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 | Santa Clara University Set To Christen Spacious, State-of-the-Art New Library
After more than a decade of planning, five years of fundraising, and two years of construction, Santa Clara University, a Jesuit university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California's Silicon Valley, will officially open its newest building, a 194,000-square-foot structure that houses the Harrington Learning Commons, the Sobrato Technology Center, and the Orradre Library. The new four-level building sits on the site of SCU's former Orradre Library, but nearly doubles the square footage, offering more storage, shelving, collaborative space, and state-of-the-art technology. The library will be officially dedicated at a ceremony on Monday, March 31.
Ronald Danielson, Vice Provost for Information Services and CIO at SCU told the LJ Academic Newswire the massive project was forward-thinking from its inception. "Program development began more than a dozen years ago, and one of the cornerstones of the program was that the building would be shared by the Library, Media Services, and IT," he notes. "That put Santa Clara far ahead of the curve in planning for the combined services that are now so critical to student and faculty success in teaching, learning, and scholarship." University Librarian Elizabeth Salzer said she is looking forward to more collaboration with SCU's IT and Media Services departments. "I think there are great opportunities presented by co-locating staff that were previously located in five different campus buildings," she noted. "There is great potential for working together in a number of areas."
Danielson and Salzer, meanwhile, are equally proud of a more "retro" feature added to the new library: a classic library reading room. "In the midst of all the technology and collaborative spaces, we have a wonderful room with 20'-plus ceilings and natural cherry paneling and furnishings," Danielson noted, "an elegant, electronics-free space for quiet study and contemplation-activities that far too many new buildings slight or ignore."
Among the features of SCU's new library:
- Capacity for more than 1.1 million volumes (the library currently holds a little over 700,000)
- 25 collaborative workrooms, laboratories for faculty development and multimedia, three video viewing and taping rooms, and 1050 reader seats, each with a wired network connection and electric power
- Three "incubator spaces" for experimenting with new educational technologies
- An Information Commons with computers and support staff
- A café (and food is also allowed in the library)
- An automated retrieval system capable of storing nearly one million volumes, including "most bound periodicals and lesser-used monographs," in special shelving
- Expanded, climate-controlled, closed vault storage space with electronic shelving for the University's Archives and Special Collections, as well as a dedicated reading room for researchers using these materials
When the move into the new space is completed, Salzer says about 250,000 volumes will be on open shelves, in standard book stacks, in an "inviting new book area," with a 'ready reference' collection housed on low shelving. Other materials, including the rest of the reference collection, and printed government documents will be in user-accessible compact shelving in the "Lower Commons area."
Salzer said she loves the new library's "light-filled spaces," in contrast to the old library, which, she says, offered little natural light. "We have lots more space, and it's of much higher quality," she told the Newswire. "I think the students will really use these spaces, which have not only lots of power and networking capacity but also projection capabilities." She added she was "thrilled" with the improved space for special collections. SCU officials, meanwhile also touted the building's flexible design, which they said will be easily adaptable for future innovations in teaching, learning, and information retrieval.
In a testament to good planning, the massive project came off without surprises-barring one happy surprise sprung by a major donor, Business Wire founder and philanthropist Lorry I. Lokey. At a March 14 dedication for the new learning commons, toward which Lokey contributed a whopping $25 million, Lokey surprised his "longtime friend" and SCU board member Joanne Harrington by naming the commons (expected to be named for him) in her honor, the Harrington Learning Commons.
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Going Green: New SCU Library Environmentally Friendly
In addition to the progressive plans for serving students and for administration, Santa Clara University's (SCU) new library building, was also planned to be environmentally friendly. Despite starting planning for the building long before the "green" building movement hit critical mass, officials at SCU put a premium on delivering a responsible, energy-efficient project.
Although the University did not seek LEED certification for the building, University Librarian Elizabeth Salzer said the building has myriad "green" features. For example, in demolishing the former main library and rebuilding on the site, SCU officials saved the red roof tiles and reused them on the new building. "Additionally, there was 70 percent recycled content in the 135,000 cubic foot concrete slab," Salzer noted, and the library features "waterless urinals and flush toilets that use reclaimed water," and "energy efficient lighting throughout the facility." Most of the library's furniture is either recycled, or recyclable as well.
Another "green" feature, adds Ronald Danielson, Vice Provost for Information Services and CIO, is the use of an "underfloor heating and ventilating" system on the building's upper three floors, which takes advantage of the library's environs. "Because of air circulation patterns this allows us to use air that is ten degrees warmer than needed for overhead HVAC systems," Danielson explains, "which saves energy on cooling and, because of the climate in the Bay Area, allows us to use ambient air for ventilation much of the year."
A March 31 opening will mark the culmination of the $95-million library construction project, part of a $400 million capital campaign at SCU, a Jesuit university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California's Silicon Valley, serving just under 9000 students.
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| Sloan Foundation Gives Wikimedia $3M
Award-winning author Nicholson Baker loves it, web users flock to it, and now the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is awarding $3 million to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind by Wikipedia-the largest award in the foundation's history. The award will come in three annual $1 million installments over each of the next three years, and will be used to support additional staff, add features, improve quality-and help the massive online encyclopedia, which does not include advertising, move toward a long-term financially sustainable model.
