A modern library, in this age of information technology and electronics revolution, will have a large number of state of the art technological features necessary for a library. The investment on equipment for services will be about Rs. 40 crores, excluding the equipment for library functions & furniture. The design of the building is based on the selection of the best proposal in an architectural competition. The design is complementary to the circular design of the Parliament House and the rectangular design of the Parliament Annexe, combining the traditional features of Luytens Delhi with the modern architecture. (The selection of the design in the competition was by a jury, which unfortunately did not have a juror for assessment of the design from the aspects of integration of the large component of services that go into a complex functional building in today's high tech world in spite of having known that the outlay on services exceeds the outlay on the basic building itself.) The building design does pose a real challenge to the design of the services, particularly as the basic concept of the design did not foresee the space and volume requirements behind the visible portion of the services.The concept design did not foresee the problems of using a second basement for a vital activity of library storage in the context of fire safety. The services design in this building poses further problems due to non availability of spaces in the surroundings of the building as well as on the terrace of the building for location of some of the components of equipment for services such as, water storage tanks, cooling towers, lift machine rooms, ventilation chutes for suction & discharge of air etc., The site does not permit location of a separate services building. The view of the terrace is of importance as it is below the line of vision from the corridor of the first floor of the Parliament House. The consultant architect and the design team have been jointly addressing themselves to the problem of fitting in all the services in an effective manner for efficient & reliable performance.

A team of engineers under the leadership of Sh.K.K.Madan, Director General (Works), CPWD, had visited three Parliamentary Libraries and a number of other major & modern libraries in London, New York & Washington. The selection and design of the various services has significantly been influenced by the study tour. Systems which are suitable and appropriate to the conditions in India and suitable from the aspects of the size of the library and nature of operations have been selected for adoption in this library in consultation with the library authorities. Today's environmental situation such as mounting energy costs, environmental effects of conventional refrigerants, tropical climatic conditions, security needs from the aspect of library contents as well as from the aspect of the VIP users, etc., have been kept in view at the different stages of design.