what John has been doing recently
If you haven't seen it yet, this was on the front page of the Trib's Metro section last Sunday. (In some locales/editions, we were even above the fold. Sweet.)
Library set for grand new chapter
U. of C. facility will be nation's largest
The University of Chicago long has been known for its undergraduate curriculum, built on the "great books" of philosophers, writers and poets such as Aristotle, Plato, Rousseau and Shakespeare.
But with the U. of C. poised to launch a $42 million expansion of its Regenstein Library, the university will have a new claim to fame: the largest research library under a single roof in North America, university officials say.
When completed in June 2009, Regenstein's collection will total about 8 million volumes in one space. The total university collection will exceed 11 million.
More important, scholars say, more than half of the collection at Regenstein will remain accessible to faculty members and students inclined to browse the miles of shelves in search of that serendipitous intellectual encounter.
U. of C. officials say the multimillion-dollar addition to Regenstein, which sits on the former site of the school's football stadium, symbolizes the school's focus on scholarship.
"On our campus, it's not the football game that draws the biggest crowd, it's evening study in the library," said Provost Richard Saller. "We're a campus where the library is sort of the social center because it is the focus [of the university]."
The expansion of the U. of C.'s library comes as large research libraries around the country confront an enormous sea change in how students and scholars conduct research and how information is disseminated.
Card catalogs--with actual cards--are long gone from top libraries, as are the miles of accessible bookshelves packed with scientific journals and periodicals.
In their place are online catalogs, off-site storage facilities and digitized journals. In some cases, even actual books are giving way to electronic versions.
The University of Michigan, along with Stanford, Harvard and others, has hired Google to digitize the entire 7 million-volume collection of the university's library.
How much of that material will be made available to the university community remains clouded by copyright issues.
"We haven't determined what we'll be doing, but we won't be breaking the law," said John Wilkin, associate university librarian at Michigan.
Northwestern University has purchased its own equipment to scan texts and plans to digitize 1,000 books annually--focusing on older, brittle texts, said University Librarian David Bishop.
Bishop adds that Northwestern already is spending a "significant amount" on digital materials "and this is having an impact on the amount of money we have to spend on print materials."
The meteoric rise of the Internet and leap in computer literacy have libraries rethinking how they serve their students and faculty.
Librarians, planning for the future, are trying to determine whether the Internet boom will fizzle or whether it represents, as one administrator put it, "an epochal event" like Gutenberg's invention of the printing press.
"I rather think it's the latter," said Fred Heath, vice provost and director of libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. "That's what has the research library world in its current state."
Meanwhile, the proliferation of printed materials continues unabated. In any year, the University of Chicago acquires 150,000 new print titles.
That means libraries must wrestle constantly with their collections, shifting volumes into storage as they weigh competing needs for precious space.
Many libraries are clearing out areas once dedicated to books and creating computer research stations.
"Libraries have to stay flexible and respond to an environment that's changing so fast we don't know what to expect five years down the road," said Karin Wittenborg, university librarian at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.
John Unsworth, dean of the graduate school of library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, home of one of the nation's largest library collections, said there is a lot of talk about the increase in digital collections.
But "the challenge that libraries face, for at least the next generation, is to build collections on both fronts--digital and physical--because no collection that is only one or the other will be adequate," Unsworth said.
U. of C. planners say the addition to Regenstein will allow the university to keep its options open.
"First and foremost it gives us the ability to rethink the library in ways in which if we had to go offsite [to store books] we could not rethink," said Judith Nadler, director of the library.
Faculty members involved with planning the new facility have stressed the need for a library that draws scholars away from computer terminals and back to the stacks. In fact, a faculty survey revealed that professors, while continuing to draw heavily on the holdings of Regenstein, were spending less time in the library.
"I think there is something deeply important about human face-to-face interaction," said Andrew Abbott, the Swift distinguished service professor in sociology.
Scholars say preserving Regenstein's massive open stacks is another priority.
"The chance of seeing what the next volume is, or running your eyes idly over the spines, opening the pages and falling upon something is memorable, pleasurable, instructive and frequently decisive in the way you work," said Neil Harris, a U. of C. historian and member of the faculty committee involved in planning the new addition.
The planned addition of 40,000 square feet to the library--opened in 1970 and designed by architect Walter Netsch--will not only allow the collection to grow, but it also will provide the library with updated preservation facilities, improved book-tracking technology and additional classroom space.
The cornerstone of the library's expansion will be a high-density, automated shelving facility that mainly will house print journals.
The high-density storage system requires one-seventh the floor space of a conventional system and employs bar codes and bins to track and store volumes. Already in use at several libraries, the system allows books to be selected and delivered within five minutes.
The expansion also will enable the university to enlarge its digital collection. With the extra space gained from storing print periodicals, a portion of the current Regenstein building will be reconfigured into an "information commons" and include digital learning libraries as well as an Internet-savvy library staff.
Scholars and library officials say the expansion of Regenstein can blend the best of the digital and print worlds.
Harris, whose scholarly career predates the photocopier, says that a renovated Regenstein will remain the spiritual center of the university.
"This library is the heart of the campus. It's been the most important building put up in the last 50 years, so you approach it with some degree of reverence," said Harris. "You don't want to lose its significance."
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a couple of notes:
Library set for grand new chapter
U. of C. facility will be nation's largest
The University of Chicago long has been known for its undergraduate curriculum, built on the "great books" of philosophers, writers and poets such as Aristotle, Plato, Rousseau and Shakespeare.
