Report: University of Central Florida’s Hitt Library Will Enlarged, Renovated, and Turned Into 21st Century Library

From the U. of Central Florida:

UCF’s first building – now called the John C. Hitt Library – is about to undergo a complete transformation that will provide new amenities for students such as an automated book-retrieval system, additional open shelving for materials, 24-hour study rooms, and space for researchers to collaborate.
The original library was built in 1967 and more than doubled in size with an expansion in 1984. Beginning within the next month, construction will start to enlarge and renovate the building into a “21st Century Library that is more than a setting to access information,” according to the plans guiding the project, adding that the library will play an active role “in the process of knowledge creation.”
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The project will be in three phases to serve the more than 63,000 students of the second-largest university in the nation.
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UCF’s 21st Century Library will feature:

• New 24-hour zone with seating and group study rooms
• Open-access stacks with the capacity to hold more than 300,000 volumes
• An automated-retrieval center capable of holding 1.25 million items
• A new north entry with access from both Pegasus Circle to the north and the Computer Center to the east
• 3,264 seats in varied types for individual and group study
• Modernized building systems for the 1967 and 1984 structures
• New and upgraded elevators and accessible restrooms
• Expanded special collections area with opportunities for exhibition
• Improved functional arrangement and layout of collections, seating and staff areas
• New reading room atop the automated-retrieval center, with views to the north, east and west
• An area for graduate students with space for individual and collaborative research, study and writing

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Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Libraries, News, Open Access