NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 22 number 1 - Fall 2001

By June Brotherton, Administration and Advancement

For the next six months, NC State faculty, students, library staff, and administrators will be asked to step into the future and envision what students and faculty should see and experience when using the NCSU Libraries ten to twenty years from now, as well as what kinds of library facilities will be needed to realize that vision. The Libraries--working with nationally known library architects Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd., and university Facilities Planning and Design--will conduct a master-planning effort to assess:

What is the best way to address the library system's current space shortage?

What are the functional issues associated with an aging, overcrowded library structure for both users and staff?

What is required to meet the needs of a growing population of scholars and expanding enrollment on Centennial Campus?

What is the best way to use the $8.75 million the library received in the recent university facilities bond referendum?

How will the Libraries make decisions about these issues? According to Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Susan K. Nutter, who will lead the master-planning effort, "We will meet these issues the way we always have, by starting first with the needs of our users--the students and faculty of NC State."

Starting in September 2001, a series of five charettes or brainstorming sessions with structured questions and presentations will be held that involve faculty, students, the University Library Committee (ULC), university administrators, library staff and administrators, and, ultimately, the NCSU Board of Trustees. In the charettes, participants will help assess current and future space needs by participating in a process to identify the future technologies, services, programs, and location of library facilities that generations of upcoming scholars will need to conduct research and learning activities at the Libraries. Among the issues to be considered are the functional capacity of the current D. H. Hill facility; the need for an additional library facility for Centennial Campus; transportation and parking requirements for library facilities; the need to anticipate and exploit new technologies for the benefit of library users, particularly for those accessing services and resources from their desktops; and the role of print versus electronic collections in the research library of the future.

Concurrently, an assessment phase will collect data on current functions, services, and programs and how they impact space issues. After these two phases are completed, a blueprint for future renovations, construction, and growth of the Libraries for the next two decades will be created. This approach allows the university and the library to plan for, fund, build, and maintain library facilities in a timely manner that will support and sustain scholarly excellence for current and future generations.