Points for the Architects

Hi Folks! Jessica here. Below are points we have come up with to present to the architects at a meeting in the future. Please look over them and respond with your thoughts: is there anything crucial we missed? Is there anything on the list that you think needs particular emphasis?

Things that we currently have that we feel we need:
• Dedicated oversize copier and printer
• Dedicated music library circulation desk. The current setup of the circulation desk is very efficient in having check-out, reference, and reserves in one central location, close to stacks and cataloguing, and manned by both student workers and full-time professional music library staff.
• On the go computers kiosk, close to front desk for easy assistance
• Listening room and listening station equipment, such as tape decks, reel-to-reel, turntables, VCRs, etc., as we have materials that are only available in these formats.

Things we currently have that we would like to improve:
• We currently have access to 3 dedicated listening rooms, 2 seminar rooms in which we hold classes and study sessions, 8 listening stations. We appreciate these assets, but would also like to improve them:
o Listening rooms: better sound proofing, not so reverberant, slightly bigger (would like to fit up to 4 or 5 people in them)
o Listening stations: in the quiet portion, or perhaps in between the common and quiet areas, bigger desk space for scores, outlets for laptops, more privacy
o Seminar rooms: bigger, better sound proofing, better organized for teaching (technology and board on same wall), outlets well dispersed for laptops plugged in throughout classroom
• The opportunity to continue to expand our collections: right now crowded with not much room to grow.
o Are moveable stacks an option? This could conceivably also allow patrons more space to browse and bend or kneel, or have multiple people in the same row, as it is really tight right now.
• Periodicals: need to be better organized, more visually available, hidden now
• Computer stations: some more desk space so can also observe scores or take notes, more privacy

New possibilities:
• Dedicated spaces both for collaborative work and quiet study. Right now those are not so distinct, and the noise from collaborative work can be distracting for those wishing quiet place to study.
o Keep large tables, couch areas for the collaborative areas
o Keep carrels and tables for quiet area studies
• Good lighting throughout library. Current lights buzz, and lighting inconsistent throughout library. Natural light is also important, as students spend many hours in windowless practice rooms
• Restrooms in same space as library. Currently students have to exit and go down a floor, major inconvenience, and there is risk of theft if student does not pack up everything just to use the restroom.
• Visual art displays, perhaps rotating, give visual interest and promote cross-discipline interaction
• More and better office space: to handle desk projects (gift sorting, weeding, withdraws, etc),

Library Design Concepts — Allen Library

Tracey Rudnick is forwarding the following message to Hartt students with permission of Clark Saunders. Students are encouraged to review the plans and submit comments as indicated below.

From: Clark Saunders
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 5:33 PM
To: [Hartt Faculty]
Subject: Library Design Concepts — Allen Library

Dear Hartt Faculty:

Last week (March 29) the architecture consulting firm Sasaki presented two design concepts related to the co-location of Allen Library into the Mortensen Library current building. While I saw a number of Hartt students and faculty at the Open Session last Thursday, I want to make certain that as many of us as possible take a look at the conceptual plans and offer reactions.

Go to:
http://www.hartford.edu/library_Committee

Click under “What’s New” — March 29 Presentation of Design Concepts

You are encouraged to enter your comments by using the Questions And Comments button on the web page (under Libraries Master Plan). Your comments will be distributed to the Libraries Master Planning Committee.

One week is the amount of time allowed for comments. Therefore, go, view, and comment right away.
[Tracey Rudnick adds that comments should be submitted by the end of the weekend (4/8/2012). Contact a committee member if you have questions about the design concepts.]

Sincerely,

Clark

T. Clark Saunders, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Faculty, Curriculum & Instruction
The Hartt School
University of Hartford
860 768-5245
clsaunder@hartford.edu

January 27th News

Dear Hartt Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Below are two items related to the library facilities planning.

First, in his spring semester Faculty/Staff Kickoff speech (1/25/2012), President Harrison remarked on the library planning project (including the Allen Library). Find a summary, the full text, and a video at http://www.hartford.edu/daily/Articles.asp?MainID=12038&Category=1. (The article is called “Positioning the University for the Future” and was posted 1/26/2012).

