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Month: July 2017

Published on Leave a comment on Innovative Instructional Space Coming to Moody Memorial Library Thanks to Moody Foundation Grant

In 2018, Moody Memorial Library will celebrate its 50th anniversary as Baylor University’s main campus library. In advance of that significant milestone, the Baylor Libraries have secured a $100,000 grant from the Moody Foundation to begin renovations and upgrades to the historic structure’s first floor.

With this gift, the Moody Foundation – which provided a sizable lead gift in 1964 that helped finance the building’s construction in 1967 – has pledged its support to revitalize the building’s interior with the creation of an innovative instructional learning space complete with flexible furnishings, upgraded interiors and the latest in instructional technology.

“This gift will serve as a significant catalyst for our long-term plans to reimagine and renovate Moody’s first floor as we continue to meet the needs of our 21st century patrons,” said John S. Wilson, interim dean of University Libraries. “The Moody Foundation saw the importance of continuing to provide a high level of service to Baylor students, faculty and staff through innovative learning spaces, and we are excited to partner with them on this project.”

The space, which will be located behind the library’s main circulation desk, is envisioned as an active learning space. The multi-purpose area will fill the growing need for dedicated areas in the library that support a variety of instructional needs.

Beth Farwell, director of Central Libraries, noted that the planned space is an important jumping-off point for grander plans for Moody. “We hope to see the entire first floor reimagined to include the kind of spaces students have told us are important to their success, like individual study spaces and aesthetically pleasing areas that inspire creativity, collaboration and academic success,” she said.

Work on the instructional learning space is expected to begin during the fall 2017 semester. Updates on progress will be posted on the library’s website at www.baylor.edu/lib and on the libraries’ social media channels, including Twitter @baylorlibraries and Facebook at www.facebook.com/baylorlibraries.

 

Published on Leave a comment on 2017 Central Libraries Collection Shift

Moody Memorial Library will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2018, and in the half-century since it opened, the print collection has grown significantly to include over 2 million physical volumes.  Providing appropriate storage and ease of access to these materials is of the highest priority for the Central Libraries staff, and they strive every day to ensure that a building designed in the 1960s can accommodate the ever-evolving needs of a 21st century patron base. Every year, our collections management team tracks the flow of incoming materials, the usage stats (specifically, check-outs) of existing materials and the need to remove items from circulation that no longer require significant physical storage outlays (such as titles that are readily and easily available in online editions).

After careful review and planning, the Central Libraries will begin a collection management project this month to withdraw materials from Jones and shift targeted areas from Moody to relieve our space constraints.  Our usage statistics indicate many of the science print journals on Jones 2nd floor circulate very rarely and are available to our faculty and students in online formats, so these journals will be removed from Jones to create space for significant monograph collections from Moody’s holdings.

The monograph collections that will be moving from Moody 1st to Jones 2nd include:

F – History of the Americas

G – Geography, Anthropology, Recreation

H – Social Sciences

L - Education

The decision to remove the science periodicals and move the Moody monographs was not taken lightly. We considered a range of options and input from our users, as well as our usage statistics, to determine the best course of action to balance the space available in our central libraries with the ongoing information access needs of Baylor faculty, students and staff.

We view the process of shifting these collections as an opportunity to better serve you, yet we recognize there may be questions that arise during the process. As we move these materials, we will update our maps and provide signage to assist patrons who need to access these collections.  Regular updates will be posted at the library’s main website (www.baylor.edu/lib) and on the Central Libraries blog (https://blogs.baylor.edu/centrallibrariesstories).  If you have any further questions please contact myself, Ken Carriveau (Kenneth_Carriveau@baylor.edu) or Beth Farwell (Beth_Farwell@baylor.edu).

I appreciate the opportunity to move forward on this major project and am excited for the ways it will help us as we make major plans for a significant renovation to Moody 1st floor, a project that will begin this semester with the renovation of Moody 104 into an innovative instructional space thanks to a $100,000 gift from the Moody Foundation. (You can read more about this exciting news here.) Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me, and I look forward to continuing the libraries’ mission of serving the needs of our campus community’s academic endeavors.

John S. Wilson
Interim Dean of Libraries

Get Regular Project Updates at

https://blogs.baylor.edu/centrallibrariesstories/category/2017-collection-shift/

www.baylor.edu/library

@BaylorLibraries on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram