Barbara Opar and Barret Havens, column editors

What I did on my summer vacation by….

We’re sure many of you remember writing such pieces for class at the beginning of each fall in elementary school. So below is a report of how a number of architecture librarians spent their summer “vacation.” Since many academic libraries are less busy with reference work in the summer, it is an important time to complete projects aimed at improving service and collections. Here are some of the kinds of projects undertaken:

Auburn University

Renovation through Participatory Design
Kasia Leousis
Architecture and Art Libarian, Auburn University

Auburn University’s Library of Architecture, Design and Construction recently underwent a complete renovation. Soliciting designs, ideas, and usage priorities from students and faculty was essential for its success. A participatory design charrette led by Industrial Design faculty and graduate students focused on identifying priorities to shape the final outcome. The College of Architecture, Design and Construction’s Student Council weighed in on the project at regular intervals. We installed a pin-up board in the library’s lobby and invited students to attach favorite furniture pieces and write comments. The Interior Architecture Thesis Research course visited the library and provided ideas and feedback on the renovation’s details. Our students asked us to highlight the floating staircase, natural concrete ceiling, and columns. Glassed-in offices provide visibility and transparency to services, while color and differentiated seating choices highlight the Brutalist style features. The library is now recognized as a “third place” for students to collaborate on projects, read, research, and study.

NewSchool of Architecture and Design

Renovating on a Shoestring Budget
Lucy Campbell
Librarian, NewSchool of Architecture and Design

A short library survey back in April revealed that the one thing students at NewSchool were really dissatisfied with was study space.  Although the library has expanded twice in the last five years, it was clear that our space was not being utilized efficiently. With this in mind, we initiated a partial renovation which increased student seating in the library from 30 to 41, including additional study spaces and quiet, comfortable reading spots. Simultaneously, shelving was replaced, increasing the capacity of the stacks from 1200 to 1500 linear feet. Our renovation was remarkable in that all furniture and shelving was donated, and the installation work was completed by a team of students supervised by our Facilities Manager. This enabled us to complete the renovation on a minimal budget while providing summer jobs and a hands-on learning experience for our students. They are very proud of their work and we have received many positive comments from the campus community. The changes have even inspired the Materials Lab to create new signs for the circulation desk, and we will also be getting a fresh coat of paint. It is a wonderful demonstration for our architecture students of what can be achieved with a little creative thinking!

reading nook

Slide show of images of the renovation:  http://imgur.com/a/x6J0x#0

Syracuse University 

The Architecture Slide Digitization Project- 2013 update
Barbara Opar,
Architecture Librarian, Syracuse University

The full report of the preliminary work done on digitizing parts of the analog architecture slide collection can be found at: http://online.vraweb.org/vrab/vol39/iss3/5/

The summer of 2013 saw this major project moving forward toward completion!  After the Syracuse University Libraries discontinued and disbanded the slide collection, the School of Architecture accepted the transfer of the 100,000 plus architecture slides.  The slides are currently housed in Neumade cabinets in a small space near SOA faculty suites. Because of slides increasing irrelevance and inaccessibility to students and faculty, Architecture Reading Room student assistants have spent three years sorting, remounting and preparing the images for digitization in an effort to reduce the footprint and increase accessibility to students and staff for both learning and teaching purposes. Most of the modern architecture slides have been reviewed for digitization. Having finished sorting and remounting significant architects’ works and projects, the three summer students (two architecture students and one art photography major) recently began sorting through slides pertaining to individual countries. If all goes well, the entirety of the slides will be sorted and weeded out by the end of summer. Remounting and renaming will continue throughout the academic year, all the while with completed work being sent off to the Photo and Imaging Center. The finalized works, after having been reshot and burned to a DVD, will be available for distribution through library circulation in the Architecture Reading Room. As a next step, we are looking into making this material available to faculty on the SOA secure internal drive. If file browsing is permitted, students will be able to access the images via an external hard drive in the ARR in addition to the DVD option.

Whitworth University

Publication of Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning, Revised Edition
Amanda C. R. Clark
Interim Associate Director of the Library at Whitworth University

Amanda C.R. Clark, Interim Associate Director of the Library at Whitworth University, is pleased to announce the release of the revised edition of Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning, a book that she co-authored with Leland M. Roth, Professor of Architectural History at the University of Oregon. Geographical coverage has been expanded in the revision and future directions for the discipline, including sustainability and green building have been discussed in greater detail.  The book is currently available through Amazon.com and other vendors.

Woodbury University

Over 1600 Architecture eBooks available via EBL’s Demand-driven Acquisitions Platform
Barret Havens
Asst. Professor and Outreach Librarian, Woodbury University

Woodbury University has subscribed to the EBL eBooks platform and is currently customizing a list of titles that will be available to library users on a demand-driven basis starting this fall. For those not familiar with the demand-driven acquisitions model, it entails adding, to the library catalog, records for books that the library does not technically own. When library users encounter one of these records in the catalog, they are able to access the eBook for five minutes without triggering a purchase. At any time while previewing the item they are able to initiate a purchase by downloading the book, which will give them access for up to a week.  There are 1,649 titles in EBL’s architecture subject category that could be made available to the Woodbury Library community.

