Changes in information technology may affect the
way we design student study and research space
in law schools and academic law libraries
by Christopher Simoni and Robert Richards
But Why Do You Need the Walls?
perspective
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AALL Spectrum December 2007 25
It is common knowledge thatdevelopments in information technologyhave affected almost everything
associated with libraries. These
developments—which have caused a sea-
change in patron research and information
gathering preferences and practices,
collections, library operations and services,
and library design—will continue to play
out in ways we cannot foresee. How are
law schools and law libraries planning new
construction or major renovation to act
within this environment?
The following paragraphs are a thought
experiment that asks the following question.
Is it possible, given the impact of information
technology on student research and study
preferences and practices, to design a law
school and academic law library in which
some student seating and study space,
traditionally located in the library, are moved
outside the library to a common space shared
by the law school and library, without
compromising the quality of the library
and its services?
We conclude that in some circumstances
one could design a law school and library
that share common spaces for student
research and study. We further conclude
that such a design can provide law schools
with flexibility in building design, while at
the same time benefiting law students by
providing them a physical environment
that supports the way they work.
This conclusion is not without its
difficulties because some may view any
suggestion that reduces library space generally
as diminishing the library’s value. Others
may find the specific conclusion even more
problematic because it rests on the specific
premise that the impact of technology on
student research and study practices and
preferences has been so significant that some
library space devoted to student seating
might be moved outside the library.
We note at the outset that our conclusions
are neither predictions nor prescriptions about
what will or should happen at some point in
the future. They are tentative propositions
to be evaluated and tested by law schools and
libraries considering construction or major
renovation of law school space as they assess
their program needs.
Sharing Space
This piece was motivated by an architectural
charrette one of the authors attended in
2006. Convened by a team of architects
from a nationally known firm, the
participants were asked to consider and
critique various versions and visions of an
academic law library the firm was designing
as part of a new law school building for a
well-established law school.
During the course of the day, the
architects pressed the librarians with the
following question, which gave rise to the
title of this piece. With the developments in
information technology and the way they have
affected how people research, and assuming
one did not have to worry about the physical
security of the print collection, could one
design a law school and law library which
were physically open to one another without
walls separating them, and which shared
common spaces for some uses?
In posing this question, the architects
did not challenge the importance of
academic law libraries; instead they wanted
to know: “Do we need to design law
libraries the way we always have?”
The librarians were initially cool to the
idea, noting that in addition to needing
security for their collections, libraries also
provide students quiet study and research
space near the collections. As the day
progressed, and as the architects responded
to the librarians’ concerns, some concluded
that the idea of an academic law library
physically open to and integrated with the
law school should not automatically be
ruled out as a bad idea and might well be
a good idea if done right.
Before describing what such a law school
and library might look like, it may be useful
to describe the conditions that underpin
the architects’ question and the authors’
conclusions. As with so many situations
today, these conditions involve technology
and its known as well as unforeseeable effects
on students and libraries.
Digital Natives
The majority of students coming to law
school today are digital natives who grew up
with computers and, for much of their life,
access to the Internet. Their research and
information finding preferences were set as
undergraduates, for almost all of whom
Google, not a library Web page or OPAC,
was the preferred and trusted research
tool. Even though law students are smart
enough to know that the Internet is full of
incomplete and misleading information, it
remains their preferred starting point for
research. They have a distinct preference
for electronic resources for reasons of
convenience and immediacy.
Students also have come to expect
technology to deliver a range of services that
are neither place- nor time-bound. They do
their banking, reserve movie tickets, book
airline flights, and buy books online without
the intervention of human agents. They
expect such sites to provide an experience
that is friction-free and easy to navigate—
no lengthy FAQs about using the service,
no long descriptions about searching, and
immediate feedback. They also expect the
services to be available at a time and
location of their choosing. For the most
part, this is what business gives them.
