Four impressive libraries nominated for the IFLA/Baker & Taylor Public Library of the Year Award 2024

IFLA and new prize sponsor Baker & Taylor are delighted to announce the nominated libraries for this year’s prestigious prize for the best new public library in the world.

This year, 16 libraries from 10 different countries have applied for the award, making the prize truly international. After much thought and consideration, the jury members of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) have narrowed the field of applications down to this year´s four finalists.

Each of them stands out with a winning combination of functional sustainable architecture, creative IT solutions, and strengthening local culture. The finalists for the IFLA/Baker & Taylor Public Library of the Year Award 2024 are:

• Yellamundie Library and Gallery, at Liverpool Civic Place. Operated by Liverpool City Council (Australia)
• The Shenzhen Library North (China)
• Public Body Kaunas County Public Library (Lithuania)
• Beijing Library (China)

Jakob Lærkes, chairman of the jury panel and head of libraries in the Municipality of Gladsaxe, Denmark, is excited about the diversity in this year’s nominees and how the field of applications for the award keeps surprising with showcased innovation for the world of libraries:

“The Public Library of the Year award is all about paying tribute to role models, and each of the four nominated libraries stands out as libraries of the future. It is impressive to see the different take on how to respond to the changing needs of the user, sustainability as a more and more important factor, when we build new libraries as well as different takes on how to create welcoming reading and learning spaces for the local communities. The jury and I believe that each of the four nominated libraries are examples to follow.”

Jakob Lærkes, Chair of the Jury

Qualifying criteria for the award

To qualify for the award, libraries must be newly built, have added a significant extension, or located in a building that has not previously been used as a library. The Public Library of the Year award comes with a cash prize of USD 5,000, which is sponsored by Baker & Taylor.

The award will be presented on Monday 7 October 2024 at the IFLA Public Libraries Section Midterm Conference “Public Libraries and Democracy” in Barcelona, Spain. The Conference is part of the International Library Meeting: “Culture, Knowledge and Community”, that will take place from 7-9 October 2024.

Finalists for IFLA/Baker & Taylor Public Library of the Year Award 2024

The Shenzhen Library North, Shenzhen China

The Shenzhen Library North stands out as a state-of-the-art temple for books and reading. The library is located next to the Shenzhen Art Museum and together with the city archive, they create a cultural landmark of Shenzhen. The facade of the building appears simple yet almost 3-dimensional, enabling daylight to flow into the building throughout the day, as well as lighting up the outside landscape at night. When you enter the library, you are welcomed by a six storey “Wall of Books” that surrounds the atrium, creating a stunning visual impact.

Shenzhen Library North houses the largest intelligent book storage in all of China and perhaps the world. The system can handle 4 million physical books in total. If you reserve a book in the library, the book can be delivered to your hand from the vast sea of books underground in 10 minutes time. Moreover, the library has been awarded as a 3-star green building with its impressive sustainable and technological solutions. The library offers spacious and beautiful spaces throughout the building as well as a wide range of functional areas including multi-functional learning rooms, humanities and technology exhibition halls, digital laboratories, library expert research rooms, and other interactive spaces. Citizens can participate in various themed lectures, seminars, and other special activities throughout the day.

Architects: KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten

Beijing Library, Beijing China

Beijing Library has that certain wow-factor. And it has it in spades. The library is an impressive, spectacular building that presents a contemporary hub for learning, knowledge-sharing, social interaction, and community engagement. The interior follows this concept, integrating areas for conferences, exhibitions, performances, and the restoration of ancient books.

Entering the library, visitors find themselves in the world’s largest climatized reading space connecting books, people, and nature throughout the design. Surrounded by curved stepped terraces, the forum mirrors the landscape of the nearby Tonghui River with sculpted hills and valleys.

The terraces serve as an informal zone for relaxing, talking, or reading while staying connected to the larger space. Incorporating technologies to minimize the building’s embodied and operational carbon footprint, it employs modular components with a rationalized structural grid to reduce manufacturing waste. The columns holding the impressive skylike roof are also fitted with climate control technologies, including lighting, acoustics control, and rainwater collection.

Architects: Snøhetta and ECADI

Yellamundie Library and Gallery, at Liverpool Civic Place. Operated by Liverpool City Council (Australia)

Yellamundie means “storyteller” and the creative and intriguing architecture of this new library most certainly has a story to tell. Since a fire unfortunately destroyed the previous library, the local community has now been given a modern book-heaven with two kilometers of shelving and over 85,000 items. The library also features public gallery spaces for exhibitions, working stations and children’s education areas. An area dubbed the Create Space has been fitted out with a range of technology to support STEM and robotics education classes for children and adults, as well as facilitate content creation through providing video and podcasting equipment.

The curvilinear design is inspired by the flow of the local Georges River, creating diverse, inviting spaces. The design of the building offers circular windows around the entire building to be used for reading books or play, as well as providing a light and welcoming atmosphere everywhere. Within the building is a decked gathering garden and sunken courtyard which adds to the indoor-outdoor ambience. Here visitors can find a green sanctuary within the city to contemplate, get together or read a book.

Architects: FJC Studio

Public body Kaunas County Public Library, Lithuania

Public body Kaunas County Public Library is an impressive and very well-executed transformation of an existing library building from 1989. Placed in the middle of a green park the library is true to the style of architecture from that time. When you enter the building, it is like a travel through time to a light, welcoming and elegant new library building.

Instead of building a new library the Public body Kaunas County Public Library offers a very interesting and sustainable approach to updating an existing library into a beautiful, modern, and welcoming book heaven with multi-functional facilities, learning spaces, makerspaces, concert and exhibition halls. The nature is brought inside and interacts very eloquently with the interior as a nice reference to the local oak grove, which is the largest in all of Europe.

Universal design solutions are at center of the programming of the building responding to different and flexible needs, everywhere you look. This transformation balances the starkness of the original architecture and offers a vibrant living room for generations to come.

Architects: Raimundas Labutis, Ramūnas Grubinskas, Laura Amankavičiūtė and interior architect Laima Čijunskaitė.