Picture a place where students could sink into comfy
couches, mobile devices in hand, and engage in group study
or just read by themselves. Surrounding them would be walls
that move and tables where they could spread out and plug
in their laptops and iPods. This flexible space would
include rooms with drop-down projection screens and
high-definition big-screen TVs where students and faculty
could view presentations and collaborate with their peers
around the world — not in whispers but out loud.
Students could access the thousands of e-journals and books
in the digital collections and consult the rare and unique
print materials that comprise special collections —
all of this designed to nurture the research, teaching and
learning that are at the core of The Johns Hopkins
University's mission.
This is the library of the future, and it's coming to the
Homewood campus.
After four years of planning and study encompassing input
from faculty, students and staff, the university's board of
trustees on Saturday announced that they are set to forge
ahead with plans to construct a complementary library
facility adjacent to the existing Milton S. Eisenhower
Library. The six-and-a-half-story expansion will be
named the Brody Learning Commons for President William R.
Brody, who is retiring at the end of February, and his
wife, Wendy.
The trustees announced the expansion and naming at a
farewell dinner for the Brodys on Saturday and presented
the couple with a framed artist's rendering of the
building, which will be positioned on the south end of the
44-year-old MSEL, overlooking North Charles Street. The
learning commons and library will be separated above ground
by a walkway and will connect below ground.
Pamela P. Flaherty, chair of the board of trustees, said
that the naming of the building pays homage to the work the
Brodys have done to strengthen our community and
reinvigorate student life on the Homewood campus. By
greeting entering students and their families each fall,
inviting them into their Nichols House home, attending
games and other student events, and presiding over the
dedication of new programs and facilities, the Brodys have
enriched students' academic and social lives, Flaherty
said.
"When Bill and Wendy announced their plans to leave Johns
Hopkins, we were presented with a uniquely appropriate
opportunity to honor their legacy of leadership," she
said.
The design firm for the project has not yet been selected,
but university officials hope to complete the project by
2012.
"Wendy and I are deeply touched by this great honor," said
Brody upon learning of the naming. "One of the absolute
highlights of the past 12 years for us has been the chance
to live on the Homewood campus and be in touch with the
work of the Johns Hopkins faculty and students on a daily
basis. Knowing that this new building will encourage better
collaboration and new kinds of learning across disciplines,
and even across campuses, is especially gratifying to us
both. This building will support and enhance a community of
learning at Homewood, and Wendy and I will always be
tremendously proud that our names are forever associated
with Johns Hopkins in this way."
The Brody Learning Commons will cost roughly $30 million,
all of which is coming from private donations and most of
which has already been raised.
Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of
University Libraries and Museums, said that the new
building will not be a quiet place like traditional
libraries. Rather, it will be a place where faculty,
students and staff will be able to talk or even socialize
openly — or steal away to quiet enclaves if they
prefer. In essence, it will be a place that reflects the
social way in which today's students and faculty learn,
teach, network and interact, he said.
This concept drawing
shows an airy, flexible space that responds to
students' requests for natural light and
multiple learning environments.
|
The expansion will be the first new-construction project on
the Homewood campus to pursue LEED certification, as a
"green" building.
The announcement is the beginning of a process that will
engage Homewood students, faculty and staff in the final
design of the project.
"It's gratifying to know that at last the library expansion
will move from dream to reality," said Steven Nichols,
chair of the German and
Romance Languages and Literatures Department in the
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. "Today's
undergraduates were not yet born when folk realized the
need for expansion. In the long run, though, we benefited
from the wait because today we will be able to incorporate
advanced technology that did not exist in the 1970s and
'80s."
Zachary Epstein-Peterson, a junior classics major and a
member of the libraries' student advisory council, said he
is excited about the many uses of the planned building.
"Given the recent upsurge in library usage by both
undergraduates and graduates, as well as the technological
nature of modern learning, the new learning commons should
adapt to both of these changes, and this is a big part of
why we are working on this project," Epstein-Peterson said.
"Already we have discussed what we want to see incorporated
— namely, natural light, big open rooms,
multimedia/technology-based spaces and collections, an
expanded cafe, group study space and others. These are just
a few of the ideas that have been raised."
Alex Drew, a junior public health major, concurred.
"The library expansion is a long-awaited and needed
improvement to the Johns Hopkins community," said Drew,
adding that the new space will be an attraction to
prospective students. "Spending a majority of my time at
the library, I know how much it is used by undergraduate
and graduate students daily. With the new state-of-the-art
library addition, students [will be able to] find
comfortable and quiet study environments that have plenty
of natural light," he said.
Brenda Hedrick, a graduate student in Italian studies, said
she likes the idea of an updated library space. "The
library staff has gone to great lengths to determine the
needs of students, and to make sure the new building meets
those needs," Hedrick said. She added that what is unique
about the planned expansion is that university leaders
realize that people study in a variety of ways: with others
on group projects; in casual discussion with a colleague;
quietly, but in the company of others; or in complete
solitude.
The exact design of the building has yet to be determined,
but the concept for it, as well as its purpose, is
abundantly clear. The expansion will be a collaborative
learning space beyond the classroom and a focal point on
campus. The building will be framed by large windows and
feature a "librarylike" exterior. It will include space to
display artwork and rare books and sculpture.
But it is what university officials call the "high-tech,
high-touch" feel of the extension that will set it apart
from Homewood's existing library, as well as other
buildings on campus. To that end, plans call for the design
to include such spaces as booths with chalkboard tables;
project, video conferencing and interactive media rooms; a
3-D visualization room; a special collections classroom;
and performance art space.
"The Brody Learning Commons provides an opportunity to
build much-needed, imaginative new space to foster learning
and advance the academic excellence for which the
university is renowned," Tabb said. "With its premiere
print and digital collections, the Eisenhower Library is
well-established as an intellectual nexus on campus. The
Brody Learning Commons will offer a new library
environment, transformed by new technologies and
comfortable spaces that support the flexible, collaborative
learning experiences needed by students and faculty in the
21st century.
"My vision for the new library building is that it will
enable the Sheridan Libraries to provide the best library
and information services at any university in America
— the kind of library our faculty and students want
and deserve," Tabb said. "We will be even more fully
embedded than we are now at the center of the intellectual,
social and cultural life of the Johns Hopkins community. We
will have flexible space that positions us to contribute
fully to the research, teaching and learning that are the
university's core mission."
The new structure will augment the existing library, a
185,000-square-foot facility built in 1964 and partially
renovated in 1998 that will for the most part not change.
University officials said they proposed the facility, which
is on the Homewood master plan that was completed in 2000,
largely because the existing library is overcrowded and
does not provide enough space for students and faculty to
collaborate. In addition, officials said that Johns Hopkins
students have expressed a strong desire for light-filled
and flexible spaces that cater to their diverse styles of
learning.
Officials added that other universities have moved toward
developing common learning spaces and to be competitive,
the university needs to show prospective students that
Johns Hopkins can offer the space and technology they need
to succeed in today's rigorous academic environments.
GO TO