STETSON / SAWYER

Composite Faculty and Administrator Feedback from Individual
Sessions on Library Space and Facilities, November 2000

Participating faculty and administrators: Sabrina Hamilton, George
Markus, David Kechley, Molly Magavern, EJ Johnson, Peter Grudin, Leyla
Rouhi, Alan White, Darra Goldstein, and casual comments made to the
interviewers by other faculty members during this period. Interviewers:
Dave Pilachowski and Sylvia Kennick Brown

What do you like most about Sawyer Library?
--The instruction program, with hands on exercises, and having rooms where such sessions can take place.
--Similarly, more concerned with being able to reserve a room once or twice a semester for instruction rather than having all class sessions in the library.
--Can use maps to find books.
--Browsing in stacks and ready availability of copiers.
--Know can direct students to come here to write and research.
--Refers students here for help.
--Sawyer is well laid out, and materials can be found easily.
--Pleased with the accessibility of the reference desk.

What things would you like to see improved?
--Navigation: Sawyer is very difficult to navigate, and not logically laid out. The circulating collection is on three floors that are interrupted by two floors. There is lots of traveling up and down to get to where you want to be. (Most interviewees were emphatic about difficulties in navigating Sawyer.) In
contrast, Schow is much easier to navigate, especially the current journals area.
--Aisles are too narrow: It's difficult to pass someone, and impossible to read call numbers on the bottom few shelves due to shadows.
--Stack layout: Stacks are not logically laid out. In addition, the circular staircase forces a peculiar stack layout; linear stacks are easier to negotiate intellectually.
--Main circular staircase: The main staircase is grim, and confusing when trying to find the lower floors.
--The library entrance: Entering the library by traversing a rather empty lobby, going up stairs, being faced immediately with a 'barrier' (i.e. the security system), and then a large desk, is a progression that is not understandable as a library entrance. As one faculty member enters the library, she finds herself asking, "Where are the books?"
--Nooks and crannies: There are not enough nooks in which to read in comfortable chairs near the materials relating to one's discipline.
--Lobby & exhibition space: While the exhibitions are good, they are lost in the lobby space that tends to function primarily as a cold and uninviting passageway.
--Building materials: Both the rubberized floor covering and the
carpeting look dingy and dirty.
--Returning materials: It is difficult to return large stacks of books to the library since it is hard to park nearby. At present, borrowers can use the Stetson book drop. (2 similar comments were made)
--Seating: The window seats on the south wall are too narrow to be of much use. The look of all seating should be updated.
--Reserves and A/V: Decouple reserves and A/V. The closed stack nature of Reserves and staff retrieval is not appropriate for videos, as long as the latter can be protected. Have more videos and be able to browse them. (Video browsability was mentioned multiple times.) Place Reserves closer to
--Circulation. (They are currently two floors away from each other.) Put visual resources -- art books and various video formats -- physically closer together. Have a separate media collection for all formats. Have some input from the Music Department in the planning (which, it has been claimed, never
happened when Sawyer was designed and built). Create better assistance for understanding the layout of scores and miniscores when searching FRANCIS. Users of materials in that stack area are referred to the Reference
Desk which is two floors away.
--Make the Reference desk more visible. The desk appears to be "shunted off to the side, as if they're peripheral."
--Have the WCMA (college art museum) slide collection catalog available on-line so that so that students will be aware of this collection. [note: investigate a link]
--Noise: Noise of students socializing, especially on the main floor, is bothersome. Also the noise from the Sawyer air conditioning equipment, when it is operating, is offensive and carries widely in the neighborhood.
--Sawyer looks cute and cozy -- described by one person as "daycare center 1970s" -- but not like a serious place in which
to study.

