COLUMNS

The continuing importance of 'place' to libraries

By Joseph J. Branin Director, University Libraries

The Ohio State University community has many reasons to be proud of its research library system, which is comprised of 20 library facilities on campus, more than 400 staff, print collections approaching 6 million volumes, and a rapidly expanding array of online information services and resources.

Last summer The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the Ohio State University Library is now ranked as the 18th strongest research library in North America -- and the 11th strongest among publicly supported research libraries. Each year for the last decade, Ohio State's Library has made steady progress in these rankings as our print and digital collections have grown and as our services have improved.

Most of our library facilities on campus are in very good shape, ranging from our Geology Library in Orton Hall, which is a historic gem, to our Business Library in Mason Hall, which is cutting-edge new. The one weak link in our library system today is the poor physical condition of our Main Library.

The William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library (commonly called the"Main Library") opened its doors for service almost a century ago. It is a landmark building located at the very center of campus -- at the western end of the Oval. Geographically, symbolically and functionally, the Main Library is the intellectual center of The Ohio State University.

While the Main Library has served many generations of students and faculty well, it is now in serious need of restoration and renovation. The building is overcrowded, antiquated, and just plain run down in many areas. Collections and services have grown, while the space they occupy has not expanded since the late 1970s.

The original 1913 portion of the building has lost much of its grandeur. The 1952 stack tower, never designed to be open to the public, is a warren of narrow corridors with low ceilings surrounding miles of shelving. The 1977 addition behind the stack tower is not pedestrian-friendly to those approaching the building from the west, and it is not in architectural harmony with the rest of the building.

Serious effort is now under way to completely restore and renovate the Main Library. A yearlong feasibility study conducted by the architectural team of URS from Columbus and Shepley Bullfinch Richardson and Abbott from Boston will conclude this month with a series of thoughtfully prepared recommendations on options and costs for remaking the Main Library. More information about this feasibility study and other Main Library renovation plans can be found at the Library's Web site at www.lib.ohio-state.edu/Renovation/.

The Main Library renovation project is the top priority in the University's 2003 list of state capital funding requests, and an aggressive fund-raising campaign is gearing up to go public next fall. If all goes well, actual reconstruction of the Main Library will begin in 2005 and be completed by 2008. The result will be a beautiful and functional Main Library that will serve students and faculty well and proudly through the 21st century.

This eight-year project, from planning to completion, may cost as much as $100 million and be one of the University's biggest academic building projects. Is it worth investing this kind of time and money in library"bricks and mortar" in this age of digital technology and the Internet? My unbiased answer is an emphatic"yes." For one thing, print reading material is still with us in spite of predictions over the last 25 years of the dawning of a"paperless society." Paper production is growing, not declining; and much important scholarship from the past and the present is still only available in traditional book and print journal formats. We continue to need a physical library to house and service these important print collections.

But even if eventually, digital information technology completely transforms scholarly communications and publishing (and as a technology optimist, I think it will), we will still need inspiring and functional space for individual and group study, reflection, consultation and research. There is a"social life" to information seeking, learning and knowledge creation that should not be underestimated.

As humans, we seem to have a basic need to come to real, physical places to be with other people -- be those places shops, theaters, stadiums, campuses or libraries -- to do our work and recreation. The Main Library at the head of the Oval at Ohio State is one of those special places that can serve as a gateway and a destination on campus for the rich intellectual life of our University.