Academic Library Design by VMDO Architects

Academic Library Design

Contents

VMDO Architects

Designing for 21st Century Libraries

Contributing to Campus Life

Designing for Connections Honoring Enduring Legacies Bridging Building + Landscape Supporting Community Events

8 11 14 17

Student Centered Libraries

Catering to Every Type of Learner Leveraging Technological Innovations Supporting Serendipitous Discovery Housing + Accessing Information

20 23 26 31

Gathering

Creating Spaces for Collaboration Strengthening Discourse Nurturing Bodies + Minds

34 39 40

Serving

Connecting Users to Resources Optimizing Self - Service Options + Mobile Navigation Accommodating Library Staff Building on Students’ Strengths Operating Around the Clock

46 49 52 55 58

Featured Projects + Collaboration

VMDO Architects

At VMDO, we understand that libraries serve a pivotal role in the educational landscape. Our approach begins by focusing on the user experience and prioritizing design strategies that embrace innovations in learning and teaching. Careful attention to an institution’s wider academic goals is paired with our commitment to crafting architecture finely tuned to the spirit of a campus. As your architect, we will:

Incorporate constituent input. Successfully designing for an institution means incorporating the input of a variety of stakeholders. We understand how to engage a complex network of constituents in a fluid and effective design process. Their involvement ensures that our buildings resonate with the needs and culture of your particular collegiate community. Attend to critical construction details. Our continuous work on libraries means we are familiar not just with their spaces, but also with their construction. We understand what works and what doesn’t. We attend to the critical details so that your building will perform efficiently and effectively well into the future. Design for the campus. We are committed to the long-term care and development of a campus. As stewards of a campus, we understand that our buildings will make an impact on a place for years to come. We work hard to ensure that our design will both reflect and support a thriving academic environment.

Designing for 21st Century Libraries Today’s academic library is undergoing a transformation in how it responds to the multifaceted needs and expectations of various user groups. With the waning reliance on physical resources and the parallel advances in technological innovation, the library of tomorrow must devote a far greater share of its space to users seeking comfortable, flexible environments that can host a range of scholarly activities. As mobile computing and communication become more ubiquitous, campuses around the country are finding that hybrid learning commons capable of hosting a range of complementary services are becoming in-demand hubs of everyday activity. By providing students places to eat, relax, study, and collaborate, the campus library is poised to become the premier showcase for an institution’s commitment to 21st century learning.

01 Contributing to Campus Life Designing for Connections Honoring Enduring Legacies Bridging Building + Landscape Supporting Community Events

C ont ri but i ng t o Cam pu s L ife

Designing for Connections

More than any other building type on campus, the library engages students from diverse backgrounds and provides a unique collection of spaces and resources necessary for student success. A gathering place for everyday interaction and learning, the library serves as a spatial marker and social link connecting students across demographics and departments to a central academic experience. As a purveyor of intellectual and cultural identity on campus, the library is often prominently situated at the crossroads of social, academic, and recreational precincts to serve the greater campus community.

Co n tri b u ti n g to C ampu s L i fe

Honoring Enduring Legacies

Every institution has a distinct architectural language unique to its location and history. Careful study of a campus can inform how to appropriately and innovatively stitch new buildings and landscapes into an existing campus fabric while honoring enduring legacies. Awareness of the scale and massing of existing buildings, familiarity with indigenous building materials, and an understanding of local building traditions can help inform aesthetic strategies that lead to a fitting and memorable design language. As aging libraries face questions of continued usefulness, a sensitive approach to preservation can ensure that a campus’ architectural legacy is respected while also updated and enhanced.

Creating a New Heart of Campus Life

C ont ri but i ng t o Cam pu s L ife

Bridging Building + Landscape Memorable library design highlights and facilitates the academic activity taking place inside while connecting students to the surrounding campus landscape outside. Lawns, terraces, courtyards, balconies, and occupiable roofs, for instance, present opportunities to enjoy nearly year-round contact with the environment, while carefully located windows permit unrestricted visible access to the outdoors. By providing physical and visual connections to the surrounding landscape, a library can link students, intellectually and emotionally, with their learning aims and the campus setting of which they are integrally apart.

