This book contains the proceedings of the 13th seminar of IFLA's Library Buildings and Equipment Section, which was co-organized with IFLA's Public Libraries Section this time. The event took place as one of the satellite meetings of the World Library and Information Congress 2003 in Berlin, and was held in Paris at the end of July 2003.

Seminars like this have been held every two years (The Hague 1997, Shanghai 1999, Boston 2001) to allow architects and librarians to share experiences in the field of library planning and the building process. The goals of this seminar were to explore the issues affecting the future development of library space, and to help prepare to envision innovative library spaces that are responsive to user needs and community interests.

This compilation of 12 papers given at the Paris seminar includes a huge amount of information regarding the state of the art in library building.