Majestic libraries photographed in cool new series

Google may be the go-to virtual-world resource for on-the-spot fact-finding, but there’s absolutely nothing like a good, real-world library. From Paris to Des Moines, Iowa, library architecture stuns, if you know where to look.

Just ask photographer Thibaud Poirier, whose latest photo series, spotlighted on Designboom, includes sanctuaries of knowledge in Stuttgart, Germany, to Dublin, Ireland, and beyond. The shots, empty of people, exalt the stately forms of some of the world’s most beautiful centers of knowledge. What strikes us most is probably how varied the architecture is from space to space. Graceful barrel vaults paneled with dark wood in Ireland contrast with the gilded opulence of a Rococo, mid-18th century space in Portugal. Take a look in full over at Designboom.