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From research library to research services: Stories of change at the Rijksmuseum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2017

Geert-Jan Koot
Geert-Jan Koot*
Affiliation:
Curator of Library Collections, Rijksmuseum Research Library, Museumstraat 1, Amsterdam, Netherlands Email: g.koot@rijksmuseum.nl
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Abstract

The Rijksmuseum project in Amsterdam began in 1999 with a government plan to celebrate the millennium in the Netherlands with a series of grand cultural projects. It was recognized that the museum building had been neglected, and urgently needed modernizing. Following a European search, the Spanish architects of Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos won the competition in 2001. The renovation would also focus on new spaces for the entrance hall and a pavilion for Asian art. The main art gallery and the library were selected as places to receive an especially thorough renovation and restauration. The Cuypers Library Hall is the one of the very few 19th-century library spaces that have survived in the Netherlands. The library is very close to the architect's original conception of the space and how it would be used. The reception is an impressive 20-meter high rectangular book hall, elaborately decorated and composed as a Gesamtkunstwerk. This article will draw attention to the design and the historic functions of the library hall.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 2 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © ARLIS/UK&Ireland 2017 

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References

1. Koot, Geert-Jan, “The Rijksmuseum Renovation Project: New Spaces for the Museum and the Library,” in Segundas Jornadas sobre Bibliotecas de Museos Estrategias e Innovación (Actas de las Jornadas sobre Bibliotecas de Museos, Museo Nacional del Prado) (Madrid: Center of Publications. Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, 2014), 119 Google Scholar.

2. Vogel, Melanie, “P.J.H. Cuypers Art Library in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: A Room Dedicated to Arts and Science,” in Art Libraries Journal 37:1 (2012), 48 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Koot, Geert-Jan, “t Zijn al Boeken Waer men Ziet: de Geschiedenis van de Bibliotheek van het Rijksmuseum,” in Kunstbibliotheken in Nederland: Tien Korte Schetsen, (Leiden: Primavera Pers, 2007), 44 Google Scholar.

4. Vogel, Melanie, “The New Rijksmuseum Library: How a 21st-century Research Library Became an Exhibition Room,” in Art Libraries Journal 39:1 (2014), 25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307472200018149

5. Vogel 2014.

6. Geert-Jan Koot, unpublished document, Programme of Requirements for the Library 2.1, 2011.

7. Vogel 2014, 27.

8. Vogel 2014, 28.

9. Rijksmuseum Fellowship Programme. https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/fellowships

10. Vogel, Melanie, “The New Rijksmuseum Library: How a 21st-century Research Library Became an Exhibition Room,” in Art Libraries Journal 39:1 (2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307472200018149