Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB553CA26@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 17:02:46 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@ou.edu'" <it-fyi@ou.edu>
Subject: Community College Library Without Books (CHE Academe Today)
. . . from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Academe Today:
================================
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
January 23, 1998
A Community College Uses a Windfall to Create a Library Without Books
Manhattan facility to offer pixels, not paper
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
NEW YORK
Architectural drawings for a new library at the Borough of Manhattan
Community College show rows and rows of tables and study carrels and
plenty of modern amenities. But something is missing. There are no
shelves.
This "virtual library," scheduled to be completed in 1999, will house
few, if any, books. Instead, it will have hundreds of networked
computers giving students access to the college's growing collection of
on-line materials, as well as to the rest of cyberspace.
The plans are evidence of a growing movement to integrate computer and
library services. Students are demanding that libraries provide them
with gateways to the Internet and with word-processing capabilities.
Librarians are rushing to get books, journals, newspapers, and other
materials into electronic form, in the hope that pixels will be cheaper
than pages to store and distribute. Meanwhile, some colleges are
building remote storage warehouses for those books that aren't used
often enough to justify a home on campus (The Chronicle, October 17,
1997).
Some critics say that such changes are dangerous -- that the quality of
university libraries may be eroding, and that high technology may not
preserve information as reliably as the tried-and-true book does.
But planners of the project here also tell a unique story, about an
unexpected gift and a non-traditional student population.
Administrators say that they are simply making the best use of scarce
resources, and that the college's new library is an addition to -- not a
replacement for -- its traditional library.
The college, part of the City University of New York, has a mission
statement directing it to admit every student who wants to come. It
attracts plenty of hungry minds, but finding space in which to teach
them all is a constant challenge. "The day we moved in, the campus was
already inadequate to our needs," says Ronald Spalter, dean of
administration and planning. He estimates that 16,000 students now use
facilities designed for 9,000. The college moved to its current
location, near Wall Street, in 1983.
So administrators keep feelers out for any new space they can find.
They've set up temporary classrooms in nearby public schools and in
corporate conference rooms.
Naturally, campus planners noticed when a business cleared out of a
15-story building down the street. Rumor had it that the landlord didn't
want to do the renovations necessary to attract a new tenant. College
officials got on the phone to see if they might use the vacated space.
Finally, Mr. Spalter got a call from the owner, Miles Fiterman, who was
traveling in the south of France. The dean remembers the conversation
well: "Mr. Fiterman says, 'You can have the building.'" Great, Mr.
Spalter responded; what's the rent? "No," came the answer. "You can have
the building."
College press releases called it "the largest gift ever to a community
college in the United States." Since the donation, the college has asked
both donors and the New York City Council for help with the $44-million
cost of renovation. The college hired Hardy Holtzman Pfeiffer Associates
to take on the project.
For once, the college found itself in the unusual position of deciding
what to do with extra real estate. That's when the idea of the "virtual
library" was born.
"We said, 'What else do we need?'" says Mr. Spalter. Other than more
classroom space, the answer seemed clear. Many of the college's students
work during the day and then come straight to class, so they need a
quiet place to sit and work during any extra time they might have. "We
said, If they're going to come and study, why don't we also provide them
with some electronic tools?" But rather than offer just a computer
center, the college decided to provide librarians who could help
students find the information they need on line.
The latest plans call for converting three floors in the new Fiterman
Hall into the virtual library. It will have 400 seats and as many
Internet ports. The college also plans to experiment with the design of
some chairs and tables, hoping to make them more comfortable than those
in traditional libraries.
Not all of the librarians are thrilled about creating a library without
books. "We have been very sensitive to that issue," says Sidney Eng, the
college's chief librarian. A small collection of reference books might
be included, he says, but he reminds his colleagues that they aren't
throwing out any of the books in the main library. "The text collection
is a block and a half away."
So why call the new facility a library at all? "It's the name
recognition," says Mr. Eng. "Everybody knows what a library is supposed
to do." The name is appropriate even if little of the information in the
Fiterman Hall library is stored on paper, he adds. "The role of a
librarian is to help students to select, to evaluate, and to use
information. I feel that the new facility will basically do the same
thing."
What's more, he says, the virtual library will send a message to
students at the college, some of whom have little experience
with computers. "It is important that they be exposed to these things."
The librarians will offer classes on doing research via the Internet and
on-line data bases, and on evaluating the merit of information
found in cyberspace. They will also spend time creating and organizing
on-line resources to help students track down useful information. Mr.
Eng says he has been looking to universities with large
distance-education programs for examples of how to put together tools
for virtual libraries.
Experimenting with a new type of library presents new challenges. The
college expects to spend a fair amount of time and money keeping the
hundreds of computers in good repair. "That's an increased burden we
will have to bear," says Mr. Spalter, the planning dean. In the near
future, Mr. Eng says, more and more libraries will look like this one,
because so many materials will be stored in electronic form. "In my
mind," he says, "this is a trend."
Other colleges are working on similar facilities. Mesa Community College
last week broke ground for a major expansion of its library. The new
Integrated Library High-Tech Facility at the Arizona institution will
have one floor devoted entirely to computer terminals and user services.
The other floors will mix shelved books and computers.
Gilbert Gonzales, dean of information technology at Mesa, says that if
libraries don't adapt to new technology, they may go unused as more and
more students spend their time in campus computer centers. He hopes that
the expansion will make Mesa's library "the heart of the campus" once
again. "It will be the facility that has the services and will be able
to handle the large number of students."
Members of his staff are being careful to maintain the "useful parts" of
the traditional library as they create the new, hybrid facility, he
adds.
Other digital-library projects have no recognizable physical location at
all. The California Digital Library, for instance, focuses its energy on
creating electronic resources that can be used by anyone in the
University of California system, no matter where. Richard E. Lucier, the
university system's digital librarian, says the goal is "to begin to tie
together the use of the more-traditional campus library with the digital
library."
Many universities, meanwhile, are wiring their libraries with electric
outlets and Internet jacks, so that students can bring their own laptop
computers into the stacks.
One librarian has coined the term "electronic commons" for newly
designed libraries that incorporate technology centers. Philip Tompkins,
university librarian and executive director of libraries at Indiana
University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, says the goal "is to
create a facility that hosts the convergence of the Gutenberg and
digital cultures."
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com
Date: 01/23/98
Section: Information Technology
Page: A23