ABSTRACT
The prophesied death of the book and the demise of library, including the public library and its building, is the starting point of this final chapter. In part, the public library’s predicted demise in the UK is attributed to its supposed inability to change, and so demonstrate its appeal and relevance in today’s world. The nature of those required changes to UK public library services, and the implications they might have for their buildings, have been considered in earlier chapters and reference made to the changing library scene elsewhere in the world. As discussion of these changes in the public library has shown, conflict can result: over combining the old and the new, between the young and old, over self-service and personal service, between the serious and the popular, over solitude and group activity, over consumerism and commercialization, and over noise and calm. Resolution of these conflicts and clashes lies at the heart of making change successful and this can be helped by appropriate public library buildings.3
