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Report of the Task Force on the Library of the 21st Century:
The Berry and Baker Libraries

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Introduction

Section 1: The Institutional Setting

Dartmouth Library Clientele and Use Patterns
The Dartmouth College Curriculum

Section 2: The Design of the New Berry Library and the Renovated Baker Library

Basic Design Goals
Major Concepts Guiding the Design

Section 3: Space in the Berry and Baker Libraries
Integration of Library Spaces
Spaces to Reflect Increasing Levels of Service
Space for Study, Learning, and Research
Flexibility of Space

Section 4: Configuration of Service Areas
Collection Services
Library Systems
User Services
Reserve Reading Rooms

Conclusion

Members of the Task Force on the Library of the 21st Century

Executive Summary

In October of 1993, President James O. Freedman charged the Task Force on the Library of the 21st Century to think creatively about Dartmouth's library facilities of the future, particularly with regard to information technology, and to make recommendations about the design and function of the new Berry Library. The Task Force, whose membership is representative of Dartmouth as a whole, has met regularly since its appointment. In the course of its work, the Task Force has interacted with faculty, students, and staff, has examined issues related to the future of the Dartmouth College Library facilities, and has researched other libraries that might be instructive in Dartmouth's planning.

The report of the Task Force describes the institutional setting of Dartmouth College as a "village culture" in which members of the community value close interaction with one another, and in which the libraries emphasize personalized services designed to meet individual needs. In addition, the libraries have a high standard of electronic services, reach a range of users, and support a changing curriculum. Baker Library serves as a crossroads of the campus, both literally and figuratively. Given these realities, the Task Force report outlines the following basic design goals that are essential in the future direction for the new Berry Library:

In order to realize these basic goals, the Task Force recommends a number of specific design features in the new Berry facility and the renovated Baker Library. Chief among these are:

The Task Force believes that a decision must be reached early in the planning for the Berry Library on the future location of the Department of Computing Services. This is a complex decision that the Task Force does not feel falls within its charge to specify. The Task Force does, however, welcome the appointment of the new Task Force on Information Technology, and expresses its willingness to work with this group in arriving at a timely recommendation.

The report of the Task Force describes these design features in detail and also provides recommendations for the configuration of the library system's technical and public services, insofar as these services relate to the overall design of the new Berry facility and the renovation of Baker Library. Throughout the report, the Task Force emphasizes the importance of designing new library facilities that continue the tradition of the Dartmouth College Library system as a whole, which is to provide excellent service in support of the academic mission of Dartmouth College.

Introduction

 Baker Library, built in 1929, is a monument whose facade dominates the Hanover Green, a facade consciously designed to echo Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The architects of this building reached back to the roots of the College in recalling the early spirit of the nation. Eleazar Wheelock founded Dartmouth College as a product of the American Enlightenment; his college was to be "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" bringing culture and thought to northern New England. Baker Library remains a firm guarantee of the freedom that characterizes an academic community; democratic, open to all, and a sign of the institution's integrity.

The 1925 Report of the Faculty Committee on the New Baker Library opens with these words:

"The problem of any institution of higher education is essentially twofold. It comprises first, addition to the stock of human knowledge; and second, the transmission and interpretation of critically selected portions thereof, either to the public at large or to a specially selected group assembled for purposes of instruction to the end that this knowledge may serve for the ordering of life"

"These conditions impose upon the library the duty of making readily available to the entire college community those records of human accomplishment in the realms both of thought and of action, without knowledge and appreciation of which progress is impossible. It therefore follows that for the effective accomplishment of the aims of an educational institution, its library must in a very real sense, be both intellectually and physically its center. The importance of physical centrality lies not in itself but in that contribution to intellectual centrality, which proceeds from the overcoming of human inertia and from the intellectual stimulation caused by the psychological effect of a central and dominant physical symbol of intellectual value."
As Dartmouth plans its library facilities for the future, the same concerns that were pressing in 1925(the library's need to be central to the campus and its obligation to make a range of information available) remain relevant and timely. The Dartmouth College Library has taken as its mandate the current and future support of study, learning, research, and publication in the wider Dartmouth community. The current mission statement makes this clear:

"The overarching goal of the Library is to provide, in the context of an environment dedicated to scholarship, teaching, and research, access to the knowledge resources required by each of its diverse user communities in ways that most effectively and efficiently meet their needs. Achieving that goal necessitates that the Library maintain both an historical and a forward-looking perspective on its mission: it must preserve and maintain the rich heritage contained in its collections for future generations of Dartmouth scholars while, simultaneously, it must plan to integrate emerging technology that will continue to transform the educational and informational environment."
The Task Force on the Library of the 21st Century was established to help the College plan wisely for the substantial additions that it will make to its library facilities over the next decade. These additions, the most prominent of which will be a new Berry Library adjacent to Baker Library, are being made possible through the generous gifts of John W. Berry, George Berry, George F. Baker III, and the Loren M. Berry Foundation. In October of 1993, President James O. Freedman gave the following charge to the Task Force:
1.To think creatively about the library of the future, considering the needs of students, faculty, and others in relation to the impact of electronic information on the library user. This would include consideration of how disciplinary and interdisciplinary trends might affect the library.

