The two maps illustrate how the ground floor of a library had developed between 2001 and 2009.
Overall, it can be seen that while the floor’s overall size had not changed, it could provide a wider selection of materials for visitors.
In 2001, four categories of texts were located on the ground floor, namely the self-help section to the southwest, the history section to the northwest, the fiction section to the north, and newspapers and magazines to the east, across from the history shelf. Meanwhile, there were eight tables around the center of the floor to provide seating for readers. To the south of the floor was the entrance and the librarian’s desk. A stairway was in the southeast, providing access to the first floor.
By 2009, while the entrance, librarian’s desk and staircase had experienced no change, virtually every other space had been altered. The self-help, fiction and history shelves had been scaled down and lined up along the east side together with three new selections of kitchen, economics and law texts. Four long tables had replaced the eight tables in the center of the 2001’s floor plan, and a new set of tables had occupied the space where the fiction section used to be. To the east, the newspapers and periodicals section had been repurposed into a space reserved for films and DVDs. Next to that section were a few computers for visitors to access electronic reading materials.