Co n tri b u ti n g to C ampu s L i fe

Supporting Community Events

Today’s library is a hybrid public space whose configuration allows for a broad range of programmed and spontaneous events for the university community. No longer simply a storage facility for books and other print material, the library has developed a wide range of platforms and resources that attract a diversity of patrons from beyond school grounds. Often, the library serves as a point of entry for first-time visitors to a school. Special collections, historical archives, and museum-quality displays draw patrons looking for unique opportunities to learn about campus history. Libraries are increasingly partnering with arts initiatives to carve out spaces for dramatic performances, musical events, and art openings – contributing to the fluid vibrancy of this intellectual hub. Lecture series and continuing education classes also help attract new users and extend the impact of the building.

02 Student Centered Library Catering to Every Type of Learner Leveraging Technological Innovations Supporting Serendipitous Discovery Housing + Accessing Information

Stud e nt Cent e red L ibra r y

Catering to Every Type of Learner

While much has changed in the evolution of library design, the library itself remains the foremost venue for scholarship on American campuses today. It serves as a foundation for research, study, and intellectual enlargement at a time when there is a decreasing reliance on traditional, bricks-and-mortar academic resources. Today’s library is a nimble building, replete with spaces that cater to every type of learner. Small, quiet study stations allow students to focus intently on their studies, while Learning Commons buzz with the collaborative exchanges of small and medium sized groups. Study Rooms host teams of high-level thinkers, and traditional Reading Rooms recall the grandeur of lofty public libraries. Flexible furniture arrangements and comfortable seating options combine to create diverse settings for various forms of study and camaraderie.

Stu d en t Cen te re d L i brar y

Leveraging Technological Innovations

The 21st century has given rise to tremendous shifts in how information is created, disseminated, and digested. The Internet, wireless computing, and touch-screen technology have all contributed to a growing expectation for information to be provided on-demand and in increasingly flexible formats. The library serves as an intellectual gobetween, helping users wade through the incredible amount of information that exists while fostering new methods of search and discovery. At the same time, curricular changes demanding increased group study require new tools to facilitate digital collaboration. Touch-tables, interactive media surfaces, 3D printing, and the integration of technology into furnishings are being incorporated into academic libraries at a rapid rate. In order to stay ahead of the curve, the library must adapt to changes in existing infrastructure and equipment while embracing new systems and technology as they become available.

“ This project will create a library for this generation. It will enable students and faculty members to work together in new and digitally sophisticated ways. The best academic libraries today provide points of connection between scholars, both locally and globally.”

Jo El l en Pa r ker President Swe e t B ria r Co l l ege

Stud e nt Cent e red L ibra r y

Supporting Serendipitous Discovery An enduring strength of the traditional library is the way in which its organization sparks opportunities for discovery and enlightenment. As a user peruses a library shelf, a constellation of topics unfolds before him or her. While one search for a specific title may fall short of the desired volume, it may surreptitiously yield related material or better resources than originally anticipated. Writ large, today’s library is an expanded version of the traditional bookshelf. Library patrons have the ability to physically or virtually scan for a particular book, while also browsing through various online consortium-supported collections. Digital exhibits, interactive media features, and library-sponsored events all enhance the chances of serendipitous learning and discovery.

Honoring the Importance of Quiet Contemplation

Stu d en t Cen te re d L i brar y

Housing + Accessing Information

While some universities are scaling back collections and de-accessioning little-used volumes from their collections, others are experimenting with a collection management system known as the Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS). These robotically controlled book vaults require a fraction of the space needed for traditional book storage by housing collections in high-density storage bins. When a book is requested, a computer determines its location and deploys a robot to retrieve it within seconds. The ASRS allows libraries to convert valuable square footage (necessary for bulky stacks) into flexible, user-centered program areas. With this space-saving technology, libraries are providing more collaborative learning environments, allowing patrons and library staff to focus more on the experience of knowledge learning and sharing, as opposed to book searching and shelving.

