1. Salt Lake City Main Public Library - USA
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| Salt Lake City Main Public Library - USA |
The Salt Lake City main library is a 240,000 square foot (22,300 square meter), five-story tall, wedge-shaped building. The library has a collection of over 500,000 books as well as subscriptions to over 60 newspapers and magazines and 163 internet capable computers.
The structure includes 44,960 cubic yards (34,370 cubic meters) of concrete as well as 176,368 square feet (16,385 square meters) of glass. One of its features is the five-story curved glass wall. Designed by the same architect, the downtown Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library has a very similar design. This is clearly apparent in the main foyer and the sweeping outer facade.
“The building was designed by Moshe Safdie and is a beautiful example of modern architecture. The open atrium and roof top terrace are perfect for events or for just lounging around with a good book and a cup of coffee.
The library has a great collection of books, periodicals and DVDs. There have only been a handful of films I haven't been able to find there and the staff was able to order them in for me at no charge.
Like the previous posters have mentioned, because of the open layout of the building, parts of it can get rather loud. If you are looking for a place to study, make sure you head to a private conference room or to the very back rooms.” - Kiesha J. from yelp.com
Address:
* 210 East 400 South
* Salt Lake City UT 84111
* Tel: (801) 524-8200
* Website: www.slcpl.lib.ut.us
2. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - USA
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| Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - USA |
Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (BRBL) was a 1963 gift of the Beinecke family. The building, designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft, of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, is the largest building in the world reserved exclusively for the preservation of rare books and manuscripts. It is located at the center of the University, in Hewitt Quadrangle, which is more commonly referred to as "Beinecke Plaza".
A six-story above-ground tower of book stacks is surrounded by a windowless rectangular building with walls made of a translucent Danby marble, which transmit subdued lighting and provide protection from direct light. The public exhibition hall surrounding the glass stack tower displays, among other things, one of the 48 extant copies of the Gutenberg Bible. Two floors extend under Hewitt Quadrangle. The first level down, the "Court" level, centers on a sunken courtyard featuring sculptures by Isamu Noguchi that are said to represent time (the pyramid), sun (the circle), and chance (the cube). This level also features a reading room for researchers, offices and book storage areas. The lower level of the building, two floors below ground, has compact shelving for books and archives.
Address:
* 121 Wall Street, New Haven
* CT 06511
* Tel: (203) 432-2977
* Email: beinecke.library@yale.edu
3. Royal Danish Library – Copenhagen - Denmark
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| Royal Danish Library – Copenhagen - Denmark |
The Royal Library in Copenhagen (Det Kongelige Bibliotek) is the national library of Denmark and university library of University of Copenhagen. It is the largest library in the Nordic countries.
It contains numerous historical treasures; all works that have been printed in Denmark since the 17th century are deposited there. Thanks to extensive donations in the past the library holds nearly all known Danish printed works back to the first Danish book, printed in 1482.
The Royal Danish Library was founded by King Frederik III (1609-1670 – ruled Denmark and Norway 1648-1670) around 1648 and later in 1673 the library was established in a suitable building – just opposite Christiansborg Castle (The Danish Parliament). During 1661 and 1664 the King acquired four private libraries and their book collections formed the basis of the Royal Library. Peder Schumacher - later named Griffenfeld, became the King's librarian in 1663, and in the following period he completed together with the King “Kongeloven” (Lex Regis - Royal Law) - the constitution of Danish absolute monarchy in 1665.
Address:
* Søren Kierkegaards Plads 1
* DK-1016 Copenhagen, Denmark
* Email: http://www.kb.dk
4. Seattle Central Library - USA
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| Seattle Central Library - USA |
The Seattle Central Library is the flagship library of the Seattle Public Library system. The 11-story (185 feet or 56 meters high) glass and steel building in downtown Seattle, Washington was opened to the public on Sunday, May 23, 2004. Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus of OMA/LMN were the principal architects and Hoffman Construction Company of Portland, Oregon, was the general contractor. The 362,987 square foot (34,000 m²) public library can hold about 1.45 million books and other materials, features underground public parking for 143 vehicles, and includes over 400 computers open to the public.
Over 2 million individuals visited the new library in its first year. It is the third Seattle Central Library building to be located on the same site at 1000 Fourth Avenue, the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues and Madison and Spring Streets. The library has a unique, striking appearance, consisting of several discrete "floating platforms" seemingly wrapped in a large steel net around glass skin. Architectural tours of the building began on June 5, 2006.
In 2007, the building was voted #108 on the American Institute of Architects' list of Americans' 150 favorite structures in the US. It was one of two Seattle buildings included on the list of 150 structures, the other being Safeco Field.
Address:
* 1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle
* WA 98104-1109
* Tel: 206-386-4636
* Website: http://www.spl.org/
5. Vancouver Public Library - Canada
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| Vancouver Public Library - Canada |
Funded by the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Library is the third largest public library system in Canada, with 22 branches, over 395,000 cardholders and more than 9 million item borrowings annually. The central branch opened in Downtown Vancouver on May 26, 1995 and cost 106.8 million CAD to build. The collection currently has over two million items.
Address:
* 350 West Georgia Street
* Vancouver, B.C. V6B 6B1
* Tel: 604-331-3603
* Website: http://www.vpl.ca
6. Real Gabinete Português de Leitura – Rio De Janeiro - Brazil
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| Real Gabinete Português de Leitura – Rio De Janeiro - Brazil |
Address:
* 30 Rua Luiz De Camões
* Rio de Janeiro 20051
* Tel: +55 21 2221 3138
7. Admont Library - Words largest monastic library - Austria
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| Admont Library - Words largest monastic library - Austria |
Since its foundation in 1074, i.e. since almost one thousand years, Admont Benedictine Monastery has collected and preserved cultural goods. In this respect the library has a special position.
This library is one of the most important cultural properties of our country and is one of the largest late Baroque works of art in Europe. Perhaps a little overenthusiastically but at the same quite justifiably, since the early 19th century the Admont library has been called the “eighth wonder of the world”. It represents a repository of knowledge containing examples of the artistic and historical development of books over the centuries - from the manuscripts of the medieval Admont writing school over the collection of incunabula (early printed books) to the fully developed printing process.
As a work of art, the library should be viewed as a whole in which the various genres (architecture, frescoes, sculptures, written and printed matter) blend into one work - in the final analysis, the central place of books in the history of the development of the Benedictine Order.
Address:
* A-8911 Admont 1
* Austria
* Tel: +43 (0) 3613/2312-601
* Email: kultur@stiftadmont.at
8. British Library – United Kingdom
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| British Library – United Kingdom |
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and one of the world's largest libraries in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats, both print and digital: books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, videos, play-scripts, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings. The Library's collections include around 14 million books (second only to the USA's Library of Congress), along with substantial holdings of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 2000 BC.
Address:
* 96 Euston Road
* London, NW1 2DB
* Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7332
*Website: www.bl.uk
(Collect from Wiki and other sources)