Second, the Library Master Planning Steering Committee is pleased to announce the selection of Sasaki Associates, Inc. to be our architectural and planning consultants. Sasaki is a large, comprehensive firm with broad and deep experience in higher education and academic libraries. Read more about this in UNotes at
http://www.hartford.edu/daily/Articles.asp?MainID=12060&Category=1. (The article is called “Library Master Planning Committee Hires Architectural and Planning Consultant” and was posted 1/26/2012.)

In the architect announcement, Assistant Provost Dr. Fred Sweitzer notes that “the committee will now be working with Sasaki to design our process of investigation, imagination, and consultation. All stakeholders in our academic community will have multiple opportunities to participate in this process. I look forward to giving you more details about the process once they are known. And I look forward to this partnership as we pool our intellectual resources to envision and design for a library system to carry us into the future.”

If you have questions about the Allen Library or libraries in general, please feel free to contact me. Dr. Sweitzer asks that questions about the planning committee’s work be directed toward him. If you are not sure who to contact, start with either one of us.

Have a wonderful semester, and we’ll see you in the library.

Letter from University of Hartford President Walter Harrison

Today University of Hartford President Walter Harrison sent an email to Hartt Students.

January 4, 2012

To the students of the Hartt School of the University of Hartford:

I have received and carefully read the petition dated December 6, 2011, concerning the Allen Library, which I enclose as attachment one for those of you who have not read it. Dean Aaron Flagg has volunteered to send this response to all of you, since he has a data base which includes all student names.

I find the petition to be a clear and articulate argument about the importance of the future of the Allen Library to the intellectual and artistic life of the Hartt School and the University of Hartford. I want you all to know that, first and foremost, I accept that argument and always have. It was never, ever, my intention to discontinue the Allen Library. To the contrary, it is my intention, by undertaking a long-range planning initiative, to enhance both of the University’s libraries, the Allen Library and the Mortensen Library. I believe strongly that libraries are at the heart of the University and the Hartt School, as they are at the heart of every institution of higher learning and every conservatory.

I enclose a copy of a memorandum that I sent to all of the faculty and staff of the University on November 15 (attachment two). I regret that I did not send it to all students at that time, and I apologize for that.

In this memorandum, you will see, I announce the formation of a long-range planning committee for the libraries, which Assistant Provost Frederick Sweitzer will chair. Two of the nine members of that committee are members of the Hartt School community—Clark Saunders, professor of music education and associate dean, and Tracey Rudnick, Allen Library librarian. That committee, which has already begun meeting, will soon choose an architectural consultant and consultants with specific expertise in university libraries and performing arts libraries, to help us understand how libraries are evolving and what the best current thinking is about the opportunities for libraries of the future.

In your petition you strongly challenge what you believe to be obstacles to the increasing use of technology, which I believe will characterize libraries of all sorts in the future. It is not important for the moment which of us is right. It is important to engage in the conversation. To that end, the committee will hold a series of public discussions and provide other opportunities for all of you to make your opinions known. I concede that every one of you knows more about performing arts libraries than I do. I only ask that you remember that we are planning now for the next twenty-five years or more of our libraries.

Let me be very clear about why I want to undertake this study now: it is my intention to recommend to the University’s Board of Regents that we make raising money to affect whatever changes the committee recommends a centerpiece of the University’s fundraising efforts over the next five years.

It is important to understand that we are undertaking this study as a follow-up to the 2009 University Master Plan, which was thoroughly discussed throughout the University community and approved by the Board of Regents in 2009. Among that plan’s several principles and goals, I think two are especially germane to this discussion.

First, that since the University is not likely to increase its student body size in the next ten years, the University’s administration should focus on maintaining and improving its current buildings and addressing what is known in the business as deferred maintenance, building maintenance that should have been done in the past but was not. Second, the University administration should focus on three current space issues: the book store, the libraries, the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies.

To that end, I have given the Greenberg Center permission to raise money in order to renovate the space currently used by the Allen Library for their use. It is too soon to say whether they will be successful in this effort. I do want to assure you that if our studies reveal that this is not the best use of space, I will certainly consider a different recommendation before moving forward. It is my intention to improve space for the Mortensen Library, the Allen Library, and the Greenberg Center. The future of the University will be brighter if all three spaces are improved.

I assure you that Dr. Sweitzer and the committee will welcome your comments and suggestions. Thank you for your petition, and for your very articulate expression of the ideals you hold dear.

