Public library buildings: a semiotic analysis

Abstract

Public library buildings are often an outcome of the complex political and social processes of planning. This complex decision-making pro cess is a binary system involving the following agents : the local and state authorities, librarians and pro fessional library organisations.

There is full agreement on the part of the state and the profession al associations that the public library buildings should carry sig nifiers of solidarity with the com munity (i.e., accessibility, openness, etc.). The survey with 46 executive librarians indicates the standards produced by these authorities are not able to alter the logic of the organising principles of the built environment regarding formal institutions. Taking the example of Perth, Western Australia, public library buildings were examined by applying semiotic methods. Semiotics by separating the expres sion (or the signifiers such as acces sibility and signage of a building) from the content (or the signified such as solidarity or lack of it) pro vided the necessary research tools for this analysis.