelly Paull: hopefully. We can flip to that video quickly.
Paula Kelly Paull: No, I'm going to keep talking then until it comes on. So if it cuts me off, I don't mind. So let's go back to that question. Here we go.
Paula Kelly Paull: Here we go
Paula Kelly Paull: back in
Paula Kelly Paull: a
Paula Kelly Paull: me.
Paula Kelly Paull: a
Paula Kelly Paull: eee.
Paula Kelly Paull: a
Paula Kelly Paull: e
Paula Kelly Paull: beautiful. Thank you so much for that little message from Rico, and of course, beautiful Australian made high quality gorgeous products that our architects have spoken about. Today, too. We've got a couple of little poll questions for you, and they're gonna drop down on the screen in a moment. We'd love you our participants to answer these poll questions while we're getting ready to answer the panel questions with QA. So the poll questions will come on your screen a minute when you're ready, and you see them there. Just answer, yes.
Paula Kelly Paull: please not now. Yes, no, or sometimes you can have a look at those there and do that. Really, that's so that we can follow this up with you, so can we help you providing some more information? Yes or no? And, secondly, do you believe that librarians, voices, are heard in their projects when collaborating with architects. What we've got is some fabulous examples here today of the kinds of library
Paula Kelly Paull: projects that have a really strong library voice. I think that's the real success of these stories that we've heard from today. We'd love to know from you the participants. Do you feel that, generally speaking, not talking about the examples today. Just generally speaking, do librarians voices feel they? Their voices are heard? Do they feel their voice? Are heard? It'll just be an interesting little moment for us to have a look at that. So thank you. Please answer those questions
Paula Kelly Paull: now, and we will come back to you and let you know how we are going with that poll in a moment. Let's switch across now to the panel and quickly have some questions. There. There's a few in the Q. And A. Area. I'm going to ask also, just to reassure you, if you can stay on with us for a few minutes after, right on 4 o'clock. We'll keep going with the Q. And A. But I just want to say A very quick thank you to your participation today.
Paula Kelly Paull: just in case people do have to leave right on time. So firstly, we were talking about design, how do we determine which designs gonna use for the community over to Maz and Sarah Catherine, and also Melinda to tell it. Miranda, I should say, to tell us a little bit about how do you? How do you know what the community wants.
Miranda Ellis: I was looking for so.
Mastura Mokhtar: You can go first.
Paula Kelly Paull: Jumping in. That's so good. Alright! Put your head up. You want to go first.
Miranda Ellis: It's not obviously a straightforward answer to me, because some sometimes council, or whoever is guiding the the process, have done a lot of consultation with the community. And so there's a really strong voice that's coming through from who we have. The advocates are, and other times there is
Miranda Ellis: 0 information about any got design direction or the community. So it it does depend on what you're looking at, as far as the information coming at you for us. If we don't have that information.
Miranda Ellis: we ask lots of questions. We try and understand the site and the people that are going into it to guide the design direction. And sometimes it just comes down to the stakeholder direction, and what they think will help guide. So we might come up with, like our example, 4 or 5 different ideas, and just test them all out. Where is the appetite? What people need.
Paula Kelly Paull: Yeah, there's a lot of interest there isn't there, right across the gamut of the people, the partnership that actually makes up these projects. Ms. Did you want to add to that.
Mastura Mokhtar: Yeah, exactly. And it's also challenging like with time, because people's needs change over time. And and and you know, maybe today, they want to have a lot of books. But then, in the future, if we're moving towards more digital, you know applications, we might need more computer rooms and that sort of thing. So libraries from our experience, has been changing quite a fair bit, and it also depends on what kind of libraries. So in the past we've done libraries with universities, and
Mastura Mokhtar: they have an absolutely totally different, brief, different need. And when it's a community library again, it's again a very different need.
Mastura Mokhtar: And and with city of Melbourne
Mastura Mokhtar: with this library we've done with them. There was a big demand for, say, like a maker space, because that's seems to be like the new thing for libraries nowadays. So who knows in the future what libraries.
Paula Kelly Paull: Absolutely going to be. And I think what's fascinating is that both of these libraries have given us a great example of the book is still very much what people come to libraries for.