Sincerely,

Walter Harrison
President
University of Hartford

Along with this letter he attached the following documents

November 15 2011 Library Steering Committee Email
Student Petition 2
Student Petition 1

The petition is off!

The petition has been given to the President and the Provost. 407 signatures! Thank you to everyone who signed.

the 12/9 meeting

For those of you who were not present please listen to this recording. Brian Cook recorded the meeting with Dr. Sweitzer. Listen to the questions and what he said, it’s all here.

This is the post that the University sent to us informing us of the meeting:

We’ve heard you all have some concerns about the future of Allen Library. The goal is to enhance Allen Library and the entire University Library system. Plans are in their very beginning stages and there is plenty of time to share your input. Many of you attended a meeting with Library Planning Committee Chair Fred Sweitzer, assistant provost and dean of faculty development, on Friday 12/9. If you were unable to attend or if you would like to communicate further with Dr. Sweitzer, please feel free to contact him at sweitzer@hartford.edu.

This is what happened at the meeting:

12/9 student Allen Library meeting by B.P. Cook

LAST DAY OF PETITION

Hello my fellow students,

If you have not signed the Allen Library petition yet and would like to TODAY IS THE LAST DAY it will be circulating. I will be in Sukman foyer from about 11-12 and then on the first floor most likely near Berkman in the evening from about 630-730. If these times do not work for you feel free to email me (emery@hartford.edu) about where to meet, include your phone # if comfortable.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about feel free to visit our facebook page to catch up on the information or our website.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=10132710#!/pages/Protect-the-Allen-Library/284161081625371

http://allenlibrary.wordpress.com/documents/

Yours,
Kendra

Dan’s Research Snapshots #2

Hopefully all these letters and polls are getting people to think about not only what the Allen Library means to them but how they use it. Especially with everyone focusing on finals right now.

- Spent another afternoon in the listening rooms with LPs off the shelves. Glad it’s just a couple steps between the two.

- Working on a research paper (like many of us) due once finals start and it was nice to have table space to spread the various references while gathering notes.

Seriously, how does everyone use the library? It’s a critical question that will help asses what needs the Allen Library currently serve and will need to continue serving.

Letter from Graduate Students

Dear President Harrison,
On behalf of the Graduate Students of the Music Education Division at the Hartt School, we would like to express our concerns regarding the proposed plan to move the Allen Library to the Mortensen Library. We are not opposed to the idea of moving the library, as long as the Allen Library is not compromised, scaled down, or digitized completely. The Allen Library is a vital component of the success of the graduate students at the Hartt School. It is necessary to have materials such as journals, scores, recordings, and textbooks located in close proximity for research and teaching purposes.
Digitizing materials is another concern for graduate students. Not all journals are available online, and the library only subscribes to certain databases for our use. The removal of paper journals would significantly reduce the amount of research available to us. Also, the removal of recordings on LPs and CDs would be detrimental because there are many recordings that are not available online.
There is limited space available for graduate students to study in the Hartt School itself. Many of us depend on the Allen Library for a quiet place to study, listen to recordings, and gather research. Our concern with moving the library to Mortensen is that there would not be enough space to accommodate the materials in the Allen Library, let alone the extra students that will be working in the library. In addition to the materials, we need adequate space to work including tables, chairs, and computers. We also need listening stations with record players and stereos, listening/viewing rooms, and seminar rooms for classes and group meetings.
Many of our graduate students are teachers as well, and often use the Allen Library to conduct research and collect resources prudent to their classes and students. They have expressed that the knowledgeable staff and atmosphere help make the completion of their work efficient and professional. To have such a dependable space is a necessity for our teaching as graduate students.
The Allen Library is an important aspect of the Hartt School, and is necessary for the success of its students. We appreciate the opportunity to express our concerns, and hope you consider them when finalizing the plan to move the Allen Library to Mortensen.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Shelby Apuzzo, Karen D’Angelo, and Adam Summerer
Graduate Students of the Music Education Division

Graduate Student Questions

Hey folks,

So Jessica Rugani will be meeting with President Harrison as a Graduate Student Representative this upcoming week. If any graduate students have any questions or concerns please post them here or send them to rugani@hartford.edu

-tim