2.To consider the impact of recent technological changes on the design of the library and on its function. This should include assessing the type of space that needs to be available in the library, making some predictions about the growth of the library collections and the need for storage that will be required, assessing the library's impact on areas such as the institutional electronic network, designs and requirements of dormitory rooms and facilities, classrooms, and faculty offices.

3.To become familiar with recent library expansions at other institutions, particularly those that have concentrated heavily on the integration of technology into the library system.
The Task Force on the Library of the 21st Century, in helping to design a new Berry Library which will continue to foster the scholarship and inquiry of the Dartmouth community, is mindful of the fact that Baker Library has fulfilled this role well for the last sixty years. However, there are differences in the academic world today that have significant implications for libraries of the future. Knowledge is expanding at an increasing rate, more books are being produced than ever before, and technology is becoming ever more sophisticated, thus providing new and more complex modes in which knowledge is produced, stored, and disseminated.

Given these dramatic changes, and cognizant of the magnitude of the new Berry Library project, the Task Force felt that it should address a very basic question: "Why should Dartmouth College build more library space?" This question is fundamental to the design of the new Berry Library since books, journals, videos, and other media are projected to become increasingly available through electronic or optical means, and users will be connected to the libraries through wires and cables. It is clear, however, that in addition to "virtual" or "electronic" connections, Dartmouth also needs physical facilities that are capable of capturing and making available to a wide variety of users the new, diverse, and continually evolving formats in which scholarly information will be transmitted.

Baker Library already has a large and important collection of books and journals, for which new space is needed to relieve overflowing shelves and to accommodate additional resources. We do not currently know when these types of library materials will be purchased principally or solely in non-print forms, but experience tells us that this will not happen overnight, and that as a result the physical book and journal collection will continue to grow for some time. To use an often cited paradigm, libraries of today are akin to "warehouses" that store information, and libraries of the future will be more akin to "laboratories," places in which there is active exploration of many different forms of knowledge using a wide variety of information resources in differing formats. The challenge for the design of library facilities of the 21st century is to include enough space for the "warehousing" of information, with enough flexibility to allow for the "laboratory" to realize its full potential.

In addition, enhancement of the Dartmouth College Library's instructional and work spaces are required in order to educate library users about new resources and to provide space in which users and librarians can explore the vast array of information that is available. These instructional spaces, as well as new spaces for individual study, group work, and research, will offer to the campus community a Dartmouth College Library that is a center of active involvement in writing, research, and publication. In short, given the new technologies and expanding information sources of today's world, the Dartmouth College Library's role as a service-oriented facility on the campus and within the community will necessarily need to expand in order to meet faculty, student, and staff demands for training in this new electronic environment. New and renovated facilities are required so that we can derive for the Dartmouth community the benefits of new information resources that are found in a range of electronic and print formats.

Dartmouth's library facilities of the future also need to contain a number of new computer resources because, as the collection is increasingly augmented by information in electronic and other media forms, users will require the appropriate technology to receive full benefit from them. Although some or most of this information may eventually be accessible over the network, we do not expect that such sites as a student's room or a professor's office necessarily will have all the equipment needed to use new materials effectively (scanners, color printers and photocopiers, high-resolution monitors, high-end processors, microtext readers, etc.). By incorporating this kind of equipment within their walls, Dartmouth's library facilities will fulfill their role as campus laboratories for information technology.

The Task Force also mulled over the question: "Why should Dartmouth build more library space now?" Our response was that, given today's changing technology and information environment, now is the moment to take account of the means by which knowledge will be created and disseminated in order to adjust our vision of the future library system. This will enable Dartmouth to take full advantage of the mix of traditional print publications and technological advances. In view of the rural location of Dartmouth College and the dominance of Baker Library as the area's only major bibliographic collection in the humanities and social sciences, it is vital to the continuing strength of our educational and research programs that there be a strong Baker Library facility at the core of the Dartmouth campus into the 21st century and beyond. It is important to design a new Berry Library that is both an academically worthy and aesthetically appropriate complement to the current Baker Library as well as an effective and powerful resource for the whole college community. In the course of its work, the Task Force visited a number of other libraries and received useful ideas from some of them, but did not find any complete models that could meet a full vision of the future Berry Library. This is probably as it should be; while we can attempt to draw ideas from other libraries, we must develop new plans that meet Dartmouth's particular needs and respond to Dartmouth's unique character.