03 Gathering

Creating Spaces for Collaboration Strengthening Discourse Nurturing Bodies + Minds

G at he r i ng

Creating Spaces for Collaboration

Teamwork and collaboration are becoming trademarks of today’s lively, multi-faceted work environments. Increasingly, collaborative teams are meeting in more informal settings, sharing ideas and building arguments in virtual space, and recording their work using a variety of digital media – all with the help of cutting edge technology. In order to equip students with the skills to operate in this kind of environment, libraries are becoming adroit at identifying these professional trends and outfitting their learning spaces with similar capabilities. Increasingly, the technology found in group study rooms is able to engage learners of various ability levels. Writable walls and tables, interactive touch screen table tops, large screen monitors, and laptops with wireless projection capability help connect collaborators with each other and with the content at hand. Flexible furnishings permit a variety of seating permutations in support of increased comfort and engagement.

“ During the twenty-one years I have worked with architectural and engineering firms, I have dealt with none who have exhibited the standards of professionalism, problemsolving, customer relations, and design creativity as VMDO. They have developed design(s) for the College and put them into action on buildings and landscapes on our campus, which is bringing about change and putting character into our buildings.” S i m e o n E . Ew i ng A s s o c i at e C h ance llo r U va’ s C o lle g e at W i s e

G athe ri n g

Strengthening Discourse

Often playing host to various academic pursuits, social events, and cultural displays, today’s library is expected to support a broad range of activities. It isn’t uncommon to find a range of classroom types and sizes in today’s library, all meant to provide a variety of environments for discussion and dialogue. Small, 30+ person classrooms are a staple in current academic settings. They allow for easy exchange between students and facilitators, and their size supports participation without the need for microphones and expensive AV equipment. Larger rooms that can host upwards of 100 people are useful for lectures and symposia. These rooms can often be subdivided into smaller spaces for programmatic flexibility. They also are indispensable spaces for receptions, book readings, catered events, and a range of performance types.

G at he r i ng

Nurturing Bodies + Minds “The body fuels the mind” goes the saying, and nowhere is this more evident than in today’s academic library. Students accustomed to long hours of study often emphasize the importance of having space within the library dedicated to snacks and refreshment. Other students may spend most of their time at the library café, working on a laptop while discussing a current assignment with friends and classmates. For them, the informal café atmosphere is a relief from the more prescribed learning spaces on campus. In addition to venues for food and drink, some libraries are providing programs that identify and relieve stress. Particularly at the end of the semester when stress and anxiety run high, libraries can provide refuge for students seeking a brief, albeit important, respite from the pressures of academic life.

Creating Vibrant Spaces for Dining and Recreation

04 Serving

Connecting Users to Resources Optimizing Self - Service Options + Mobile Navigation Accommodating Library Staff Building on Students’ Strengths Operating Around the Clock

Servi ng

Connecting Users to Resources

A library’s service philosophy is the best benchmark for understanding how an institution plans to manage and share its resources. It is ideally developed early on in the design process with input from administration, staff, and users and helps to guide decisionmaking and set expectations for the intricacies of the library’s operation. Many libraries are eliminating perceived barriers between patrons and staff and instituting “side-by-side” service points. These concierge style-stations are inspired by the hospitality industry and create the impression that staff and patrons are working as a team to problem-solve and locate resources. As questions arise, tiers of experts stationed in Integrated Service Points (ISPs) are at the ready to engage patrons, field their concerns, and direct them to a solution or, possibly, another expert with more familiarity with a particular topic or issue.

Se rv i n g

Optimizing Self Service Options + Mobile Navigation

In an effort to extend the reach of library services and the availability of information, cutting edge libraries are enabling more self-service options with the assistance of new technologies. Information kiosks positioned in strategic locations help visitors navigate the building, reserve study rooms, request books, and order resources from other partner libraries. Using smartphones, tablets, or laptops, patrons may wirelessly access these same resources, making the process of visiting the library an effortless experience. In addition, roving staff with real-time communication abilities are able to serve as mobile experts, harnessing the full range of research and wayfinding tools on demand, wherever they may be in the building.

