THIS week Birmingham opened its impressive new library with an impassioned speech by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for campaigning for women’s right to education. “Let us not forget that even one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world,” she said. The city is hoping that this massive metal-clad building—which cost £189m ($295m) and is 20% larger than its predecessor—will be a cornerstone for redefining Birmingham’s image. Brian Gambles, the library’s director, echoes this sentiment: “We wanted to create a building that shouts out learning and culture.” The Library of Birmingham is one of a new breed of “super-libraries” that are springing up while many smaller branches fight for survival. By offering a wider range of services, spaces and facilities the idea is that larger multi-functional libraries are better suited to the needs of a diverse community of 21st-century users, and able to offer culture and entertainment, as well as learning and information.

“We have moved away from a transactional service to a transformational one,” explains Mr Gambles. The modern library is a place where people can do some research and borrow a book, but also where a budding entrepreneur can get advice on setting up a business (its target is to create 500 new start-ups a year) or a family can attend a musical performance.

Throughout ten storeys visitors will find more than 400,000 books (hundreds of thousands more are stored in the archives), a dedicated children’s library, reading spaces, an art gallery, a multimedia centre, two cafés, a music library, a performance space, green outdoor terraces, a shop and a gallery. Books are not an afterthought but they are not the raison d’être they used to be. Much like the best-designed shopping centres, each of the lower floors allow views onto the next floor through a system of interlocking rotundas and moving walkways, enticing you further into the building. Mr Gambles calls it a “journey of discovery and serendipity”. At ground level the foyer connects with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre (the two spaces also share a new 300-seat performance venue). When asked how you design a library for the digital age Mr Gambles explains that most of the building’s digital features are invisible, such as an enhanced website and apps. The entire library is Wi-Fi enabled and visitors will have access to 240 computers. The decision was taken not to make the digitisation too obtrusive because technology becomes dated so fast. There will, however, be interactive touch-screens dotted around where digitised content (mostly from the library’s vast photography archive) can be viewed by theme. With its light-filled interiors, picturesque outdoor spaces and panoramic views of the city, the building is sure to attract many visitors. Some purists or older visitors might wish there were more hushed reading areas and fewer retail-style elements such as escalators, cafés and a shop. But Mr Gambles asserts that libraries must be relevant to the community. And Birmingham is the youngest city in Europe (40% are under 25). “Social and behavioural characteristics are changing, and the way that people learn and use libraries, is changing. I think by and large younger people are happier with something that’s buzzier and noisier, where there are things going on.” He is equally pragmatic about the need to monetise the library (local authority funding is frozen at 2007 levels): “We need to find ways to generate commercial income, whether that’s from hiring facilities, making a greater success of retail or catering than in the past, or through business sponsorship or private sector philanthropy.” Though no community libraries have closed in Birmingham, library hours and staff will be reduced and much of the core lending facilities will become self-service, he says.

Ultimately the emphasis at the new library is on education and learning, but in different forms. “People learn in many more ways than by studying a textbook,” says Mr Gambles. He believes people learn from the environment they are in, through dialogue with other people, from didactic events like a lecture or a workshop, or something more indirect like theatre or dance. “They are all interpretations of culture and the way people see the world,” he adds. With 3.5m visitors expected a year, the opportunities for learning at Birmingham’s library are great indeed.