Accordingly, the Task Force identified the future role of the Dartmouth College Library system in general, and of the new Berry Library in particular, as follows:

The libraries as a resource for research:

The libraries as an instructional resource:
 The libraries as spaces for study:

The Task Force envisions the new Berry Library to be a place where the Dartmouth community comes to learn about the availability, access, and use of resources; to gain direct and immediate access to all forms of information and requisite technologies in one facility; to find expert help and advice; and to join in working groups to collaborate with the library staff and others in exploring new ways to process and assimilate scholarly information.

As the Task Force has gathered responses from faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates, this statement has been made repeatedly: "Baker Library offers excellent service to its users; whatever building you recommend for the new library of the 21st century, be sure to maintain the effectiveness of its staff to serve the needs of the College." This plea for the continuation of a tradition of good service has provided the foundation for our proposed design of the new Berry Library. In the following pages we attempt to reflect the wishes of the Dartmouth community for a service-oriented Berry Library. To do this, we describe a new type of space to be designed for both the Baker and Berry Libraries, where the elements of the libraries are organized into effective units and where the whole is blended into a workable conception.

This report is not intended to be a blueprint for the future Berry building but rather a set of guidelines for the architectural program. While segments of this report stress physical space, the Task Force also has followed its charge by exploring wider areas relating to the operations, services, technologies, and organization of the library system as a whole.

The Task Force has been guided in its work by an inventory of current and projected space drawn up by the architectural firms of Venturi Scott Brown and Associates and Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott (March 5, 1992). We have found none of the functions included in that inventory to be extraneous, although several should be reconfigured or expanded in the new Berry Library and the renovated Baker Library. We have chosen to direct our report toward those areas of service that should be added or significantly modified to achieve library facilities that will serve Dartmouth well into the next century.

Section 1: The Institutional Setting

Dartmouth has a village culture, in which members of the academic community value easy interaction with individual colleagues, students, and friends. Personalized services that recognize individual needs are a hallmark of the College. The values and mission of Dartmouth must be at the core of the new Berry Library. These values were clearly articulated, as follows, in the mission statement of the Planning Steering Committee of October 1990.

"Dartmouth College is dedicated to providing undergraduate, graduate, and professional education of the highest quality, and to fostering a love of learning in every member of its community. Dartmouth strives to blend the best features of the undergraduate college with those of the research university. The College has more than a two-century tradition of excellence in undergraduate education, and is committed to maintaining its undergraduate focus. Dartmouth concentrates its efforts in graduate education on select programs and professional schools. Dartmouth has a special character and is committed to fostering the unique bonds that exist between the College and the men and women who learn, teach, and work here. This character is rooted in the following essential elements:

As the College's mission statement makes clear, Dartmouth strives to combine the best of the liberal arts college with the best of the research university. This results in two-fold pressures on the libraries: first, faculty research and teaching needs are persistent and complex; and second, students are constantly pushed by faculty to dig deeply into a range of topics. These topics and projects could include term papers, theses, or "culminating experiences," which in the new curriculum will vary from department to department.

The culture of the library system at Dartmouth as it has developed over the decades reflects the culture of the College. The ten libraries on campus contain a concentration of professional materials that are physically convenient to their most probable users through the close coordination of collection development and services by a library staff who know one another and their users. Individual faculty members and students feel welcome in all of the libraries but frequently have a primary association with one or two, depending upon their principal interests. The increase in library holdings at Dartmouth and the physical splitting of the collection into specialized units has not diminished the library system's strong commitment to individualized service.

For 30 years Dartmouth has excelled in the integration of computer technologies with education and research programs. Management of the increasing depth and breadth of library resources and tasks has been aided by the parallel sophistication of the College's technological infrastructure. Though library collections are separately housed around the campus, the development of the Dartmouth College Information System (DCIS) in the past decade has done much to reintegrate the information resources of the College in the minds of library users. With easy access to local, national, and international networks in their offices or dormitory rooms, faculty and students have a strong sense of living and working in an academic village where information isrelatively easy to find and share with colleagues.

