Public libraries are meant to be used, but many public libraries are not designed with
users’ wayfinding needs in mind. Instead, they are warehouses for books and other materials in
which users struggle to navigate the layout to use the facility effectively. Librarians and
architects may have an idea which design elements make a library “usable” by the public, but not
much empirical research has occurred in this area within public libraries, and there is an
especially limited quantity of research into how users wayfind in public library facilities, or how
users would recommend improving library wayfinding systems.