?8|?Lon plans for Perkins Library promise to move closer to the non-fiction phase this summer, with architects on campus studying reports by six working groups during the next two weeks.
Released earlier this year, the reports emphasize study and work space and flesh out potential solutions to the library's long-standing space constraints. Using the reports' findings as well as the Perkins Library Renovation Committee's vision statement, architects are expected to develop the project's specific direction by the end of the summer, committee chair Robert Byrd said.
"You put all that together and you have a qualitative and quantitative description of what we're trying to achieve," Byrd said. The working groups' representatives included faculty members, library officials, graduate students and undergraduates.
From the beginning, the committee has been told that they need not adhere to the current physical limitations of Perkins. The committee and architects will choose from several different options, including renovation of the library's interior; complete demolition and reconstruction of the interior; and construction of an addition to the library, possibly retiring the oldest stacks. If built, a new addition would likely be located behind the Old Chemistry Building. Regardless of the chosen plan, the project will cost about $50 million, Byrd said.
He added that the choice will depend on several factors, including price and the level of disruption to the community. "We know that each of these approaches would give us the space we would need, but they each have different implications for cost and phasing," he said. When the architects complete their recommendations, the community will have several months to comment while designs are drawn up.
One working group specified several possibilities to alleviate the space crunch. Three to four more reading rooms--including one designated for group work and another entirely for quiet study--each with a capacity for 50 to 60 people should be created, according to the report. It also advocated a new cafe, closer to the heart of the library but separate from study space.
Carrel space and small work rooms in the stacks should also be included, the report reads. Current study areas can accommodate 1,445 users, but Byrd said that number may be misleadingly high due to the poor design of many spaces.
"What we would like to do is create places that are destinations, that people really want to go to work and study," Byrd said.
Space allocation for books--not just people--has proved to be one of the most contentious issues in the renovation process. Professors and other researchers are concerned that relocating books to off-site locations would make too many resources less accessible. The renovation committee hopes to alleviate these concerns by enlarging on-site stack space, prioritizing which books are kept in Perkins and improving delivery from off-site stacks.
"There are substantial materials here that are not frequently used and do not need to be readily at hand," said Byrd, also the director of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. "If we don't remove some volumes now, we won't have space for the addition of new collections."
The working group that studied stack space suggested increasing total capacity by 375,000 volumes and moving 410,000 volumes off site. This would cut Perkins' current percentage of filled space from 91 to 60 percent, under the expectation that with additions it will rise to 80 percent in 10 years. Byrd said that would require adding about 75,000 square feet of shelf and work space--the equivalent of about three floors of the newer library stacks.
The group noted, however, that the new space and the number of volumes moving to storage could fluctuate depending on how else new space is used. If the Film and Video Collection were to move to Perkins from Lilly Library, for instance, less stack space would be available.
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