Energy issues focus of trip

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The Dunedin City Council's library services manager, Bernie Hawke, is not waiting around for an architect to provide the design for a remodelled library.

Instead, he spent most of August travelling in North America and Australia, discovering how 14 libraries deal with energy issues.

"My perception is that libraries, and any public building, should be built along more sustainable, energy-efficient principles."

Using an $8000 scholarship from the Library and Information Association, Mr Hawke visited libraries in big cities such as Chicago and in smaller centres such as Eugene, Oregon.

He would not discuss the multimillion-dollar proposal being investigated by the council to move the library into the former chief post office in Princes St, but has worked on its layout.

He said while library staff would work with architects in any library redevelopment, "I'd just be keen to have some input and to ensure that any buildings that are built or redeveloped for Dunedin not only work well as libraries - are aesthetically beautiful and appropriate to the circumstance - but are energy efficient as well."

The running costs of a building could become a bigger expense than the cost of the building itself, he said.

"So if you can bring down that operational cost by sensible design and good, well-calibrated equipment and sensible use of the building, then you can save the city a huge amount of money."

Mr Hawke said the ideas he got from his trip included many that were quite simple and did not necessarily cost "heaps of money".

Triple glazing was used in Canadian libraries to retain heat.

Elsewhere, he saw sensor systems that moved translucent screens across windows when outside light became too bright, or turned on lights as the outside light faded.

Friends of the Library president Merle van de Klundert told the Otago Daily Times the prospect of a "green library" was just one of the reasons favouring the "excellent idea" of moving to the former post office.

She believed it would be a tourist attraction, relieve the cramped conditions for staff at the Moray Pl library, and allow the library's "priceless collections" of books to be better displayed and cared for.

Ms van der Klundert believed a new library in the post office building should not affect plans for a new library in South Dunedin which was "essential".

mark.price@odt.co.nz [2]