But with the U. of C. poised to launch a $42 million expansion of its Regenstein Library, the university will have a new claim to fame: the largest research library under a single roof in North America, university officials say.
When completed in June 2009, Regenstein's collection will total about 8 million volumes in one space. The total university collection will exceed 11 million.
More important, scholars say, more than half of the collection at Regenstein will remain accessible to faculty members and students inclined to browse the miles of shelves in search of that serendipitous intellectual encounter.
U. of C. officials say the multimillion-dollar addition to Regenstein, which sits on the former site of the school's football stadium, symbolizes the school's focus on scholarship.
"On our campus, it's not the football game that draws the biggest crowd, it's evening study in the library," said Provost Richard Saller. "We're a campus where the library is sort of the social center because it is the focus [of the university]."
The expansion of the U. of C.'s library comes as large research libraries around the country confront an enormous sea change in how students and scholars conduct research and how information is disseminated.
Card catalogs--with actual cards--are long gone from top libraries, as are the miles of accessible bookshelves packed with scientific journals and periodicals.
In their place are online catalogs, off-site storage facilities and digitized journals. In some cases, even actual books are giving way to electronic versions.
The University of Michigan, along with Stanford, Harvard and others, has hired Google to digitize the entire 7 million-volume collection of the university's library.
How much of that material will be made available to the university community remains clouded by copyright issues.
"We haven't determined what we'll be doing, but we won't be breaking the law," said John Wilkin, associate university librarian at Michigan.
Northwestern University has purchased its own equipment to scan texts and plans to digitize 1,000 books annually--focusing on older, brittle texts, said University Librarian David Bishop.
Bishop adds that Northwestern already is spending a "significant amount" on digital materials "and this is having an impact on the amount of money we have to spend on print materials."
The meteoric rise of the Internet and leap in computer literacy have libraries rethinking how they serve their students and faculty.
Librarians, planning for the future, are trying to determine whether the Internet boom will fizzle or whether it represents, as one administrator put it, "an epochal event" like Gutenberg's invention of the printing press.
"I rather think it's the latter," said Fred Heath, vice provost and director of libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. "That's what has the research library world in its current state."
Meanwhile, the proliferation of printed materials continues unabated. In any year, the University of Chicago acquires 150,000 new print titles.
That means libraries must wrestle constantly with their collections, shifting volumes into storage as they weigh competing needs for precious space.
Many libraries are clearing out areas once dedicated to books and creating computer research stations.
"Libraries have to stay flexible and respond to an environment that's changing so fast we don't know what to expect five years down the road," said Karin Wittenborg, university librarian at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.
John Unsworth, dean of the graduate school of library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, home of one of the nation's largest library collections, said there is a lot of talk about the increase in digital collections.
But "the challenge that libraries face, for at least the next generation, is to build collections on both fronts--digital and physical--because no collection that is only one or the other will be adequate," Unsworth said.
U. of C. planners say the addition to Regenstein will allow the university to keep its options open.
"First and foremost it gives us the ability to rethink the library in ways in which if we had to go offsite [to store books] we could not rethink," said Judith Nadler, director of the library.
Faculty members involved with planning the new facility have stressed the need for a library that draws scholars away from computer terminals and back to the stacks. In fact, a faculty survey revealed that professors, while continuing to draw heavily on the holdings of Regenstein, were spending less time in the library.
"I think there is something deeply important about human face-to-face interaction," said Andrew Abbott, the Swift distinguished service professor in sociology.
Scholars say preserving Regenstein's massive open stacks is another priority.
"The chance of seeing what the next volume is, or running your eyes idly over the spines, opening the pages and falling upon something is memorable, pleasurable, instructive and frequently decisive in the way you work," said Neil Harris, a U. of C. historian and member of the faculty committee involved in planning the new addition.
The planned addition of 40,000 square feet to the library--opened in 1970 and designed by architect Walter Netsch--will not only allow the collection to grow, but it also will provide the library with updated preservation facilities, improved book-tracking technology and additional classroom space.
The cornerstone of the library's expansion will be a high-density, automated shelving facility that mainly will house print journals.
The high-density storage system requires one-seventh the floor space of a conventional system and employs bar codes and bins to track and store volumes. Already in use at several libraries, the system allows books to be selected and delivered within five minutes.
The expansion also will enable the university to enlarge its digital collection. With the extra space gained from storing print periodicals, a portion of the current Regenstein building will be reconfigured into an "information commons" and include digital learning libraries as well as an Internet-savvy library staff.
Scholars and library officials say the expansion of Regenstein can blend the best of the digital and print worlds.
Harris, whose scholarly career predates the photocopier, says that a renovated Regenstein will remain the spiritual center of the university.
"This library is the heart of the campus. It's been the most important building put up in the last 50 years, so you approach it with some degree of reverence," said Harris. "You don't want to lose its significance."
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a couple of notes:
- in 2009 we will have the capacity for 8 million volumes in the Reg. But the stacks won't fill up for a good long time (I hope, since this will cost an arm and a leg...)
- the whole "information commons" paragraph was not our idea. If it sound strange or puzzling, don't worry--we're not sure what they meant either. (and our staff is already "Internet-savvy," thank you very much.)
- the above being said, I'm pretty excited by the article. And find a print copy, if you can--it has a nice picture of my boss on page 8.