By Laurie Babinski
Editor in Chief
What do students, faculty and staff want when Payson Library is renovated? More on-site books and research tools, extended hours, a more inviting environment and quieter rooms.
Henry Gambill, director of assessment and special assistant to the vice president of planning, information and technology, released the results of the first student, faculty and staff online survey to assess the needs of the Seaver community and solidify plans for the new center.
“(The survey) was unique,” Gambill said. “In fact, we really haven’t done it before.” The Office of Public Relations and News distributed the survey via global e-mail. Students, faculty and staff were asked to click on a link and fill out the electronic form.
“I was delighted at the response of the community,” said Dr. Nancy Magnusson, vice president of planning, information and technology. “They were very generous with their comments.”
Gambill agreed that the response was overwhelming.
“I said originally I’d be happy with 300 (student responses), but we got 540,” Gambill said. “I would have liked more Seaver students, but there was a high faculty response and a decent staff response. The information we got is pretty rich, and it says a lot about where we need to go.”
Gambill began last spring writing the vision document for the project, a detailed plan of how he and his team envisioned the library.
He continued to work through the summer with library consultants to come up with an implementation plan, which included the surveys, to ensure that the library was meeting the community’s needs.
“We have sort of done this backwards, in that I would like to have done this earlier in the project,” said Nancy Kitchen, director of libraries. “However, I was very pleased that the data we have from the survey substantiates everything that we’re saying. There were no real surprises.”
The architectural firm HOK was chosen for the project in November, and students were asked to complete the survey in January to help Gambill and the architects get a better idea of student needs.
According to the survey, students praised online database resources, copy services and computer labs.
Dissatisfaction was expressed with the weakness of the book and hard-bound journal collections, library hours, group study rooms and atmosphere, including lighting, furnishings and overall design.
Faculty members had the same concerns, but were more aware of the weakness of the book and journal collections. They also praised the interlibrary loan services.
Staff members concurred, and also recommended an entrance on the top level.
All groups commended the staff as friendly and helpful.
“It was obvious that the biggest concerns are for the quality of the collection, which is in dire need of upgrading and has been for so long,” Kitchen said. According to the survey, 32.8 percent of Seaver students were dissatisfied with the book collection, as were 36.7 percent of the faculty.
According to Kitchen, books have been added over the years to meet accreditation standards.
In the past few years, however, the focus has switched to access to information instead of volume numbers.
“Now we’re freer to remove a lot of the irrelevant materials from the collection in order to make space more relevant,” Kitchen said.
Seaver faculty and students expressed satisfaction with the online database collections at 31.2 percent and 33.6 percent respectively.
This selection and de-selection of volumes has become an important project even before the renovation begins.
“The shelves are filed to capacity at this point despite how bad the collection is,” Kitchen said. “It’s hard to add new shelving.”
The renovation will add compact shelving for less frequently used volumes.
“That project is just as important or more important than the renovation of the library,” Kitchen said.
“We’re excited,” she continued. “In the end, the survey itself substantiated the project. A more efficient and effective library environment will draw students into it.
“At this point, the library is not the type of environment that students seek out unless they need to,” she added.
Gambill expects HOK to finish designing the renovated library before the end of the semester.
The proposed plan includes an after hours study lounge, a café and more accessible reference, circulation and reserve desks.
Once the designs are complete, however, the project still faces a few hurdles.
“This is such an immense project that we have to seriously look at fundraising,” Gambill said. “It’s going to be costly, and we can’t really tear everything down and build a new one.
“When the planning phase is over and we have the plan, the drawings, and all the coast estimates we are ready,” he continued. “If we had the money, we could start right away,”
But Gambill asserts that the plans will move forward.
“We’re gonna do this library, it’s just a question of when,” Gambill said.
January 31, 2002
