New Spaces for StudentsPresident Kimmich arrived at Brooklyn College at the start of the spring semester 2000.
Almost immediately, he opened discussion about the location of the faculty lounge within
the new Library building: in his thinking, the lounge would be better placed elsewhere on
campus, creating more Library space for students to work and study.
The return of this key space on the ground floor for Library purposes brought jubilation.
At the same time, the Library management team determined to eliminate the staffed copy
center (located next door to the faculty lounge), generating even more student space.
(Much of what students once photocopied they now print, thanks to the move of many
journals to electronic format, and the Library Cabinet saw no further need for a large
Kinko-type staffed photocopy center.) Architect Heidi Blau of Buttrick White and Burtis
quickly identified a creative way of shifting the Library's two classrooms toward the
reserve reading room and opening up glorious windowed spaces for student study.
Designing Stack LayoutsAssociate Librarian for Collection Development Susan Vaughn tackled the mammoth job of
calculating the rates at which various parts of the collection were growing, enabling
Project Manager Marla Appelbaum to plan the shelving sequences for the new Library.
Ms. Appelbaum spent many hours laying out the stacks in such a way that students could wend
their way through them intuitively, and with the aid of as little signage as possible.
The Signage PackageIn the fall 2000 we began working with signage consultant Terry Colbert of Colbert
deSign. By the end of semester, design was complete and final documents had been
approved. Mr. Colbert designed the signage for Columbia's Butler Library renovation.