If given totally free hand, what would you like to see in
expanded library?
--A new main entrance that leads immediately to services and collections. Also "you should walk up into a library."
--Be able to support technology well: color copiers, slide scanners, high-end technology. Be able to have additional on-line storage for people making heavy use of images. (Multiple comments were received in this area.)
--More active instruction program that focuses on benefits, and
works with faculty on identifying "dead times" when they can attend workshops.
--Well-placed smaller stairways rather than the large grim
central staircase.
--Ways to display student art, though not necessarily a gallery. Comfortable browsing area for new books and journals. Tables in the area and clusters of seats where people may converse, also den-like areas with incandescent lighting. (Currently this space is too crowded and the lighting too stark.)
-- Make the New Books area a destination, not a transit area.
--Faculty copiers on multiple floors. (This individual was not aware of the second copier near the Reference Office).
--Comment stands that there is no faculty copier on top two
floors.
--Small seating areas, some with views and natural light, and others in dark corners for variety. Intimate seating areas placed in or near the collections of various disciplines. (Discipline-related seating was seen also as a way of
promoting serendipitous meetings between faculty and students interested in that particular area.)
--Discipline/language/area rooms that contain collections pertaining to that area/subject (such as the Middle Eastern reading room at Harvard).
--A better connection between Stetson and Sawyer. A link or
links, rather than a contiguous connection. Take advantage of views to the north. Also create a complex with the potential new classroom building.
--Seminar rooms near the collections. (Mentioned by three
faculty members. This was seen as a way of tempting students to browse or use the library collections, or as "an excuse for students to be in the building at least two times a week.")
--Named rooms.
--Office space, perhaps a cluster of offices, for faculty
members.
--The library, or a portion thereof, open for 24-hour access.
--Sensitivity to building materials, colors, etc. One faculty
member especially likes the use of wood in libraries.
--A more international-looking building. One possibility might be to include the names of a wide variety of philosophers/artists/authors (Chinese, Arabic, etc.) in the decoration of the building as a mirror or foil to the friezes on Stetson.
--If not included in a foreign language area in Stetson I or II,
areas for foreign language periodicals and newspapers, as well as reference areas for encyclopedias and dictionaries in the various languages.

What is unique about Williams and how should that be reflected
in the libraries?
--Each discipline has its own way of doing research and the library needs to convey that to students. Text-based, visual, and lab oriented courses require different skills.
--Personal interaction is important. Make interaction possible in the library while preserving spaces for in-depth concentration.
--Create places to get drinks, snacks (not meals), and to talk.
--Working in groups. Create group work spaces. Perhaps host
the Math/Physics workshop?
--One individual bemoaned the lack of intellectual seriousness exhibited by students, and would like to see the libraries
promote intellectual endeavor.

Ideas from other libraries?
--The best ones seem people-friendly, easy to get around, and
have public service desks close by.
--Nice large reading room with large wooden tables and lamps.
(Wesleyan)
--Central reading room that says "we're all in this together,"
creating a sense of communal intellectual enterprise.
(Stanford)
--Reference collections (near the reading room) that surround a
circular reference desk making it easy to approach to ask for
information. (Stanford)
--Create comfortable space to work.
--Linking buildings via underground space into which light is
introduced. (U. Michigan Law Library?)

Use Chapin and Archives? General Comments? How should they
interact with Sawyer?
--Most interviewees haven't used either facility.
--Mentioned that these facilities are relatively hard to find.
--It's important to have material represented in FRANCIS or a
web page.
--Students never mention these libraries as an issue or a resource. The faculty member expects this is because little is known about them.
--Feels Chapin is an under-utilized treasure.
--They appear "marginalized." The option of a connector between the libraries is interesting.
--Likes having special collections in Stetson. Enjoys having the
various displays and reading rooms along his path.
--Would support anything that would promote primary research.
--That undergraduates can enter these libraries and have access to these types of materials is remarkable.

Other things that came up …
--Music Dept has collections of scores that it loans. David Kechley is interested in having us take these materials on. He will talk with the dept. to see whether they agree. If they want to pursue this, we will need to find out how much material is involved. Also, the Willeke Collection came up as
something that it is doubtful the Music Dept. will want once the curator (currently a faculty member) leaves.
--Video Use -- Sabrina Hamilton uses them heavily and limits by material type. Will be glad once we broaden keyword searching to include LCSH and more.
--Summer Hours -- Molly Magavern commented that as someone who coordinates certain summer student programs, she is concerned about the 4:30 closing time. From her perspective, summer research and other academic programs for admitted students will only grow. That will result in even more demand for summer library hours. The question is not
study space as much as it is being able to get to library materials. Molly suggested that I raise this issue with the Provost for her read on summer programs (and to raise the staffing situation).
--ILL -- Alan White would like to see better turn-around in ILL
service. Was curious whether shuttle service might improve
retrieval time. (The possibility of joining a consortium was mentioned as a way of potentially improving service.)
--On-line texts -- Alan White would like to see more texts on-line for those who research from their offices.
--Schow vs. Sawyer collections -- Alan White also had questions about certain titles that are located in Schow rather than Sawyer. Aristotle's commentaries in physics are presently in Schow, and he thinks that works like these are used more by Div. I and II faculty members.
--Caution -- When expanding Sawyer, think about the possible impact on the Music center.

November 14, 2000