lauren's library blog

Today several of my WFU colleagues and I went to App State to see their library.

It was a beautiful place that was clearly well designed, and we had incredible hosts that gave us plenty of time, attention, and information. The day was really well spent. Here are my notes:

• The atrium was glassed in. This really cut down on noise but still allowed for beautiful and open views.
• The shelving in reference was half regular stacks height. This gave users plenty of flat surfaces to spread out or to write on. This also meant that everyone had a clear view of the area. Library staff could see anywhere if there was a problem, and students could see the desk (to know if the librarian was available, etc) from anywhere in the room.
• They have a building manager and really recommend this role.
• The library houses a large lecture hall that can be used by other campus groups during specific times. There are 120 theater-styled seats that are ADA compliant and each has an outlet.
• Sign displays are all easily changeable.
• They really recommend temporary signage for the first few years as it takes a while to determine the best location for things.
• The reference desk was designed for students to come around to the back to work side-by-side with the library staff member.
• Student employees are cross trained and have periodic group training sessions on specific skills (a database, a new technology, etc). These sessions are held three or four times in one week so that there are several chances to attend.
• There are 29 active group study rooms with various levels of technology. A few have international satellite for foreign language programming. A few have smartboards, but they have taken a beating as some used them as whiteboards.
• One computer classroom has 34 computers set up so that the front of the classroom is to the side (rather than in front of behind the monitors). There are two projectors so that everything is visible from any point in the room. There are two smartboards. The computers run software to allow instructors to restrict what students can do or to push screens to all computers.
• An interesting discussion followed about the merits of desktops and monitoring software vs. personal laptops with no software. I come down on the personal computer with no software side. I should probably write a post about that sometime soon.
• The Learning Technology Center reports to IT but is located near the library systems team. The LTC does technology training and instructional design.
• There is a server room in the library that runs things like the clocks and security cameras, but the ILS server is elsewhere.
• They recommended to us to look into the Brooklyn College Library. It’s in a Carnegie library building and has some similar renovation interests.

Related posts:

1. wayne state & library 9.95
2. Elon University Instruction and Innovation Conference
3. Emerging Technology Committees
4. how do we define ourselves?
5. the future of the reference desk