Larger MSEL to display special collections, add study space

The Milton S. Eisenhower Library (MSE) will expand to include a new 50,000 square foot building on campus, spreading the entire complex southward and connecting the two buildings underground. The new addition, which is still awaiting an initial $25 million donation, is intended to solve a number of problems with the current building, such as highlighting the library's impressive special collection (most of which remains stored on levels A and D out of view), adding more space for individual study, and providing additional space for group study. "The MSE Library is the busiest building at Homewood, and we cannot provide 21st-century library services for our demanding students and faculty in a 20th-century building," said Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and Vice Provost of the Arts Winston Tabb. Tabb cited the example of how last spring during final exams, the library ran out of chairs. The library was extremely crowded, with students sitting anywhere from on top of tables to the floor. More chairs had to be rented to lessen the problem, and the library staff fears that lack of chairs and space will reemerge at the end of this semester. There are more students than ever before on campus, and their technological needs are more advanced now than ever before. Tabb hopes to add more audio-visual labs where groups could collaborate on presentations and where classes could meet. Tabb points to the increasingly common occurrence of teaching assistants using rooms in the libraries for office hours. One of the goals in expanding the library is to create more space that would be conducive to this use. "We need open, flexible space that we can adapt as much as possible, whether it's [for] a group, single person or class," said Special Assistant to the Dean and Head of External Relations Pamela Higgins.A feasibility study was done in 2004 to demonstrate the need for a new building and to prove that the library could reasonably expand without any problems, structural or otherwise. When the plan was approved, the library added building expansion to its ongoing fundraising goals. The total estimated cost for the new building stands at about $40 million; as of now, an initial $25 million is still needed for an architectural plan to be initiated and carried out. "It's all a series of steps. We demonstrated need and put a price tag on it, so now we need at least half of the money in hand," Higgins said. She points out that the sooner the money is raised, the better, because construction costs increase with time.A student advisory committee of undergraduates and graduate students was created last spring to help brainstorm what services and new features the library expansion should include. Students have repeatedly emphasized a need for more group study space and have discussed the possibility of having a large reading room. In addition, graduate students have asked for small rooms to be assigned to them where they can keep a small collection of books and work on their dissertations. Undergraduates would like to have lockers where they can keep their materials during visits as well. "We've really outgrown this building," Associate Director of Library Services Deborah Slingluff said, "and if you gather a print collection you have to have somewhere to put it." She added that the library staff would like to add what are called "learning commons," various hubs where students can more easily work with traditional and online resources simultaneously. Slingluff also expressed a wish to showcase more of the special collections, which the current library lacks the space to display. The collection is constantly growing, she said, and even off-campus storage is getting full. For example, Hopkins Humanities Professor Richard Macksey is posthumously donating his personal library to the University, which means the MSE Library will receive an additional 70,000 volumes of rare and otherwise significant materials. Slingluff, like many library employees, would like much of this collection to be highlighted along with the others so that everyone can see them. "There's nothing like being able to see a collection to get a sense of it," Higgins said. Displaying much of the special collection is only logical, Higgins argued, due to the importance of research at Hopkins, and these materials are critical for much of the research being done here. As of now, no one has expressed opposition to the plan. The library's southward expansion means that the new building will abut the performing arts side of campus, where the Merrick Barn and the Mattin Center are situated. Barnstormers President Peter Lipman saw the expansion as a positive development. "The performing arts side of campus doesn't feel very integrated with the rest of it, and the library being closer to the Barn might get people more involved and able to see that there's stuff going on there and at the Mattin Center," he said. Freshman Adam Reiffen, a theater minor, has an acting class in the Merrick Barn. "I don't see [the expansion] as a problem. As long as they don't tear the Barn down, we're in good shape," Reiffen said. He did not foresee the library's new building interfering with classes or performances. Dean Tabb asserted that the library's expansion will not disrupt other parts of Homewood, as shown by the feasibility study, and that the space on the south side of campus will be "much more welcoming than what we have now."