The characteristics of the current Baker Library and the Dartmouth College Library system as a whole must remain hallmarks in the new Berry Library -- convenience, individual attention, a high standard of electronic services, education of users to combine information from various collections and bases, and support of the curriculum.

Dartmouth Library Clientele and Use Patterns

The new Berry Library should continue to be a client-centered service organization; thus, designing programs and services around users' evolving needs will remain a top priority as we plan for the 21st Century. The primary users are the faculty, students, and staff of Dartmouth College and its professional schools, but alumni and members of the local community not formally associated with the College also depend upon Dartmouth College Library collections and staff.

Faculty are fairly independent in their use of the libraries at Dartmouth but constantly consult librarians in their subject areas; they also collaborate with librarians in offering instruction to students. Communication occurs by telephone, by electronic mail, and in person. Faculty use the public services offered by the libraries, and often have an especially keen interest in interlibrary loan/document delivery. They use the libraries most intensively during weekdays, but, especially when engaged in research, their use extends well into the evenings and weekends.

Students use the libraries at all hours of the day and most of the night for purposes as varied as engaging in research for term papers, doing reserve reading, checking a computer terminal for BlitzMail messages, attending classes, checking out books, reading newspapers or magazines, studying alone or in small groups, meeting friends, or photocopying papers. Students continuously request extended hours of service over and above the current hours in Baker Library (8 a.m. ­ 10 p.m. for reference services, 8 a.m. ­ 12 midnight for stack and circulation services, and 8 a.m. ­ 1 a.m. for reserve reading and studying). The factors that limit extending hours include building and collection security and the expense of staffing multiple service points.

College staff, alumni, and guest users, while much fewer in number than faculty and students, require significant staff attention because they are frequently less familiar with relevant systems. While use by these individuals is "secondary" to that by faculty and students, the role of the libraries are, nonetheless, very important in alumni and community relations.

In addition, the libraries at Dartmouth serve a national and international clientele through networked and contractual shared-resources programs.

For all of these users, it is important that the libraries continue to be a storehouse of scholarly information. Of equal importance is the recognition that, in the design of library facilities, faculty and students will need spaces where they can gain access to library materials, combine knowledge gained from a variety of resources and media, and find quiet and effective workstations. In addition, faculty and students should be able to learn from the library staff how to obtain materials from all sources. Of course, there also should be spaces for informal reading and discussion.

The Dartmouth College Curriculum

The maintenance and development of the College curriculum will make increased demands on the space in the new Berry Library and on the expertise of the staff in several areas. As information expands and becomes more complex, the role of the librarian will be increasingly important in ensuring that faculty and students from all academic areas can identify, locate, access, and assess the information that they need in various formats, from different periods of time, as quickly as possible. Books and printed journals remain standard sources, but, in addition, government documents, electronic data, maps, newspapers, conference papers, working papers, and technical documents have become increasingly important. It is now possible to gather information within days or weeks of an event ‹ even within hours or minutes ‹ rather than waiting months or years. The new Berry Library must be constructed to allow the librarians to work with the faculty in developing new approaches to course materials and in incorporating such resources into the classroom and independent projects.

In addition, Dartmouth's programs of teaching and scholarship actively encourage and support interdisciplinary approaches as well as traditional subject areas and methods. The growth of such programs reflects the increasing involvement of the faculty in new areas of research and publication. This involvement will necessarily encourage students to attain competence in research and analysis techniques in a dramatically changing intellectual and professional environment. Dartmouth's libraries must be both materially and professionally equipped to serve established disciplines, while at the same time having the ability to follow these new areas of inquiry.

Recent changes in the undergraduate curriculum will further heighten the demand for the advanced and individualized interaction of students with library staff and resources. The new curriculum places emphasis on interdisciplinary courses, world cultures, broad intellectual fields, and includes the requirement of an independent culminating or integrating experience -- a thesis, seminar, or small group project -- for each senior. As a result, there will be a need for librarians to serve a number of new disciplines and to work individually with larger numbers of students -- especially seniors completing independent projects.

Section 2: The Design of the New Berry Library and the Renovated Baker Library

Basic Design Goals

 In the course of discussing the design of the new Berry Library and the renovation of Baker Library, the Task Force felt that certain goals which involve a combination of new physical space, future services, collection development, library organization, and budgetary planning were so important that they should be stated as prime institutional concerns. These goals are as follows:

1. Renovation of Baker Library and planning for the new Berry Library should be coordinated at all points in the planning process. In this report, we describe the functions of the Berry and Baker Libraries which are needed for study and research in the foreseeable future. If there are departments removed from Baker to the new Berry building, then the vacated space should be reconfigured for other uses in order to produce two integrated and functional buildings.

