The Albert Brenner Glickman Family Library is scheduled to open its top three floors April 16. The ribbon-cutting ceremony will showcase the building’s renovations and expansions. With over $3 million donated from corporate and private donors, the collaborative effort to provide a more accommodating academic environment is underway.
According to Library Director David Nutty, plans to expand the top three floors have been desired since the building’s completion in 1993. “It was always the intention,” he said. Administrative Assistant Christina Foster is also eager about the project. “It’s a 40 percent addition to the library,” she said. “We’ve really needed it.”
As the Portland campus’s hidden project, the additional space will be a place where faculty, staff and students alike have a place to share computers, work on projects, converse, or browse the ever-present book stacks. The expansion boasts high-tech computer hookup stations, an internet caf, flexible furniture and a second elevator.
The library’s technological ‘makeover’ is meant to provide an accessible space for students and teachers alike. “We’re geared up to go completely wireless in the fall,” Nutty said.
No longer will students have to crowd around computers in the Luther Bonney computer lab. On the fifth floor, flexible furniture with rolling casters and ergonomic designs is present in the Student Collaborative Computer Room. Laptop ‘bars’, white boards and projector screens, will come in handy for both student group projects and faculty instruction.
The sixth floor will house the Special Collections storage room. This facility is the future home of manuscripts, documents and even rare posters. “We have a special system that monitors humidity and temperature in here,” Nutty said.
Huge open metal shelves are built on runners, which enables each separate unit to be moved from side to side. Foster is pleased with the amount of space. “Archival material comes in so many shapes and sizes,” he said. “I like these adjustable shelves.”
There is a three-pronged ‘steering wheel’ that’s used to shift the shelves. This mechanical device has a practical purpose. “You can free up so much space,” Nutty said. Drawers are provided for more delicate documents.
The finest view comes from the seventh floor, nicknamed the Showcase Floor. The Great Reading Room is a place to grab a seat next to a window and enjoy the vista. The collaborative effort to complete the library even extends to the furniture – there will be Thomas Moser chairs with built-in trays.
A play is the first event scheduled for the University Room for Special Events. Guest lecturers, student speakers, symposia, and poetry readings are just some of the events this multi-purpose room can accommodate. The upcoming annual Thinking Matters conference will be held here later this spring.
Megan Fletcher can be contacted at [email protected]