The past few months have been an exciting time of investigation
and research. Through surveys, meetings and one on one
discussions with students, faculty and library administration the
vision for a new library has come into focus.
The students are the heart of the library- both individually and
as a community of learners. The library will be a crossroad,
blending physical and virtual information. It will be a place
where students choose to come because it’s structure, design and
contents ease the exchange of ideas and information.
The library will be student and faculty centered. The goal
has been to provide students with a facility that not only
encourages use by design but also becomes a part of the fabric of
campus life and study. The goals for this project are:
- Serve the students through design
- Encourage student to student and student to faculty
interactions
- Provide efficient use of space
- Design which is consistent with trends in higher education
- Encourage innovation
- Promote excellence
The building has great bones; the design of the library will
make use of the existing architecture of the building and enhance
it. St. Augustine was built in the early 60’s and has
wonderful features that will be revealed. The concept of the
design revolves around student seating and study at the perimeter
and the collections centralized at the interior of the
building. This will open the perimeter to a variety of study
environments, which will allow for both quiet individual study as
well as quiet group study. The natural light and views into
and from the library will help to connect the library with the
campus as a whole. Opening the perimeter will allow the space
to flow and circulate more freely and uniformly.
The stacks will be concentrated towards the center of the
library, allowing the collections to be centralized on the third
and fourth floors. A centralized reference desk will be
created on the 3rd floor that will promote interaction with faculty
as well as provide the type of resources students need.
Re-organizing the different departments will facilitate student and
faculty interactions. Additionally state of the art resources
will be provided to students and faculty from computer labs to
wireless infrastructure to increased access to power and digital
material. This will be the type of library that students have
wanted and asked for; it will be a library that exceeds their
expectations.