NCSU Libraries Focus Online
Volume 25 number 2 - Winter 2005
Brickhaven Library Swing Space
By Jan Kemp, Brickhaven Library
To make way for the East Wing renovation, three technical services department--Acquisitions,
Cataloging, and Preservation--have temporarily moved from the D. H. Hill Library.
The relocation involved nearly sixty staff and student assistants; more than
fifty computers; large amounts of shelving; and equipment used for book repair,
binding, and conservation. The staff moved into a swing space building called
Brickhaven Library in November 2004 and will be there between eighteen and
twenty-four months.
Brickhaven Library is a 10,000-square-foot university facility located at
516 Brickhaven Drive, approximately two miles from the north campus. It is
situated south of Hillsborough Street and the College of Veterinary Medicine
and bounded on the east by Interstate 440. On the west side, the property adjoins
the grounds of NC State's J. C. Raulston Arboretum.
The Brickhaven building, a former mattress showroom, has undergone an extensive
three-month retrofit to meet the requirements of technical services operations.
Major improvements include a new roof; heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning
system; exterior lighting; ten-foot ceilings; carpet, paint, and vinyl tile;
and plumbing and cabinetwork. Because library technical services functions
are computer-based, the building required a major upgrade of electrical power
and data connections to provide access to the Libraries' computer system and
to the Web-based systems used by vendors of library materials and services.
For nearly a year, library staff have helped to prepare specifications for
the swing space, create floor plans for their offices, and develop lists of
the furniture and equipment to be moved. The Libraries has contracted with
a delivery service to transport books and other research materials from the
Brickhaven Library, where the materials are ordered and processed, to the D.
H. Hill and branch libraries, where the books and journals are used by students
and faculty. The staff also travels between Brickhaven and D. H. Hill to work
on committees, special projects, and the collections. To facilitate staff transportation,
a new Wolfline bus stop has been added to the #4 Westgrove route at the corner
of Brickhaven and Beryl Drives.
Processing library materials from an off-campus location requires flexibility,
but the Brickhaven Library offers excellent accommodations. With the swish
of traffic on I-440, chirping mockingbirds, and green vistas of the neighboring
Arboretum, Brickhaven provides a thoughtfully planned, functional temporary
home for the library's technical-processing operations.
|