Perhaps most important, students use
technology to communicate and stay
connected with friends, family, and fellow
students. It is common to see students at
a computer running e-mail and an instant
messaging (IM) client and talking on a
cell phone, all while studying with a group
of friends.
This is the background our students
bring to law school and helps explain their
expectations regarding the role technology
plays in their education. In law school, most
aspects of their legal education, from the
administrative to the instructional to the
research to the personal, are affected, at
least in part, by technology.
While some law schools still teach legal
research using print sources, an increasing
number now focus on improving their
students’ facility with online resources.
Not surprisingly, most law students,
accustomed to online research in high
school and college, prefer electronic
resources. Faculty routinely assign digital
course readings delivered by course
management systems, such as TWEN or
BlackBoard. Student-edited law journals are
moving their content online in locally
hosted repositories, the number of e-only
student-edited journals has increased
significantly, and the time-honored tradition
of cite checking is changing as a growing
number of journals permit their members
to cite check using electronic resources.
Enormous, easy to navigate, and up-to-
date full text collections of primary and
secondary resources on LexisNexis and
Westlaw, and increasingly current and
complete archival collections of law review
articles on HeinOnline, meet the vast
majority of law students’ research needs.
Academic legal reference librarians routinely
accept student reference questions by phone,
e-mail, and, increasingly, though IM.
All of these factors permit a law student
to perform most required research tasks—
as law journal cite checker, moot court
participant, seminar paper writer, or faculty
research assistant—via laptop from anywhere
in the law school building. Wireless
networks and laptop computers distribute
the intellectual content traditionally stored
in the law library throughout the law school
building, as students perform their research
in the student lounge, cafeteria, conference
rooms, student organization offices, empty
classrooms, hallways, or the law library, as
they choose.
Without speculating on the reasons for
this change, we note that law students today
© 2007 Christopher Simoni and Robert C. Richards  photo © iStockphoto.com/Teun van den Dries
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AALL Spectrum December 200726
seem more willing to work and study
collaboratively in small groups than
students in the past. Our observations
suggest that most law students spend
relatively little time in solitary study
memorizing doctrine and a great deal of
time interacting with their peers, testing
their understanding by posing questions
and trying out arguments.
Yet most law students do spend some
time in quiet study before exams, and many
law students also require a tranquil space
in which to do research tasks. Students are
quick to head to the library for serious work.
Increase Foot Traffic
The effect of technology on library services
and space has been as profound as its effect
on student research and study practices,
in some instances requiring a fundamental
reconceptualization about how we think
about libraries and, by extension, library
design. The effect has been especially
profound in law firm and corporate
libraries, many of which have experienced
a significant loss of collection space as
patrons rely more on electronic information
resources. These latter instances are
examples of design with a vengeance.
Over the past several decades the once
common view of libraries primarily as
repositories of print materials has changed.
When libraries were viewed this way, it was
essential for them to provide sufficient
onsite seating to accommodate students and
scholars who had to travel to the library to
use the resources. Technology has changed
that. Although print materials continue
to play a significant role for the indefinite
future, fewer patrons come to the library
to use them. Consequently, changing user
research preferences and practices have
sparked general academic and public
libraries to rethink how to make library
space more attractive to today’s increasingly
digitally-reliant patrons.
An informal survey of recent public
library construction, such as the Vancouver
and Salt Lake City public libraries, and
planned construction, such as the
Philadelphia Free Library, show spaces
designed to merge a variety of activities and
functions (not all of them traditional library
functions) within the library footprint,
thereby increasing foot traffic to the library
and emphasizing the library as an active
meeting space, not a book repository.
In general academic libraries, the
trend has been to build the “information
commons.” These are usually large open
areas, replete with workstations and library
assistance, where students can work
collaboratively on projects and that will be
attractive to faculty, making it increasingly
likely that faculty and students will have
serendipitous “meetings” outside the formal
classroom setting. As with the public
libraries, the design goal behind the
information commons is, at least in part,
to attract people who might not otherwise
come to the library and create collaborative
and socially interactive work spaces. The
focus in library design has shifted away
from information to users and their needs.
