Next Generation? New Bay Area Libraries

In addition to the 39 libraries spotlighted by the VOYA series, this study will look at 3 Bay Area public libraries under construction with funds from the California Library Bond Act of 2000. The 3 communities, Castro Valley, Alameda, and Lafayette, are suburbs of Oakland, CA, and each serve between 25,000 and 75,000 residents. The 3 facilities are in different phases of construction, with Alameda open as of November, 2006, and the others projecting to open at different points during 2009. Alameda and Castro Valley have similar demographic characteristics, including family income, total population, and sizeable Asian minority populations. Lafayette is part of a wealthier county and has considerably higher housing prices and family income, as well as smaller minority populations.¹² These 3 sites were selected because of their proximity to one another.

Findings

When compared with the libraries in the VOYA study, the new projects in the Bay Area do not stand out. If we are to look at the VOYA results as exemplary for libraries serving teens, then these 3 new buildings are following the trend of improving offerings for teens. If, however, we expect for teen spaces to continue improving beyond the early gains suggested in VOYA, these new spaces do not suggest any new advances.

Among 3 libraries there are few trends that one can extrapolate. That said, the trend seems to be towards separating teen collections and putting only the most popular materials in a teen space. Each of the libraries included reference in their space designs to the proximity of materials not designated as part of the teen collection but that would be heavily used by teens. Each library also mentioned that teen spaces benefit more from proximity to adult materials than to children's materials. All of these libraries used focus groups to aid their design teams, although this may not have been the case if the libraries were remodeling rather than constructing entirely new buildings. Finally, libraries are also more likely to have teen specialists now than a decade ago.