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5: KEEP IT SIMPLE

One way libraries get into lighting trouble is through overly complex systems. Here are some basic ways to avoid troublesome complexity.

Select affordable lighting systems

When designers suggest lighting fixtures, for example, always ask about the cost and availability of lamps. Verify the information by calling lamp suppliers to see whether they actually stock the lamps you will need.

Watch for state pricing contracts on lamps. In Illinois, for example, the state has negotiated an 84 percent discount for state and local government agencies.

Employ tested technology

It's embarrassing to find that the fixtures in your reading room use foreign-made light bulbs that never caught on in America, and that now cost $375 each and take 4 months to ship.

Few of us can afford to be the first kid on the block, especially if there's no second kid and our lighting system turns out to be an orphan with no replacement parts available. This happens more frequently than one might expect.

Some libraries have elaborate computer-driven systems designed to switch lights off and on in response to changing levels of natural light. Before you accept such a system, ask your designer to provide references for other libraries that have had such systems in place for at least a couple of years. You may find that long-term maintenance costs exceed any energy savings.

Beware of motion sensors

As we mentioned earlier, we have serious doubts about the use of motion sensors for lighting in public buildings. We recommend that libraries purchase efficient lighting systems and skip this kind of automatic gadgetry.

Keep your ceilings at least 10 feet high

Indirect lighting is the only good way to light libraries. It requires a ceiling height of no less than 10 feet, and 12 feet is better.

Use fixtures for which replacement lamps are easily obtainable and inexpensive

We know of one new library where the 12 curved fluorescent lamps in the dramatic central chandelier cost over $1,000 each. By contrast, with state pricing contracts, you can probably buy a top-quality, high-CRI 4-foot lamp for about $2. (Only incidentally, the chandelier in question has had ballast problems since it was installed, and one or more tubes are always out. The aesthetic impact is less powerful than a missing front tooth, but that's the general effect.)

Avoid multiple lamp types

There are libraries out there with dozens of different lamp types. Imagine trying to warehouse that many different lamps.

Place fixtures where you can reach them

This is a perpetual problem in library design, one that can occur even in the smallest of libraries.

Some typical problem areas include:

• Coves that are too high to reach.
  
  
• Lighting fixtures located directly above furniture—particularly furniture such as service desks that cannot be moved and have tops too irregular or delicate to support ladders.
  
  
• Lamps in high fixtures are often changed by using mechanical lifts. You can rearrange your reading tables to accommodate a lift, but you can't move your stacks.
  
  
• Fixtures over staircases are frequently a major problem. The lights can be high above the floor, requiring scaffolds to reach them, or they can be located directly above steps, making it difficult or impossible to set up a stepladder beneath the fixtures. In some cases, the labor cost of replacing lamps leads building managers to simply leave them burned out.

Lamps in indirect lighting fixtures tend to br particularly easy to change because they are lower, and because one looks down into the fixture while changing lamps rather than trying to work overhead.

When fixtures are hard to reach, replace all the lamps at once

This is standard factory technique, because the labor to replace the lamps is usually more than the cost of the lamps, and by the time a few are out, the rest probably don't have long for this world.

But imagine the decision making process when a designer has opted for expensive lamps, such as the $12,000 worth of $1,000 lamps in the example listed above.

Be sure your building can accommodate the ladders or lifts you will need to change lamps

Ladders and lifts require storage space, plus hallways, doors, and furnishings through which they can pass. Be sure your building plans account for this.