At this point it is reasonable to ask why
libraries work so hard, through design and
programming, to increase foot traffic.
The answer is that technology provides
library patrons the opportunity to chose
from a variety of venues that meet their
information and study needs; the library
is but one of them.
Academic law libraries have been less
affected by these changes because they are
located in the same facility that houses
faculty offices, student space, and
classrooms (students don’t have to walk
across campus between classes to use the
library), and because they serve a smaller
and more homogeneous patron base than
public and general academic libraries (most
other patrons in the library also are law
students). These factors give academic
law libraries a comparative advantage in
aligning the library’s mission and use of
space with the school’s educational mission;
these factors also create for law libraries
opportunities for involvement in the law
school mission about which other types of
academic libraries can only dream.
Designing Space
In this environment, how might one design
common space for law schools and libraries?
One way to think of this question is to
ask what parts, if any, of a library’s mission
and program can be delivered outside its
physical walls without compromising the
library’s effectiveness.
The answer is straightforward: only
portions of student seating can be located
outside the library without wholesale
changes in library operations. One cannot
remove the library’s walls to the law school
without compromising the security of the
tangible collection, and although one could
move certain back office operations outside
the library, doing so would do nothing for
students.
But can one move portions of what
traditionally has been library seating outside
the library without significantly affecting
the nature and purpose of the law library
and, perhaps, running afoul of the
American Bar Association (ABA)?
The ABA Standards for Approval of
Law Schools Standard speak to this point.
Standard 702 states that the “physical
facilities of the law library shall be sufficient
in size . . . to accommodate the law school’s
students.” To this, Interpretation 702-1
adds, “A law library shall have sufficient
seating to meet the needs of the law school’s
students and faculty.” Standard 703 speaks
specifically about “research and study space”
and states that “[a] law school shall provide,
on site, sufficient quiet study and research
seating for its students and faculty.”
Nothing in the standards requires all
“research and study” space to be within the
law library.
In surveying recent law school
construction and renovation projects one
sees that in addition to addressing matters
such as classrooms, designers have focused
on the common theme of creating
distributed gathering spaces for students,
either in alcoves off hallways or in a central
atrium area that acts as both a central hub
for law school activities, as well as a main
passage way in the law school. This trend
captures and facilitates the students’
demonstrated preferences for study and
work environments and produces flexible
space that the users themselves configure
and determine how they will use. Anyone
who has ever programmed space as part of
a construction or renovation project knows
that such space is a wonderful thing
because it permits organic change in a
program as user preferences change.
Some schools that have not engaged in
major construction or renovation projects
have increased, often at student request, the
amount of seating outside the library to
accommodate changing student study
practices. Some of these schools have
concentrated the additional seating (all with
power outlets and network connectivity) in
the law school atrium; others have created
distributed student study spaces throughout
the law school. In both instances, students
have been drawn to the new spaces.
In law schools with ample seating
distributed between the library and the
law school, students migrate between the
locations depending upon whether they
want to study with others, study alone, or
do research. In these settings, the seating
outside the library complements but does
not replace library seating.
Several law schools have built group
study rooms and computer labs along
common walls shared by the law school and
the law library, creating shared study and
work space. In this arrangement, each of
the rooms has two doors, one opening into
the library, and the other opening into the
law school. The locks on the doors are on
an automatic timer. During library hours,
the door into the library is unlocked while
the door to the law school is locked. After
library hours, the setup is switched, with
the door to the law school unlocked, and
the door to the law library locked. Thus,
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during library hours, students enter and exit
these rooms only from the library—these
are “library” rooms. After the library closes,
however, the door locks automatically and
students now enter and exit these rooms
only from the law school side—the rooms
are now “law school” rooms.
In this situation, the rooms are resources
shared by the library and the law school
and made accessible to students for longer
periods of time than they would had they
been solely within the law library. Moreover,
the design of such rooms does not
compromise the security of the collection.