Paula Kelly Paull: And that's been a consistent kind of community response we've had over the years right across our country. Absolutely. Another question we've got here is money spent on these projects.
Paula Kelly Paull: any suggestions for improving layouts for secondary school libraries. So I'm not sure if Miranda or Mas, whether you've had experience, direct experience for school libraries. But maybe we'll take that question offline as well, and come back to you, Robin, for your question. But here's another one for you. I have a question regarding the industrial look of the 6 Degrees Library.
Paula Kelly Paull: Suppose ceiling produce sounds from the above floors, for example. So another question there, how do you.
Mastura Mokhtar: Yeah, so we actually, yeah. So we had to actually, acoustically treat the the ceilings of feet. So even though it looks very exposed. But we actually have this spray on recyclable product that that actually helps with a lot of the acoustic issues.
Mastura Mokhtar: That's just the quick answer. Yeah.
Paula Kelly Paull: Thank you more, more depth, I'm sure to that as well. Of course.
Mastura Mokhtar: Catherine wanted to.
Kathryn Donkin: I was just gonna say operationally, though you've got always bring in the operational thing. The air conditioning vents are all exposed. So we've actually had to do some rework there, because.
Mastura Mokhtar: Hmm.
Kathryn Donkin: There was some original build issues there. So.
Mastura Mokhtar: Only.
Kathryn Donkin: Until you actually living in this space, you know, you don't know. But as far as sound from upstairs go no issue at all.
Mastura Mokhtar: Hmm.
Paula Kelly Paull: Beautiful, and Sarah.
Sarah Hopkins: I wanted to go back to the previous question about consultation, because we didn't mention this. But the Knox Library is a co-location with councils use
Sarah Hopkins: team, and they need some work with their youth Advisory Group, saying, Well, what would you like in the library? And the interesting thing for me that came back was, well, we wanted to look like a library, so we wanted to still have that library feel we want to be able to see the books and the shelves, and we want to be able to come here and do work. So that was quite reassuring for us in that. What young people are looking for in their public library is still something that looks and feels like a library.
Sarah Hopkins: And I guess the other thing it's really hard is that, as we know from those of us who worked in old libraries is that once the library is built, it's around for a really long time so trying to think about not only how we do things now.
Sarah Hopkins: but how we might do them in the future is really important and a bit tricky.
Paula Kelly Paull: Absolutely. And I think you know, one of the things that's evident in this presentation we've had is that wonderful relationship that you have between the librarians and what the librarians are looking for and the architects. Can can you speak about that a little bit? Perhaps any of you about your experience. There, what's the key to making sure that that happens?
Sarah Hopkins: Well, I.
Miranda Ellis: The.
Sarah Hopkins: It's really all. Can I talk really important that the librarians are able to clearly articulate? You know what they need, what is really important. And and what is really important when you work in the library is not what just not what you need, but what your community needs. And once you've worked in a library, you know. You know, that there are thousands of people coming through the door every day, and the way they use the space and the questions they ask and the things that they do the evidence of
Sarah Hopkins: what they need. And you can see very easily where they are running up against things, rubbing up against things that aren't really working for them. And then you need your creative designers to come up with the solutions to those, to those problems.
Paula Kelly Paull: Yeah, and I.
Miranda Ellis: Yeah.
Paula Kelly Paull: Matt, you wanna add something now, Miranda.
Mastura Mokhtar: Oh, no, no! Go, Miranda!
Miranda Ellis: I was just gonna say that
Miranda Ellis: search for Knox Library, one of the council project managers said to me very early on when I was pushing to make sure I was part of the Pwg's, because initially, I wasn't invited to those.
Miranda Ellis: and he said,
Miranda Ellis: you can design libraries design one off library.
