The Ubiquitous Librarian

Georgia State University Library – a few observations

Two weeks ago I visited the GSU Library a few blocks down the road from us. They recently completed a $23 million renovation and I was curious what they did with the space. Charging students a $35 fee per semester gets you a lot of change to work with—I wish we had a $5 library fee so that we could develop new spaces every few years.

Overall, the building felt very open and featured a lot of natural light. They are located in the heart of downtown ATL, so there are lots of interesting skyline views from all directions. The furniture and décor felt a little 50’s retro to me—I guess if you like that style that's one thing... most of our furniture on the upper floors is genuinely from that era, so I was hoping to see something fantastically contemporary. (Something fly!) Oh and the marble coffee tables seemed a bit gaudy, sorry, but with the trend toward flexibility I’m not really sure that fits.

Overall the place was great. I was impressed. It was clean—even the stacks seemed to sparkle. It had a very new feel. They say that the students love it, so that’s all that matters—they paid for it! And they’re the ones using the space.

A few photos:

Near the entrance they had these weird chairs. My colleagues loved them, but I don’t know.

I really liked how they used the walls as signs near the elevators and in the stairway. Very bold and effective.

You can see the mass of computers, looks like Herman Miller desks (?)--- but what I really like is the printer sign – it stands out when you are in the space.

I like this posting framework.

The kids section featured imprints on the stacks—this really stood out. I’d like to see that theme spread throughout the entire library: a chemist in the QDs; an accountant in the HF, etc.

Booths appear to be one of the hottest trends in libraries right now. I’ve tested the concept in focus groups and received mixed review—students seem to prefer the double horizontal benches, but GSU’s booths are nice and cozy.

They have a XL instruction room—something like 50 computers, along with this room equipped with laptops that fold under. I like the duality of both a lecture room as well as computer lab.

The real jewel of the library are the seemingly endless number of group study rooms—most of them with windows, whiteboards, power and data. It seemed that everywhere you turned there was another one.

An experiment in Modern Knowledge Spaces (video)

So here is the student documentary that I alluded to awhile ago:

An experiment in Modern Knowledge Spaces. The overall product is much more mature than I anticipated. They did a good job. It covers our renovation and fleshes out some of our guiding philosophy about the Library as a Dwelling Space.

Competition for Academic Libraries (Hint: It's not Google)

When Google Books and Google Scholar emerged, there was a lot of blog-talk about the impact this trend might have on libraries. The million dollar question: why should I use the Library when I can access everything I need via the website?

We've attempted to answer this by creating a dynamic environment, offering expensive software, hosting regular events, and providing space for groups, teaching assistants, and oh yeah, librarians.

However, what if this value that we offer was embedded into the classroom buildings? That's a threat I see emerging, at least here at Tech. I toured our new College of Computing building and they've done some interesting things. For example, they have over 70 computing laboratories, 8 computer labs (with student assistants there to help), and a 200-seat auditorium. Throughout the halls there are several writeable walls (I guess for spontaneous coding writing?) as well as several problem-based learning rooms.

What's also cool is that intermixed between all the classrooms, labs and offices are numerous types of chairs and tables that can be moved around. It's mostly glass too so there is a lot of natural light. And there is also a little coffee shop, vending machines, and microwaves.

It's a clean and pleasant environment, with areas for individuals and groups, and enough distractions to keep it interesting, as well as hundreds of computers, wireless connectivity, direct access to TA's, advisers, professors, admin types, and peers. It's open 24 hours, has more than 500 parking spots underground, and is a stop along campus shuttle route.

So, why do they need to come into the library?

Renovate your library from a desktop: exploring space with SketchUp

I’ve been playing around with SketchUp, it’s a cool, easy to use 3D modeling program. Google bought it late last year and made it freely available. (Note: Google, please buy Elsevier next.) SketchUp has a similar feel to the SIMS games. You can design interior or exterior environments. There are also lots of free bonus materials, like chairs, electronics, carpet patterns, HVAC systems, people, appliances, etc or you could create your own materials and components, such as shelves and tables that are specific dimensions.

You could quickly create a rough sketch of your library and then tinker around with different designs. This is ideal for renovations because you could see just how much stuff you can fit in a space and what it will look like to patrons. It looks a lot better than simple CAD drawings-- easier to sell people on the idea.

• Here’s a quick video demo I created.
• Here’s an impressive demo that a student built showing off the full potential of the software.