Shaping Collaborative Learning Environments in the Digital Age

Servi ng

Accommodating Library Staff

Operating largely out of sight, a dedicated staff of professionals help the library function smoothly and successfully around the clock. These staff members are the life-blood of the operation. Their work patterns and daily routines are pivotal to keeping the academic community running smoothly. The way staff members are arranged in the library is largely dependent on the library’s chosen service model. Service-oriented staff who engage patrons and provide guidance and feedback are typically co-located amongst user spaces. Library specialists – dedicated to collection management, acquisitions, technical services, and administration – are located behind the scenes and clustered around break rooms, conference rooms, and focus areas that provide a range of support spaces aiding in daily tasks.

Se rv i n g

Building on Students’ Strengths

In addition to providing a spectrum of cutting-edge resources, today’s academic library also assumes the roles of consultant, advisor, and tutor. Universities are beginning to designate the library as the home base for those general academic services often scattered about campus. Today’s library is helping support and supplement coursework by programmatically offering a bevy of extracurricular resources focused on sharpening students’ various academic aptitudes. Academic Resource Centers are increasingly housed in libraries as a way to gain visibility and traction, and reach a broader segment of the population. Writing and math assistance programs are vying for space in libraries for similar reasons. And Scholars Commons, with graduate school-level amenities like wood-paneled lounges, reserved study carrels, and combination lockers, are becoming a popular destination for students who receive access based on academic merit.

“ I’ve never, in all of the years I’ve worked in libraries, seen students so excited to come to the library. That warms my heart because I know that once they get here not only will they get information, but they also will find a place that will inspire them and motivate them hopefully to make new discoveries. And so, for all those possibilities, I’m very thankful.”

Ma rc y Pr ide Fo rm e r L ib ra r y Dea n L i b e r ty U niversit y

Servi ng

Operating Around the Clock

Student’s academic schedules haven’t changed much over the decades, but their expectations to have resources available whenever they are needed have. Not only do today’s students demand increasing flexibility from the spaces they are working in, but they also anticipate being able to access those spaces at any time, day or night. Today’s library must become facile at securing areas that house collections and expensive computing equipment while maintaining access to study rooms, bathrooms, and other library features. Libraries are developing techniques to secure the building perimeter while allowing students to access the full technical suite of tools and study spaces safely and easily around the clock. Campus security is also expanding services to include a dedicated staff member for after-hours library oversight.

SE RVING

ABOVE: LIBERTY UNIVERSITY, VIEW FROM BOOKSHELVES LOOKING INTO LOBBY LEFT: LIBERTY UNIVERSITY, VIEW FROM BOOKSHELVES

Featured Projects + Collaboration The images found throughout this book feature VMDO designs for academic libraries and learning environments for the following institutions and projects: •

Georgia Institute of Technology: Glenn and Towers Halls

•

Liberty University: Library and Academic Commons

•

Sweet Briar College: Cochran Library

•

The Richard Stockton of New Jersey: College Center

•

University of Virginia: Graduate Center for Jefferson Fellows

•

Young Harris College: New Campus Center and Library

We enjoy collaborating with various learning space / library consultants and industry experts including: •

Brightspot Strategy: Library & Learning Space Programming Consultants

•

Jim Self, Director: University of Virginia Management Information Services

•

Murata Machinery, USA, Inc.: Automated Storage and Retrieval System Design

•

Dematric: Logistics Automation

•

Beth Rooks Integrated Design: Interior Design & Selection

VMDO Architects vmdo.com | 434.296.5684 200 E Market St Charlottesville, VA 22902 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Suite 7000 Washington, DC 20006

For more information please contact: Joe Atkins, AIA, LEED AP BD+C atkins@vmdo.com Jim Kovach kovach@vmdo.com