AASL Column, September 2013
Barbara Opar and Barret Havens, editors

Each new fall brings all of us in academia new challenges- faculty and librarians alike. But at the same time, it is a time of new beginnings and we all start the fall ready to reach out and try new ways of doing things. For librarians, this means trying to maximize our effectiveness with students and faculty. We want them to become familiar with who we are, with what we can do to help them and what kinds of new and different resources exist in our libraries and online.  Here are some of the ways our members are trying to help educate students about new tools and new initiatives:

Fifteen Minute Mini-Orientations.  Responding to the oft heard complaint that students don’t have enough time to attend workshops during orientation week, UC Berkeley’s Environmental Design Library instituted thematically-based 15 minute long “mini-orientations” beginning every half hour for two hours over two days.  Themes included “10 Things You Should Know about the Library”, “Finding the Right Electronic Resource”, “Linking Google Scholar to Berkeley Resources”, “Using Alerting Services”, “Avery Index”, and “Finding Images”.  Held on a drop-in basis, most students came for one session and stayed for three or four, asking their own questions in the time between sessions.  Eight 15 minute sessions held over two days attracted a total of 60 students with more than a few “wow” moments.  Berkeley library personnel jokingly considered holding a future session for graduate students entitled, “Writing Your Dissertation in 15 minutes”.

Flash Mob Table Tents.  A couple years back UC Berkeley’s Environmental Design Library purged the library of unwelcoming paper signs that warned of theft, prohibited eating and cell phones usage, and explained arcane policies best left to the website or face-to-face contact.  We then purchased 20 5”x7” acrylic table tents. Most of the time the four and eight person study tables remain sign-free, but when staff  need to promote a service (e.g. Zotero trainings, our group study room, a new resource, a community event) paper signs are quickly printed out on the color printer, inserted into the table tents, and placed on the large work tables.  Because there are so few signs in the library, these seem to get noticed and Berkeley personnel has seen a direct correlation between setting up the tents and the use of services advertised.  The tents stay up for 1-3 days and then “disappear” for a couple weeks.  Just like a “flash mob”, they appear all at once to make their statement, and then disappear nearly as quickly.

Student Organized Workshops.  Scheduling topic- or resource-specific workshops is a thankless task, rewarded with low attendance and requests for additional classes at “better times”.  Berkeley Environmental Design Library staff  informed students that if they organized a group of at least five students for a topical workshop (generally citation management), the instructor would find a mutually agreeable time to hold it, and then advertise it to the rest of the college.  Generally two or three such workshops are scheduled by students each semester and attendance has increased from 1-4 participants to 5-20; no more one-on-one workshops.  There’s something about students organizing themselves that seems to work.

Trainer the Trainer. At Syracuse University, the architecture librarian has worked with the Director of Recruiting to offer a training session for the peer advisors. The peer advisors help orient new students and often become the go-tos for incoming students. By having a special session for the advisors, both the new students and advisors receive updates on the library.

Name Our Catalog. As a way of making students aware of changes to the library management system, the Library at the NewSchool of Architecture+ Design in San Diego sponsored a student competition to name the new online catalog. Library staff was able to market its services while engaging students in library operations.

Exhibits of Student Architecture Work: Art libraries have created galleries or other such spaces to show student work, but displaying architecture student work in the library has not been as prevalent. At Woodbury University, library personnel have collaborated with architecture faculty on the installation of exhibits of student-generated 3D prints, plans, and models.

Show & Tells: Inspired by C-Span’s “Book TV,” Woodbury plans to host a reception where members of the campus community will showcase publications, designs, exhibits, or any other creative project they have completed within the past year.  The informal “show & tell” format will foster discussion and, hopefully, future collaboration.

Film Screenings: Using documentaries from the library collection, Woodbury personnel hope to host a film series next spring that would feature screenings and a discussion facilitated by an architecture faculty member whose focus is related to the subject of the film.

Special attention to faculty: Offerings in this first group are focused on both students and faculty. But libraries do try to give special attention to their faculty through other venues as well. Copyright workshops address academic integrity. But in addition to training sessions, many libraries host new faculty to lunch to allow for informal discussion. In the case of the NewSchool, the library has a happy hour the first Friday of the term. Faculty can catch up on new library initiatives, chat with their colleagues and develop collaborations with other faculty as well as the library.

These are some of the ways in which architecture librarians have been trying to “get the word” out there. Perhaps your libraries and librarians are trying other new ways of reaching out to students and faculty. Perhaps you can think of other ways. Tell us!  We would love to hear from you.