The Science and Engineering Libraries Renovation Project

The Clark Hall Library was originally the busy heart of the University of Virginia School of Law. Built in the 1930s and expanded in the 1950's, the library served generations of law students until 1975, when the Law School moved to its new quarters on the North Grounds. At that time, the library became the home of the general undergraduate science collections for the University, along with the graduate library for the Department of Environmental Sciences, with which it shares Clark Hall. In the mid-1980's the library for the School of Engineering merged with the then Sci/Tech Information Center to become the present Science and Engineering Library. While technology advanced steadily, the library remained basically unchanged from its 1930's origins except for a few cosmetic improvements.

The Science and Engineering Library is a vital source of information and assistance for the more than 1,400 students and faculty who enter its doors each day. These patrons are not only faculty and students in science and engineering, but also include users from all the schools and departments of the University, as well as alumni and citizens from throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. Yet, today's students still study at the same long wooden tables used by their parents and grandparents. Access to books and journals in the library's stack levels requires descending a narrow stairway never intended for heavy traffic or for use by persons with disabilities when the law library was a closed-stack facility. Although computer terminals now cluster in the reading room, the library was never designed to accommodate the number and variety of computers needed in a modern library. There are limited facilities for students to connect their own laptops to the Internet or to congregate for small group study and debate. Only a small electronic classroom exists in which librarians can demonstrate and teach modern methods of information gathering and management. Facilities for creating and working with digital data and images are severely limited. The need today is for a thoroughly modern, functional science and engineering library offering a full range of library and information gathering and processing facilities.

Today's library user is more sophisticated, more technically savvy, and more demanding than yesterday's student or faculty member ever was. Knowledge is increasing exponentially, and the pace of academic life is faster than ever. Today, technology makes possible undreamed of access to digital materials, vast databases of information, remote library catalogs, and web-based documents and tutorials. The library teaches an on-going slate of classes in how to find and use digital information, as well as how to create and use it effectively. Users demand access to electronic mail, digital documents and information, full-text articles and books, and the means to process and combine this data and information in new and dazzling ways. To provide this kind of access and ability, the Science and Engineering Library must change and adapt. The renovation of Clark Hall and the library will assure that the library can offer its users the best quality service well into the 21st century.

The new Science and Engineering Library will provide a 35-40 seat computer lab in which students can take a project from the research stage to the finished product without ever leaving the library. A multimedia center will offer scanners, video carrels, digital media workstations, and other technology designed to teach students multimedia skills they can use in the classroom and on the job. Fully wired group study rooms will enable students to collaborate on projects and learn from one another as they will in "real world" situations. An expanded electronic classroom will enable librarians to teach students the information literacy skills they will need to compete in today's fast-paced workplace. A conference room will offer data and video teleconferencing capability to the UVA science and engineering community for meetings and conferences. Every seat and study carrel in the library will be fully Internet wired. Yet, while providing all this modern technology, the Science and Engineering Library intends never to lose sight of the fact that the library should be a lively, inviting space that welcomes users to linger in its open spaces, read and study under natural light, and enjoy the ambiance of its traditional spaces. At left is an artist's conception of a new addition to the Library's main reading room, which will exemplify this philosophy. Also as part of the renovation, the Library will build a new staircase and public elevator to improve access to our collections of books and journals. The renovation will also improve conditions in our stacks to encourage our users to linger, study, and make use of these materials in traditional formats. The new Science and Engineering Library intends to take the best of its past with it, as it moves into an exciting and productive future!