By Dan Nonte, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-4314
Posted 10-1-08
GREENSBORO, NC – The University Libraries is proposing to spend $5 million during the next 5-6 years to remodel Jackson Library, a move designed to better serve growing student enrollment and expanding faculty, and to accommodate new services and collections at UNCG.
The remodeling effort, based on a space assessment study conducted earlier this year by Lambert Architecture of Winston-Salem, would repurpose space for individual and group study, research skills instruction, and University Archives and Special Collections. The Libraries would also create a combined Government Information and Data Services Center and provide better access for students working outside traditional library hours.
“The Libraries play an important role in the educational experience of our students,” said Rosann Bazirjian, Dean of the University Libraries. “Having the proper facility with the needed equipment and technology is vital to ensuring students have a ‘place’ to facilitate their studies and foster their learning.”
At Bazirjian’s request, the final recommendation was packaged in five phases that will each cost about $1 million. A phased approach will allow changes to be made as funding becomes available with a minimum of disruption for library patrons and employees. The space assessment study, completed in May, recommends changes on every floor of the main building and on the first two floors of the book tower.
The UNC system Board of Governors must give its approval for the project before the university begins the search for a designer, who will be then be selected by the UNCG Board of Trustees with staff advice. University Libraries will fund half of the project’s cost; the Chancellor’s Office and the Office of the Provost have committed to funding the other half.
Walter Clinton Jackson Library, named for the institution’s chancellor 1934-50, opened in the summer of 1950 and added a nine-story tower in 1973. Fronted by a marble portico facing College Avenue, the library’s original brick building has three stories along with a basement and subbasement. A library addition is planned, but likely remains 10 to 12 years away as part of the Campus Master Plan.
Like many UNC campuses, UNCG has experienced rapid growth in student numbers and in the need to expand services. The student body numbered 2,514 in 1950, the year Jackson Library opened. Enrollment this year is 17,467 – 13,453 undergraduates and 3,250 graduate students on campus for a 16,703 “headcount,” along with 764 distance learning students. In the past decade alone enrollment has increased by 4,000 students.
The library, 220,174 square feet with seating capacity for 850, offers students and faculty a wide range of services and resources, including holdings of more than 3.3 million items and access to more than 33,000 journal publications electronically. The library is equipped with wireless access for laptop users, and houses the IT SuperLab with more than 150 desktop computers available for general use by faculty, staff and students.
