NUE NATIONAL LIBRARY: Exploring the Relevancy of the Library in today's world in response to Changing Technology and Varied User

Abstract

The library, evolving from the private collections of affluent members of society to places of community learning, has become one of the oldest cultural building typologies, however these days its future is uncertain. Due to the advent of the computer and internet all the information one requires can be accessed in the blink of an eye. Thus is it doomed to fade away as a relic of a bygone era orwill it undertake a new role in response to this paradigm shift. The outcome of this thesis is to reconfigure the National Library of Pakistan by proposing a newwing of the librarywith a more community based outlook whichwill be more in tune with the context and times while acting as icon for the city. The National Library of Pakistan is a victim of both its context as well as the times in which it currently stands. Gone are the days when people would issue books or research school assignments and personal projects. Nowadays these books have been replaced with computer screens, where anyone sitting at home has access to all the information they could want. Furthermore the library is located far from the heart of the city, in the red zone which du eto the recent socio-political nature of the country has become a restricted area, contributing to it being rarely visited these days. Now we need libraries where people rather than coming to read, come for the social interaction and the discussion of ideas, changing the format of this exchangewhile keeping the message same