SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

March 17, 2014 by Gary Price

$50.8 Million Expansion of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Main Library Gets Underway

March 17, 2014 by Gary Price

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

A $50.8 million expansion of Virginia Commonwealth University’s main library is underway, marking the opening stages of the library’s first major improvement since it was built in the early 1970s.
As part of the expansion project, a new 93,000-square-foot library building will be built and connected to the north and east sides of the existing James Branch Cabell Library and an additional 63,000 square feet of the current library building will be renovated.

From VCU:

“We are overcrowded, there’s not any other way to say it,” said University Librarian John E. Ulmschneider. “Students complain that they can’t find a place to sit. The new building that we’re creating will expand the space by over 30 percent. We’ll add significant new seating capacity and we’ll bring on the new kinds of new capabilities that our students and faculty have been asking us for.”
Since the library was first built, Ulmschneider said, VCU’s enrollment has grown by more than 10,000 students yet additional capacity was not added to the library.
[Clip]
VCU currently provides the least amount of square feet per student of any academic library in Virginia, yet has the highest amount of traffic, Ulmschneider said. Over the past 10 years, Cabell Library’s traffic has more than doubled from 1 million visitors in 2003 to more than 2 million in 2013.
[Clip]
The expanded library will add a number of new services and capabilities aimed at students.
On the first ground floor of the new building, a new Innovative Media Studio will offer students access to high-end computing, a green-screen studio, audio and video recording and editing equipment, 3-D printing and data visualization.
The Innovative Media Studio also will include an immersive data visualization facility, allowing for the display of wraparound, large-form video.
[Clip]
Also as part of the project, the library will expand its special collections area on the fourth floor over the summer.
“Special collections is going to get a larger footprint out of this renovation, some better processing space behind the scenes for staff, and a much larger and more secure stacks area, which will have compact shelving so the capacity will be much larger in terms of materials,” said Jeanne Hammer, associate university librarian for administration and policy development and a key liaison on the building program.
The project will also add two dedicated classrooms and a significant amount of additional seating for students.

Learn More (Images, Stats, and More)

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Data Files, Libraries, News, Video Recordings

SHARE:

lj

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

NY Times: "New York Public Library Acquires Joan Didion’s Papers"

From The NY Times: When [Joan] Didion died in 2021 at age 87, the news set off an outpouring of tributes to a writer who fused penetrating insight and idiosyncratic personal voice, ...

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: María Estorino Named Vice Provost for University Libraries and University Librarian

Below, Find the Full Text of a Letter Sent to the Carolina Community From Kevin M. Guskiewicz University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz and J. ...

Boston Public Library Celebrates Black History Month with Annual “Black Is…” Booklist & Special Events

From the Boston Public Library: The Boston Public Library is proud to contribute to the celebration of Black History Month with its annual “Black Is…” booklist. The booklist aims to commemorate ...

Research Resources: New Online Tool Provides Health Snapshot of All 435 U.S. Congressional Districts (Congressional District Health Dashboard)

From NYU Langone: Researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, unveiled the Congressional District Health Dashboard (CDHD), a new online tool that ...

Report: "cOAlition S Confirms the End of Its Financial Support for Open Access Publishing Under Transformative Arrangements After...

From a cOAlition S  Announcement: Transformative arrangements – including Transformative Agreements and Transformative Journals – were developed to encourage subscription journals to transition to full and immediate open access within a defined timeframe (31st December 2024, ...

Library of Congress: Hannah Sommers Appointed New Associate Librarian for Researcher and Collections Services

From the Library of Congress: The Library of Congress announced today the appointment of Hannah Sommers as the new Associate Librarian for Researcher and Collections Services in the Library Collections and Services Group. In this role, Sommers will lead the future of the Library’s collections and the services it delivers to researchers and users. She will be central ...

Virginia Tech: University Libraries Dean Tyler Walters Appointed Board Chair of Academic Preservation Trust; IEEE Computer Society 2023...

As Book Bans Increase Across the Country, a Boston University Scholar is Fighting Back Core’s Library Resources & Technical Services Journal Goes Fully Open Access Digital Image Processing: It’s All ...

Funding: Library Freedom Project Receives $1 Million Grant Award From the Mellon Foundation to Advance Critical Privacy and...

Here’s the Full Text of the Library Freedom Project (LFP) Announcement:   Library Freedom Project (LFP) has been awarded $1,000,000 from the Mellon Foundation to expand the program’s work. For ...

Report: Sweden’s National Library Turns Page to AI to Parse Centuries of Data

From a NVIDIA Blog Post: For the past 500 years, the National Library of Sweden has collected virtually every word published in Swedish, from priceless medieval manuscripts to present-day pizza ...

IFLA Trend Report 2022 Released; Preprint: "The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform"; & More Headlines

Archive for Amateur Radio Grows to 51,000 Items (via Internet Archive) Four New Appointments to the eLife New Board Members IFLA Trend Report 2022 Released (via International Federation of Library ...

Jennifer Vinopal Named HathiTrust's First Associate Director

Here’s the Full Text of Today’s HathiTrust Announcement: HathiTrust is pleased to announce that Jennifer Vinopal has been appointed HathiTrust’s first Associate Director.  Vinopal will assume a key leadership role ...

American Library Association Announces New $5.5 Million Transformational Grant From the Mellon Foundation

Here’s the Full Text of the ALA Announcement: The American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce a new grant in the amount of $5,515,000 from the Mellon Foundation to ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.