Library Builders presents over forty contemporary libraries, ranging in scale from the grandeur of national libraries to small, intimate community libraries, from public libraries to university libraries, which feature the different qualities of both the traditional bibliotheque and the futuristic mediatheque. It examines the potential future of this building type in the twenty-first century, with ever-changing demands for supply and dissemination of information.

The wider issues of current library design are addressed in a selection of essays by prominent library builders and critics: Michael Brawne, John Olley, Paul Lukez, Michael Spens, Richard MacCormac and Merrill Elam.

Among the many library types presented here are the national: Dominique Perrault's Bibliotheque Nationale de France and Colin St John Wilson's British Library; the city: Richard Meier's City Library in The Hague, Bolles-Wilson's Munster City Library, bruder DWL architects' Phoenix Central Library, Mecanoo's Almelo Public Library; and the academic: Sir Norman Foster and Partners' Squire Law Library, Cambridge and Hodgetts + Fung's unorthodox Towell Library at UCLA.

Other prominent architects featured include: Jose Ignacio Linazasoro, Moore Ruble Yudell, Antoine Predock, Aldo Rossi, Moshe Safdie, Schwartz/Silver, Scogin Elam and Bray, and James Stirling Michael Wilford & Associates.