3: DESIGN LIGHTING FOR MAXIMUM BUILDING FLEXIBILITY
One thing we've all learned over the years is that we keep moving things around. For most purposes, therefore, the ideal type of library lighting is one that works equally well with reading tables, staff work stations, book stacks, and computers.
Avoid task lighting
One type of lighting you will constantly hear recommended is "task lighting." Task lighting is designed to place light exactly where you need it for a specific purpose.
Unfortunately, task lighting makes it impossible to relocate functions, and it becomes obsolete whenever things are moved. Designers may tell you that it doesn't matter, since you won't move your desk. But they're wrong.
In many situations, task lighting is also too direct.
Avoid it.
Provide uniform illumination
Even illumination is critical in libraries, but it's found all too seldom. Often there are bright and dark spots, particularly up toward the tops of the book stacks and around the perimeter of rooms, where some books are almost impossible to see.
Can lights are particularly given to spotty coverage. In Fred's library, a wing built in the 1970s had 750 incandescent can lights—almost exactly 750 too many. The lighting was terribly uneven, and until the library added supplementary track lighting—providing even more glare and heat and cost—pages had to use flashlights when they were reshelving books in some areas.
Another common error in the placement of fixtures is leaving too much space between the last fixture and the wall. For even lighting levels, the space between the fixtures should be twice the space between the last fixture and the wall. But it often isn't. As a result of dark perimeters, many libraries have had to add supplementary lights along their walls
Good security requires light everywhere
Trying to save money by having little or no light in public areas is a terrible idea in public and school libraries and a bad idea in all libraries.
Dim areas are frightening to users and staff. They encourage lurking.
Some libraries have used timer switches for lights, particularly in stack areas. When a timer switch is turned on, the lights stay on for a pre-selected period of time and then switch off automatically. Many users in such libraries find themselves suddenly plunged into darkness while they are looking for books.
Some libraries have used motion-sensor switches to control lights in offices, restrooms, etc. Mostly, users appear to be annoyed by them. If you are working quietly in your office, the lights may suddenly go off, forcing you to leap up or wave your hands in the air to turn them back on. (We think that turning the lights on by having everyone wave their hands wildly in the air is the origin of the expression, "Many hands make light work." But we may be wrong.)
