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November 15, 2007
The new librarians
And the new university librarian at McMaster came from Wayne State University in Detroit!
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Meet the risk-taking scholars who are shaking things up while they build tomorrow’s academic library
With its faded orange carpet, rows and rows of dusty stacks, and old-school study carrels, McMaster University’s H.G Thode Library of Science and Engineering looks like a place purposed with preserving the 1970s. But the future isn’t far away – and Jeffrey Trzeciak, the school’s new university librarian, can see it already.
“Here, here and here. This is where the plasma-screen monitors will go,” says Mr. Trzeciak, pointing to specific points along the curving red-brick wall that circumscribes the back of the building.
Soon an army of workers and the $4 million raised through a capital campaign will gut and utterly transform Thode. Print journals will be wheeled away to a new home in the basement, and book stacks will be transplanted to the second floor.
A café, diner-style booths, stand-up workstations, oversized ottomans, and even coffee tables with pillows on the floor will take their place, all equipped for online access. Interactive touch-screen monitors will line the wall.
“Students are still coming to the library in droves,” says Mr. Trzeciak. “But more and more often what they want to come to the library for is collaborative space where they can work with their friends and have a coffee, sit comfortably and do their homework, and get help when they need it.”
In an era of change for libraries, Mr. Trzeciak is a man in the vanguard. Although not especially young – with a hint of five-o’clock shadow, he’s a youthful 40-ish – everything about him, from his efficient gait to his soft yet purposeful manner of speech to his functional sense of style, seems geared for action.
More at:
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/issues/2007/december/new_librarians_01.html
Posted by schnitzr at November 15, 2007 08:56 AM