onto its symbolic form, the typology eventually segregated books from reading 7 – books were housed in below-grade storage or in structures adjacent to the domed reading room. 8 The library was now an accumulation of parts rather than a singular monumental space. More precisely, the library needed to be an accumulation of parts to maintain the single monumental space. Segregated Flexibility and the Loss of the Symbol Diverse and extensive library collections in the early twentieth century created rigid subject boundaries that tended towards specialisation. The notion of a single library that contained the universality of knowledge was replaced with subject-specific rooms, 9 the final loss of the symbolic monument within the library — ‘the sequential arrangement of books led to subject partitioning which undermined the symbolic value of the library as social signifier, whilst, admittedly, improving its usefulness. It was a victory of functionalism over meaning’. 10 opposite 1: Radcliffe Camera Library (Oxford): an example of a cen- trically planned library. (Creative Commons. Uploaded by Fabbio on August 17, 2006. www.flickr.com/photos/fabiovenni/217723216/ accessed: August 10, 2008) opposite 2: Asplund’s Stockholm Library (1928), a late example of a segregated centric type. (Altered by N.Bhatia. Original Image: Creative Commons. Uploaded by Toggan. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Stockholms_stadsbibli- oteks_entré_mot_Sveavägen.JPG. Accessed: September 25, 2008). below: Comparison of architecture, information and scholarship in the centrically planned library, the segregated library and the trading floor typology. (drawn by Neeraj Bhatia)
Romanticism and Collapsing Unity The counter-Enlightenment, Romanticism, embraced
irreconcilability and subjectivity, signalling an emergent pluralism. Instead of being universally grounded, new ‘truths’ were believed to emerge from a debate of personal viewpoints. 3 Concurrently with the rise of pluralism were technological improvements to the production of information that crippled the centric library. Between 1800 and 1820 the foot-operated cylinder, mechanical steam and metal press came into operation, 4 resulting in vast increases to the number of volumes available to libraries. Most importantly, information contained within these volumes now allowed for competing ideas. The novel, often focussed on an individualised sense of selfhood, was surfacing in literature. 5 Authorship, for the first time, was liberated through individual identity, reaffirming the rise of pluralism. 6 As books proliferated, they colonised the open reading room like spokes on a wheel. The circular form contains a finite amount of wall space that was not easily extended without the addition of new forms. Incapacitated by expansion and desperate to hold
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archives and museums: On Site review 20
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