Books cannot be taken out of the library
through the rooms to the law school, and
individuals cannot circumvent the library
security arrangements by entering the
library through the group study rooms.
Library Space outside the Library
If one were to design a law school and
library from scratch with the goal of creating
common space for student use, how might
one design an environment that met
students’ research and study needs with some
study space outside of the library’s walls?
One approach would be to design an
area in the library that is open to the law
school and that provides a mixture of casual
and study furniture for student study and
research. Although such a space might not
be as quiet as dedicated study space within
the library, it is possible, using developments
in acoustical engineering, to make the space
appropriate for study. If you have visited an
Apple store and compared the loud noise
of the selling spaces with the eerie quiet
of its open auditoriums, you have an
understanding of how effective acoustic
engineering can be.
Moreover, if this reading area is not
physically separated from the law school by
a wall, the space may well prove to be a
magnet to students and others who want to
study in groups or work on collaborative
projects. An additional benefit of such an
approach is that it helps provide an answer
to the question of where students can study
when the library is closed. Such an area,
combining the best features of library study
space but outside the library’s walls, can be
open to students for study and research
independent of library hours. This would be
a boon to students during finals when they
often want extended library hours to study.
If space is limited, one imagines a law
school designing a central atrium located
outside but near the library that serves as a
gathering space for students and faculty
along a traffic corridor used by faculty and
students moving to and from classes. In this
environment one would have an attractive
mix of study tables and lounge seating, all
with adequate electrical outlets and wireless
access, as well as a bank of computer
workstations. But for the fact that the space
is outside the library, this looks much like
traditional library space.
In either of the preceding scenarios,
the seating outside the library would
complement, not necessarily reduce, library
seating. By providing a mix of study space
both within and outside the library, we better
accommodate how our students work today.
Similarly, with the use of acoustic separation,
one can conceive of an atrium that provides a
mix of noisy and less-noisy zones for
students. The library itself, however, would
remain the preferred destination for students
and faculty seeking quiet and research space
adjacent to the physical collection.
In this environment an academic law
library still must provide adequate study
and research seating within the library.
While it seems true that not all study and
research seating need be within the law
library, it seems equally true that not all
study and research are done in groups and
not all study and research are best done in
common areas where noise control may
be problematic. As with most things, the
successful program is one that reaches a
proper balance, in this instance between
furthering the law school’s mission and
serving the library’s mission.
A Different Way of Thinking
about Libraries
Although librarians, including the authors,
find it difficult to contemplate the loss of
library space, it is clear that developments in
information technology have affected not
only how libraries build collections, but also
how students and others work and research.
If we are honest with ourselves, we must
acknowledge that today’s students think about
and use libraries in ways that differ from the
way students even one generation ago thought
about and used them. Technology and
changing social patterns are further weakening
the bond many of us “wish” existed between
the library and all of its patrons.
While law libraries still remain a
destination for law students for serious
study, other locations also exert a powerful
pull. Common areas in law schools fill with
students working in groups or solitarily.
(Before law schools made comfortable
seating available for students in common
areas, most, if not all, of those students
would have been in the law library.)
Students are not only spending time outside
the library in other locations in law school;
many spend hours studying in coffee shops
and other locations outside the law school.
Rather than fighting a rearguard action
against changing student preferences for
study and research settings, law schools and
libraries can recognize the changes, attempt
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to distinguish between long-term changes
and short-term fads, and design student
spaces that respond to students’ needs.
If this means some seating and study
space outside the library walls, so be it. As
long as the law library and law school provide
adequate quiet research and study space to
go with access to resources and services, it
shouldn’t matter where that space is located.
Should it? ■
Christopher Simoni (simoni@drexel.
edu) is director of the law library and professor
of law and Robert Richards (rcr38@drexel.
edu) is head of technical services at the Drexel
University College of Law Library in
Philadelphia.
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