NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 21 number 1 - Fall 2000

By June Brotherton, Organizational Effectiveness, and Kathy Brown, Library Space Planning and Design

From the outside, the main D. H. Hill Library is an imposing presence on the Brickyard, serving as an academic anchor on the north campus. Inside, the building hums with activity twenty-four hours a day, as the place where students and faculty converge to conduct research, to collaborate, and to study.

The D. H. Hill Library consists of four connected structures: the East Wing, built in 1953; the West (Erdahl-Cloyd) Wing, constructed in 1952 originally as a student union; and two nine-story towers completed in 1970 and 1990. The 1990 addition was built when the university served a student population of roughly 26,000 and included ten years of growth capacity.

The recent survey conducted by Eva Klein for the UNC system, however, found that the NCSU Libraries today is operating at 43 percent over its capacity in terms of quantity of space available for users, collections, services, and staff. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' (SACS) 1994 accreditation review stated that the library's seating capacity for 27,500 students--about 2,500 seats at the time--did not meet standards for comparable libraries. Today, seating for a student body of about 28,000 has further decreased to only 1,090 seats. Adding to the space crunch, the tower constructed in 1990 will be at capacity for book storage in 2001. Moreover, although the number of library staff has increased by more than a third in the last decade, no new staff space has been added since 1954. The Libraries is running out of space for users, materials, and staff.

Add to the equation a minimum of 3,000 additional students enrolled by 2010 and 6,000 more corporate and government partners, faculty, staff, and students on Centennial Campus by 2002, all of whom will expect access to quality library resources, and the space problem becomes enormous. Without major renovation and expansion of the NCSU Libraries, its current infrastructure and facilities will be unable to serve the needs of its current users, much less new ones.

Quality of space is also a key issue. The East Wing, which originally served as the main library and stacks area, now houses numerous computers, printers, and other equipment to provide access to the library's electronic resources. It also holds most of the library staff, all of whom use computers and other pieces of equipment in their offices. The 1950s-vintage electrical system is strained to the limit; often, all it takes to overload the system--which then cuts off power to a section of the wing--is someone plugging in a vacuum cleaner. The same vintage heating and air-conditioning system means frequent breakdowns and a search for parts that are no longer made. In the meantime, faculty, students, and staff often swelter in the summertime or freeze in the winter when breakdowns occur. In Special Collections and Archives, frequent leaks from an old cooling system used to control humidity and preserve collections force employees to cover boxed collections with plastic sheets for protection.

Walk over to the theater in the West Wing and step back in time. The 1950s theater houses the original yellow-vinyl auditorium chairs now cracked with age, and the sound-absorbing tiles on the walls are disintegrating and coming unglued. When classes meet there, sound permeates the entire floor, spilling across the hall into the multimedia room where students often struggle to view videos and listen to audiotapes for classes amid high levels of noise.

The Libraries is in a crisis in terms of the quantity, quality, and flexibility of space. Follow a hypothetical user, Mary Wolfpack, through the main library to understand how lack of space affects users and their ability to conduct research, study, and learn. The scenario presents an amalgam of space problems that NC State students might typically encounter during their years at this university.

Mary lives off campus but arrives at the library at 9:00 a.m. to find a parking space and to study for a test before her 11:00 a.m. class. She comes to the library looking for a quiet place to study but searches fruitlessly for an individual study carrel--they are filled with students who are also studying. It is now 9:15 a.m. Mary finally sits at a large table with several other students to study. She discovers, however, that they are working on a group project and are discussing how to approach the project and divide up assignments. She requests that they find a group study room to conduct their discussion but is told that all seven of the library's group studies are occupied. She sighs, closes her book, and decides to find a book she needs. It is now 9:30 a.m.

Mary goes to the reference area to use the online catalog to look up the call number of the book. She finds all computers in use and waits patiently for ten minutes until another student finishes using a computer. Finding the right call number, she goes up to the eighth floor to get the book, only to find it missing, even though the catalog states that it is available. Going back to the first-floor circulation desk to inquire about the book, she learns that the staff did not have room to reshelve the book on that particular floor. Instead, her book is sitting in a cart in the back hallway behind the circulation desk, where she is invited to look for it. Mary finds it and checks it out. It is now 9:55 a.m.

Mary, needing to read her electronic mail to see if a professor has responded to a question she asked, decides to go to the Unity Computing Lab on the second floor to use a computer. As she walks around the corner, she is confronted with a line of students winding out of the lab. After waiting for fifteen minutes, she finally gets a computer, checks her electronic mail, and reads the answer from her professor. It is 10:15 a.m. Frustrated, she decides to find a chair in a quiet corner to study her notes for the test and to take notes from the book she just checked out. Mary goes back down to the first floor. Everywhere she turns, students have taken every available seat, and some are even sitting on the floor. At 10:30 a.m., after searching in vain for a seat, she gives up and decides to go have a cup of coffee, thinking, "Forget studying."

The North Carolina General Assembly, understanding the critical need for additional and renovated space for the UNC system universities, voted during the 1999 session to place on the November 7, 2000, ballot a facilities bond for public universities and the community colleges. If passed, the $3.1 billion bond will give NC State $449 million to renovate outdated facilities and construct essential new facilities to address the university's current capacity problems. As part of the bond package, the NCSU Libraries will receive $9.2 million for renovation of current space and/or construction of additional space. This funding is a vital first step in ensuring that the NCSU Libraries is able to provide critical research, study, and collaboration space so desperately needed by students and faculty now and in the future.