University of Oslo – Library (Bibliotek)

Visited the Universtity of Oslo’s library in the Georg Sverdrup House on the Blindern campus.
Part of a larger culture center with cafe, the library has 4 floors (and a couple of lofts). Light filled with a white, black, red color scheme – and lots of light wood used throughout. Spaces were open and light filled.
At noon, almost all study spaces on all floors were filled and it was quiet! Copy/print centrally located on every floor in glass-enclosed rooms. Pretty limited hours, no food or drink or cell phones allowed. Different cluster of computers for different functions – quick look-up, data base searching and catalog searching. Info/ref desk on every floor – by subject. Circ only on 1st level. Self-check. Self-return – automated – and visible through glass walls. Video monitor looped various rules and regs and offers of help. One was “bestill” en bibliotekar” (place an order for a librarian). Only visible staff were at service points – behind the scenes out of view.