Each summer my library undergoes a lot of change. In past years we created new classrooms or redesigned old ones. We have added electrical outlets to our main study areas through a variety of creative methods (see photo at left). This summer we are expanding the Cafe, rearranging office space, and rearranging (and weeding) our reference collection.
Electricians are busy running power and data cables to new computer stations, campus telephone technicians are trying to restore phone service to our staff as quickly as possible, and lots of panelling is being taken down and reassembled.
This yearly change is vital to our library. We are never standing still. We are constantly evaluating the needs of our students and trying to accommodate those needs within our 50 year old library building.
Rearranging and weeding the reference collection is one of the librarians biggest tasks. We are opening up our reference area by removing some tall shelving, and we need to pair down the collection. Overall, our print reference collection is getting much less use than it used to, and the students can put this area to better use. Some reference materials are being reshelved in our circulating collection. Other reference materials are being removed from the collection entirely (I’m pretty sure a guide to graduate fellowships from 1988 won’t be very useful to our undergraduates anymore).
The renovated space will be more useful to our students, more aesthetically pleasing, and represents our response to our users needs.
the Undergraduate Science Librarian 