New modern national libraries have been opened for the public during the last decade: The French National Library, Francois Mitterrand in Paris, France, and the British Library in London, Great Britain. In the same decade The National Library of Denmark opened The Black Diamond in Copenhagen Denmark in 1999. All these libraries were planned in the years when The World Wide Web was invented, based on the invention by Tim Berners Lee.
When we were planning The Black Diamond we were also aware of the invention of World Wide Web. Nobody could tell the consequences of World Wide Web in 1993, but one thing was for sure already in 1993: There would be changes and consequences for the physical library – but how? Therefore we secured with a high degree of flexibility in planning the building. After the opening of The Black Diamond in 1999 many functional changes has taken place in the building. The result is that the building still is heavily used by researchers and students and the building is refurbished to meet the digital challenges in the 21st century.