Perkins Library, Extreme Makeover Edition
Library's first floor reopens as a new information commons
Monday, October 16, 2006
print
|
email
|
digg
|
del.icio.us
Durham, NC -- Just in time for the beginning of the fall 2006 semester, the first floor of Perkins Library opened after a ten-month renovation. The transformed space at the heart of Duke’s main West quad features 40,000 square feet of open seating for 134 library users, 63 workstations, each loaded with search and production software, 5 group study rooms, and the Writing Studio.
Two browsable book collections, Duke Authors and New & Noteworthy, are just inside the library’s quad entrance arranged on shelves grouped around inviting armchairs. The New & Noteworthy collection is made up of the library staff's picks of the most popular, significant and controversial titles recently published—including bestsellers and award-winners. The books in these two collections, like the rest of the library’s circulating collection, can be checked out by any member of the Duke community.
But the new Perkins 1 is more than its attractive interior and furnishings. The service environment has been transformed into what is described as an information commons. According to Tom Wall, associate university librarian for public services, “The renovated Perkins is a gathering place for learners rather than a warehouse for books.” Resources, both print and electronic, are now in close proximity to each other and to staff who offer skilled assistance with everything from search and discovery to the production of projects in various media. Students who once used one computer terminal to look something up in the library’s catalog and then moved to another to write a paper can now perform these tasks—and more—at one of the workstations on Perkins 1. Wall says, “Now we have more technology-infused group study rooms and project development spaces because faculty and students have gravitated toward interactive learning.”
The information commons on Perkins 1 complements spaces on the first floor and lower floor 1 of the adjoining Bostock building, which opened in October 2005 at the same time as the von der Heyden Pavilion, a soaring light-filled space designed for studying, conversation or enjoying a cup of coffee.
The completion of von der Heyden, Bostock, and Perkins 1, marks the conclusion of the first phase in the Perkins Project for the Renovation and Expansion of the Duke University Libraries. The Perkins Project continues with the renovation of the two lower floors of Perkins Library and the Deryl Hart Room on the first floor. The work on the lower floors of Perkins has already begun; work in the Deryl Hart Room will start at the end of the fall 2006 semester. Completion of all these renovations is expected by next summer.
