Section II:
The Morton & Angela Topfer Library Café



  The Morton & Angela Topfer Library Café

http://ait.brooklyn.cuny.edu/librarycafe/index.htm
http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/libcafe/

"The Library Café continues to enjoy its well-earned reputation as a well-run computer lab on the Brooklyn College campus." Nicholas Irons, Associate Director for Faculty Training and Development

  • Nothing Succeeds Like Success!
    We could never have anticipated the Library Café's incredible success. Just four years old in January 2003, today Café usage exceeds 700 students each day, and 800+ days are a common occurrence. The Library Café is the only CUNY student lab open 24x7; it provides 88 hours of staffed service each week. We are especially proud of finals week each semester when the Café is staffed 24 hours a day, giving students the assistance they need to complete their research projects. Directing students to the Café for immediate one-on-one technology training has proven quite successful. Our message to faculty is that they need not spend valuable class time training students in technology basics.

  • A New Pavilion for the Library Café
    Only sixteen months after the Library Café's grand opening, although the service week had been significantly extended, students were literally waiting in line to work in this exceptional facility. At the request of President Christoph Kimmich the Brooklyn City Council has agreed to fund an expansion of the Café into a part of the courtyard area fronting the facility. Following an intensive competition, Architects Thanhauser, Esterson, and Kapell (TEK) http://www.te-arch.com were awarded the project.

    Fortunately, there is room for the Library Café to expand. By enclosing a part of the courtyard area that lies just outside the Café's doors the College can:

  • Add much-needed student seating,
  • Make better use of this large patio space,
  • Continue to bring natural light and outdoor views into the Café.

    • As part of this project, we plan to:

  • Remove a portion of the Café's existing glass curtain wall and incorporate 1,700 square feet of the outdoor courtyard space just outside the present facility in an as-yet-to-be-determined configuration. This will increase the size of the Café (6,650 square feet) by some 25%.
  • Retain a significant portion of the courtyard space for outdoor seating which can be used as additional Café and study space when the weather permits.
  • Increase student access to computers by adding 35 fixed workstations and seats, and more notebook computers.
  • Add a third toilet, to accommodate the increased number of Library Café users.
  • Improve the air-conditioning system.
  • Provide a professional signage package for the entire Café.

    • On January 15 the planning team for the expansion met with President Kimmich to get his thoughts on how to proceed in light of what appears to be a budget shortfall. The president raised the possibility of fund-raising to close the gap. The architects have done further work, and a second meeting with the president was held April 10. Shortly thereafter on May 15, President Kimmich called a meeting with Vice-President Steve Little and Chief Librarian Barbra Higginbotham to discuss the logistics of fund-raising for the project. We have determined to maintain the scope of the project, which is about 50% over budget as designed.

  • Library Café Workshops
    In 2002-2003 Café staff offered 55 student technology workshops:
    Summer 2002 7 workshops (7 titles offered once)
    Fall 2002 24 workshops (8 titles offered 2 to 4 times each)
    Spring 2003 24 workshops (8 titles offered 2 to 4 times each)

  • New Equipment for the Library Café
    "In our continuing effort to meet the evolving technological needs of the college community, AIT replaced 25 of the original (aging) computers with powerful Windows XP workstations. This upgrade is significant for it allows us to keep pace with the new and improved versions of productivity and multimedia applications." Nicholas Irons, Associate Director for Faculty Training & Development

    In the spring 2002 we took a decision to place the Café on a three-year hardware and selective software replacement schedule, so that the computers would remain both current and under warranty; one-third of the machines would be replaced each year using the interest from the Topfer endowment. Accordingly, the first replacements arrived during the summer 2002 in time for the fall semester–and, because of our ability to merge this order with that for hundreds of new computers purchased for the new Library, a quantity discount allowed us to buy twenty-five computers, rather than the proposed seventeen. This upgrade enables the Café to continue its role as the campus's technological showplace.