People look at one billion dollars in one of two ways: if it is the result of the long, hard effort of years of fundraising, they rejoice; if it signifies an astronomical budget deficit, they cringe. How, then, should people respond as a community to reaching the $1 billion mark ($1,242,436,438, to be exact) in this year's spending for public…

Re-examines seven major public library central facilities that were built or renovated in the past six years, including Chicago (Illinois), Los Angeles (California), Denver (Colorado), Phoenix (Arizona), San Antonio (Texas) and Vancouver (British Columbia). Topics include coping with crowds; new uses for the libraries; reorganization of space;…