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ARCH 601: Architecture Design Studio VI

Web page created by Patti Cossard, Subject Librarian for Architecture and Historic Preservation

Patricia Kosco Cossard, M.A., M.L.S.
Office Phone: (301) 405-6316
Office: Architecture Library
Office Hours: by appointment
Email: pcossard@umd.edu
FAX: (301) 314-9583

Co-presenter: Joan Stahl, Branch Manager, Art & Architecture Libraries

Course Instructor: Professor Brian Kelly, Architect

The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with research for ARCH 601 projects. If you need additional information, please contact Patti Cossard or Joan Stahl, or speak with a Reference Librarian at either the Art or Architecture Library's Reference Desk.

Because of licensing agreements, access to bibliographic databases and electronic journals is restricted to UM faculty, staff, and students. These may be accessed from off campus; consult Remote access for further information. For a complete list of electronic resources available to University of Maryland faculty, staff, and students, as well as information about the full range of library materials and services, consult the UM Libraries' home page.
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Project: Facility Master Plan for the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation

An Architecture Library Constitutes a critical component of any expansion of the School of Architecture. The current library facility is inadequate; it does not meet present needs, nor future directions. The National Architectural Accreditating Board, during their recent site visit, recommended that any expansion of the library be proximate, if not physically connected, to the School's facility.

The Architecture Library has always been administered by the University of Maryland Libraries. Some years ago, the Architecture Library was administratively combined with the Art Library, with the plan to integrate the two collections and services that meet the needs of the following departments and programs: art history and archaeology, architecture, planning, historic preservation, and studion art. This project will examine the potential for expanding the Architecture Building to include all current disciplines, anticipated future disciplines, and an expanded library facility.

Contents

Overview: State of the Art of Art/Architecture Libraries

Search these Databases for Articles for a General Overview of issues facing libraries:

Staff: There are 4 librarians in the Art and Architecture Libraries. One librarian, Joan Stahl holds administrative responsibility for managing both branches. Between the two branches there are also 5 paraprofessional staff, 1 graduate assistant, and 18 student assistants, who work at the Circulation Desk.

Each librarian has a subject area to which he or she is assigned. These subject areas correspond to specific departments or programs. The librarians liaison with faculty in those departments, create subject specific library information guides, develop course related library instruction classes and web tutorials, develop the materials collection, and provide specialized reference service.

Subject areas: Archaeology, Architecture, Art History, Art, Historic Preservation, Urban Studies and Planning

Departments/Programs: Architecture Program (School of Architecture, Planning, & Historic Preservation [SAPHP]), Art Department (College of Arts & Humanities [CAU]), Art History & Archaeology [CAU], Historic Preservation [SAPHP], Urban Studies & Planning [SAPHP]

Sites: Architecture and Art Libraries

Interior Features: classroom/conference room, reference desk, circulation desk, reserve shelves, copy center, public workstations, study space (group/private), exhibits/display space, new books shelves, staff offices, processing area, break room/meal room, storage areas, supplies cabinets

Collection shelving areas: current periodicals, microforms, bound periodicals, reference collection, stacks, folio, oversize, special (rare/archival)

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Vision: The University of Maryland Libraries are grappling with a series of challenges that are integrally related to a deep transformation of scholarly communication faced by all academic libraries. How the staff and faculty of the Libraries meet these challenges is critically important to the future of the University. It is amply clear that the academic library as a place will be sustained. At the same time, the use of advanced networking and computing will continue to increase and change ways the Libraries work with and for the students and faculty.

Increasingly the Libraries must choose directions. The traditional directions cannot all be maintained while the new ones are mapped out as well. For example, with the inflation in the prices of library materials, the lack of physical space, and the rapidly increasing availability and acceptance of online materials, the Libraries will be increasingly electronic. This electronic presence, of course, requires ever more effective portals and other tools for users. The Libraries will also increasingly exist in a collaborative environment, not just to reduce costs of materials per library, but also to collect and distribute scholarly materials directly from their original source. The 2005 Strategic Plan identifies important directions for the Libraries.

Issues for the future: new reference models, information commons, new delivery technology and continual access, alternate modes of scholarly communication, priority shift to digital, electronic reserves and document delivery, self-service and device independence, information literacy within curriculum and classroom, professor/librarian collaboration, point of need service, virtual space, shelving facilities, facility security.

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Mission: The direct mission of the University of Maryland Libraries is twofold: Providing access to the use of the scholarly information resources required to meet the education, research and service missions of the University. The Libraries support this effort by building, organizing, maintaining and preserving these resources. And second, providing assistance in the use of the scholarly information resources required to meet the education, research and service missions of the University. The Libraries support this effort through interpreting, instructing and educating in the use of these resources. Beyond this direct mission, the Libraries, to the extent possible, serve the larger scholarly community.

As a branch of the University of Maryland Libraries, the Art and Architecture Libraries serve the entire university campus; their primary users, however, are the students and faculty in the departments/programs listed above. In the development of its collections, resources, and services, the branch supports the curriculum in these department/programs. In these subject areas, visual resources are as important as text. Traditional slide and photo collections have always been an essential resource for users. With a shift in recent years from print collections to digital collections--a trend that will continue for the foreseeable future--the need for greater collaboration between the libraries and department-based image collections is highly desirable, so that users can seamlessly and remotely access subscription image databases and local image collections. Similarly, collaboration between the libraries and information technology units (for example, Architecture's Computer Resources Center) is essential, in order to provide robust information resources. Examples of future collaborations might mean the creation of an Information Commons in the branch library and/or the creation of electronic classrooms.

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Assessment: the current facilities are inadequate in many respects. The deficiencies include, but are not limited to: out-of-date air handling/hvac system; insufficient space to house the collections (many volumes at off-site shelving); not handicapped accessible; insufficient office space for staff; no break/meal room for student assistants; too few public computer workstations; improper storage area for special collections; no private study space; noisy public space; lacking exhibit space; and worn furniture and carpets. Any expansion needs to take into consideration current technology and future trends.

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Peers: Joan Stahl has selected a number of examples of combined Art and Architecture libraries at peer institutions. While these web pages don't provide many visuals of the facilities, they give a feel for the scope of collections and services.

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Needs: What are the facility needs that would enable the Art and Architecture Library to grow and become an international leader?

Some needs include:

  • Flexible space that can adapt to changing technology, services, user needs
  • Increased materials budget to develop the collections (the Architecture Library is relatively young and its collections need strengthening)
  • Handicapped accessible space
  • More seating
  • Seminar room
  • Group-Study room
  • Integration of digital collections/subscription image datases, local visual collections
  • Copy center equipped with scanning equipment and related technology
  • Overall modernization
  • Exhibit space
  • New technologies
  • Exciting interior design

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Last modified: February 17, 2009

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