Jimmy Wales, a founder and board member of the Wikimedia Foundation, told reporters at the Associated Press that he hoped the donation would help "pave the way towards more donations," saying the Sloan Foundation's backing was "a signal that a major foundation sees good in what we are doing." In a release, Doron Weber, a Sloan Foundation representative, said Wikipedia represented "a quantum leap in the collection and organization of knowledge." To date, the Wikimedia foundation has relied on individual donations.
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| Class of 2008: Library Journal Names Movers & Shakers
They represent thousands of others across North America transforming libraries for the better: meet Library Journal's 2008 Movers & Shakers, 50 of the most innovative library advocates, community builders, Web 2.0 gurus, innovators, marketers, mentors, and problem solvers working in libraries today. Of this year's class, nominated by their peers, 16 work in academic libraries, representing a range of interests and expertise. -
For example, Jim Cheng,a librarian in the Pacific Studies Library/East Asian collection at the University of California, Sand Diego, who built a remarkable collection of East Asian films, including an underground Chinese film collection.
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At OhioUniversity, Char Booth, who calls librarianship the most "avocational of vocations" credits an atmosphere of innovation for her inclusion in this year's Movers & Shakers. At OU's Alden Library, Booth helped charter "Skype a librarian," a program that lets patrons get in touch with librarians using the popular free program, as well helping to create an interactive FAQ for the library, a wiki, and a blog covering media literacy.
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At George Mason University, visual arts librarian Mario Ascensio, president of REFORMA, is a passionate advocate for diversity, not only in his work with Spanish-speakers and REFORMA, but with ALA's Black Caucus, GLBT Round Table, American Indian Library Association, and Asian Pacific Library Association.
The full Movers & Shakers supplement was published with the March 15 issue of Library Journal, out now, and is also available online. in full color.
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Best Sellers in Physics, August 2007-present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
(13 digit ISBNs in brackets)
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Very Special Relativity: An Illustrated Guide
Bais, Sander
Harvard University Press
2007. ISBN 067402611x [9780674026117]. $20.95
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Four Laws That Drive the Universe
Atkins, P.W.
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0199232369 [9780199232369]. $19.95
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Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness
Rosenblum, Bruce
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 019517559x [9780195175592]. $29.95
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Universal Force
Girifalco, Louis
Oxford University Press
2008. ISBN 0199228965 [9780199228966]. $39.95
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Gauging What's Real: The Conceptual Foundations of Contemporary Gauge Theories
Healey, Richard
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0199287961 [9780199287963]. $80.00
-
Demon and the Quantum: From the Pythagorean Mystics to Maxwell's Demon and Quantum Mystery
Scully, Robert J.
Wiley-Vch
2007. ISBN 3527406883 [9783527406883]. $37.50
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Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon
Smith, P.D.
St Martin's Press
2007. ISBN 031237397x [9780312373979} $29.95
-
Heat and Thermodynamics: A Historical Perspective
Lewis, Christopher J.T.
Greenwood
2007. ISBN 0313333327 [9780313333323]. $65.00
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Radioactivity: Introduction and History
L'annunziata, Michael F.
Elsevier
2007. ISBN 044452715x [9780444527158]. $99.95
-
Wave Scattering By Time-Dependent Perturbations: An Introduction
Roach, G.F.
Princeton University Press
2007. ISBN 0691113408 [9780691113401]. $65.00
-
Modern Canonical Quantum General Relativity
Thiemann, Thomas
Cambridge University Press
2007. ISBN 0521842638 [9780521842631]. $140.00
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On Chirality and the Universal Asymmetry: Reflections on Image and Mirror Image
Wagniere, Georges H.
Wiley
2007. ISBN 3906390381 [9783906390383]. $110.00
-
Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford
Reeves, Richard
W. W. Norton
2008. ISBN 039305750x [9780393057508]. $23.95
-
Light Scattering by Particles in Water: Theoretical and Experimental Foundations
Jonasz, Miroslaw
Elsevier Academic Press
2007. ISBN 0123887518 [9780123887511]. $95.00
-
Thermodynamics of the Glassy State
Leuzzi, Luca
Taylor & Francis
2008. ISBN 0750309970 [9780750309974]. $129.95
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Decoherence and the Quantum-To-Classical Transition
Schlosshauer, Maximilian
Springer
2007. ISBN 3540357734 [9783540357735]. $99.00
-
Quantum Revolution: A Historical Perspective
Peacock, Kent A.
Greenwood
2008. ISBN 031333448x [9780313334481]. $65.00
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Engines of Discovery: A Century of Particle Accelerators
Sessler, A.M.
World Scientific
2007. ISBN 9812700714 [9789812700711]. $31.00
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Mindful Universe: Quantum Mechanics and the Participating Observer
Stapp, Henry P.
Springer
2007. ISBN 3540724133 [9783540724131]. $39.95
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Introduction to the Theory of Coherence and Polarization of Light
Wolf, Emil
Cambridge University Press
2007. ISBN 0521822114 [9780521822114]. $45.00
Library Journal Academic Newswire
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