Miranda Ellis: I could almost say, quote unquote, as if it was as simple as that. And yes, it has books, and we could work through what the spaces are, but how it actually operates is completely determined by
Miranda Ellis: the people that are using the space. And so I would say to people, if you don't feel like you've got a voice, you need to insist on having a voice, and that don't underestimate the expertise that you bring, as say a librarian
Miranda Ellis: to the table, because, as somebody that's done lots of fixups for Sarah's. For your libraries libraries, I can tell you that there's lots of different solutions for things, and actually same with Robin's question on improving layout. Sometimes it's just as simple as improving. The layout has a massive spike has a massive impact.
Miranda Ellis: The space. But you need people to tell you how to how they need to run the space on that.
Paula Kelly Paull: I'm glad.
Miranda Ellis: Libraries.
Miranda Ellis: Yeah, like.
Paula Kelly Paull: Do you remember that Miranda was going to.
Miranda Ellis: My Jack, briefly.
Paula Kelly Paull: There's a yeah. There's a couple of questions there relating to school libraries. And I think that's a really important point that it is about
Paula Kelly Paull: talking to the people who are operationally using it, understanding what the problems are and then going into solution mode. So you know, calling in on vendors, for example, to help with that as well as if you don't have an a budget. For example, for an architect, you know any of the participants who are listening today. You do have that opportunity of being able to speak to your vendors and get some assistance around that. And that's certainly
Paula Kelly Paull: what vendors can offer in the ecosystem that we love to talk about that is so important to our experience in working with libraries of any sort across across all ranges. I guess the the final question, because we are almost out of time is to say, Are you happy with the result? The big burning question. So I'm going to hand to Catherine first.
Paula Kelly Paull: and then, Sarah, I think we've heard your answer. But I'm gonna ask again. But, Catherine, are you happy?
Paula Kelly Paull: And was up.
Kathryn Donkin: We're absolutely delighted with the result. And with the input of the traditional owners, the art, the culture. It's actually amazing what programming we're now running.
Kathryn Donkin: And yeah, thanks. And we love the 6 degrees design cause. It's just complemented the whole building. But the community do actually use the space how they want to. It'll grow as they come in, so as much as you think. You can dictate the design and know what they want. You know as you've said. Miranda is there. When they come in they'll start using it. How they want to, and that might may be okay. If not you, you know you may have to rearrange things.
Mastura Mokhtar: I think that was the biggest thing I I was excited about with the library. It was one thing to see the design come to life. But it was next level to see people actually using the space. So that was really rewarding.
Sarah Hopkins: I also want to say that we are very pleased, but more importantly so, is that Council and our Council laws, like the Mayor, has hugged me twice since this library is open, which is a first for my career in public libraries.
Sarah Hopkins: Yeah. So the people who are signing the checks, you know, they need to feel good about about what they spending their money on, too. So I think it's, you know, it's from the grassroots all the way up.
Paula Kelly Paull: Absolutely. And on that note. Thank you, Sarah, that's just beautiful. I think 2 beautiful examples. And I really wanna thank our very warmly, our panelists and our keynote presenters today, and I know that if you could hear people clapping, you would so thank you so much. Certainly to Miranda, Alice, from Antrigs to Catherine Doncren, from city of Melbourne, libraries to Sarah Hopkins from your library, and also Masturb from 6 degrees architects.
Paula Kelly Paull: This has been such a pleasure pleasure to have you with us all. We are going to have a recording of the webinar for those who weren't able to stay for the length of the webinar. But also, please do be in contact with us. If you'd like further information about any of these projects, or indeed your own project, there's one more thing I just wanna say that there really is a really strong questioning around, how do we get the librarians voice
Paula Kelly Paull: the advocacy in these projects. And we've seen such great examples today of that operational need being taken so seriously. So it's something we'll take up, I think, in the future on behalf of the ecosystem. Can I say again? Thank you so much to all of our panelists. Thank you. To our participants. We've had over 140 live participants out of our 500 registrations, which, of course, everyone can't attend in the moment. It's lovely having you in having you here live with us.
Paula Kelly Paull: and for those who have registered, of course, so we'll get the recording afterwards. Thank you. Everyone lovely to have you with this. We'll keep our panel on after we close the webinar. But again, thank you so much for joining us, everyone, and goodbye for now, thank you.
Paula Kelly Paull: We look forward to on the next webinar in June. Watch out for that one coming your way.