educating for the journey

A library is an arsenal of liberty.
- Unknown

If you are reading this and have some thoughts on libraries of the future please send me an email or post your ideas on 2cents. We are beginning construction soon and want all the ideas you have.

mine:
Well, i have been sitting here hitting refresh for too long and need to venture out and make a comment. Why am i hitting refresh? because we are breaking ground on a new media centre here in the Dominican Republic as soon as this school year ends. In fact we were meeting with the Architects last week. I can’t wait to get some ideas from the responses that show up here but here is some of what we have:

MODULAR we want the ability for the library to shape and re-shape to better fit the needs of its users. small groups, big groups, literature circles, a book club…tell us your need and we will make it work.
We have a relaxed “Barnes and Noble-esque” feel to it including an outdoor reading patio. Further to this (the geography major in me loves this) it is also situated right at the heart of the campus, it is a goal to make it a place that students are, where they enjoy going to and better yet come to in their spare time.
It includes a state of the art video conferencing centre with stadium seating that has the capacity to allow for multiple classes or for staff development opportunities, well at the same time can be used for small group or one on one video conference situations.
It will be fully wireless, and the complex houses multiple computer labs. The library itself has one complete lab and areas for students to work on their Virtual High School course work.
We have tried to space carrels around so there is never one too far from where you are researching.
There has been a great deal of time spent on the aesthetics of the building and it is flooded with natural light, again our goal: a place students WANT to be.
We are going to have a couple of computer stations outfitted solely for searching the in-house collection (standing machines)
Here are some questions, we have begun talking and researching some diskless workstations. Do you have experience with these? How do you think they would function in the new library setting?

As for the ejection. I am an international teacher. Part of my life is moving. It isn’t easy, but i really do love it, what i love most is the ability, not the necesity to purge my life every few years. To answer hard questions about what needs to be kept and what does not. I see this move as an opportunity to really consider what is being used and what can be let go of. That said we are building a site with wonderful storage capacity, but just cause the space is there doesn’t mean it has to be filled.

The new media centre here at CMS is extremely exciting. I am going to be the new Academic Technology Director of the school, we have a new head of libraries and another new librarian joining the team as well. I see this construction as being perfectly timed, both myself and the new head of libraries have similar goals of deeply connecting our positions, this construction will connect our physical space a natural step. This site will become the physical center of the school and student learning here at CMS.

I will be anxiously reading the posts here for more ideas, so keep them coming…

_{img 1: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/cumc/library/old_library.jpg}