2.The Berry Library should present an appropriate facade; the building should be recognizable as a university library as well as suiting the master plan of the north quadrangle. In addition, the Berry Library, both in external appearance and internal decor, should be of a high quality in its design and materials, sharing in the spirit and complementing the style of Baker Library.

3. The original Baker Library Committee stated: "for the effective accomplishment of the aims of an educational institution, its library must in a very real sense, be both intellectually and physically its center." As a crossroads of the campus, the Berry Library and the renovated Baker Library should be inviting and comfortable in their exterior as well as interior designs, luring those passing through to stop and learn about what is going on within the libraries.

4. Within the new Berry Library or the renovated Baker Library, there should be an instructional facility specializing in the handling of library information in electronic formats. The experience of working with and combining information and data as well as manipulating large amounts of information should become an integral part of a student's training as preparation for the variety of positions after graduation that demand such skills.

5. The design of the Berry Library and the renovation of Baker Library will need to acknowledge the fact that cooperation is expanding between the library staff and the computing services staff. The library and computing services operations at Dartmouth are now interdependent, and this interdependence will increase -- perhaps in unforeseen directions. As reference and cataloguing materials in the United States and around the world continue to be converted to electronic media, the skill of librarians trained in the organization of information will become indispensable to those developing the digital interface. And, as electronic information becomes more widely accessible, the expertise of those who develop and maintain information technology will become essential to librarians. The demonstrated, ongoing cooperation between these two professional worlds at Dartmouth will accelerate as each attempts to meet the demands of the near future. Eventually the present humanities computing area, the Language Resource Center, the social science computing area, and other information technology organizations probably will be involved.
The Task Force believes that a decision must be reached early in the planning for the Berry Library about the future location of the Department of Computing Services. It is possible to locate part or even all of the Department of Computing Services in the Berry Library by increasing the amount of planned new space. Alternatively, there may be a separate new space. The location of the Department of Computing Services in the Berry Library does not necessarily depend on a new organization for information services at Dartmouth. The Task Force has discussed many facets of this decision, e.g., co-locating the computing services and library staffs in order to provide consulting for information technology questions, and shared and collaborative uses of public service spaces equipped for information technology needs, such as classrooms, public clusters, and specialized media rooms. Although the Task Force does not feel that it is within its charge to decide the future location of the Department of Computing Services, we encourage the Provost, together with the Library Task Force and the Information Technology Task Force, to make such a decision.

Major Concepts Guiding the Design

 The Task Force feels that there are several major concepts, derived from the basic design goals, that should guide the architect as the physical space of the new Berry Library and the renovation of Baker Library is planned.

The Central Focus of the Libraries' Design -- It is important that there be a central information facility that links areas and information resources within the Berry and Baker Libraries. This "hub" should be both a starting place for information retrieval as well as a guide to expert help. It should be located in the middle of one or the other of the buildings, preferably on the main floor and immediately accessible from the main entrances. It should facilitate guidance to the many diverse resources that may be physically separated in specialized areas and located on different levels. Immediately upon entering the libraries, all users should be able to learn the location of material relevant to their needs and be pointed in the right direction.
The "Crossroads" Metaphor -- Many descriptions of the physical position or function of the Berry and Baker Libraries have emerged in the course of our meetings; the most common is that of the libraries as a "crossroads." Baker Library sits on a principal east-west path connecting Kiewit Computation Center, Rockefeller Center, Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, Thayer School of Engineering, major dormitory complexes and fraternity row, all on the west side of the campus, with the east -- the science buildings, Dartmouth Row, the athletic facilities, and another dormitory area. In fact, there is more traffic through Baker Library on this east-west path than through the central south door. With the opening of the new north quadrangle housing the computer science, mathematics, and psychology departments as well as the possibility of a new classroom building, traffic will increase on the north-south axis. The passageways within the new Berry Library and the renovated Baker Library will become major campus thoroughfares; as such, they should be planned both to handle a fair amount of traffic and to stimulate interest in and usage of the libraries through displays, access to computers for general information and BlitzMail, informal reading areas, and electronic guides to library facilities.

It is important that the Berry and Baker Libraries contain functions appropriate to this central position. These buildings should not be devoted solely to study but also should recognize the full range of informal activities that inevitably take place at the "crossroads." From the students' point of view, the Dartmouth campus is composed of buildings devoted to one narrow field of human activity: dormitory rooms are often unsuited for serious, concentrated work since the atmosphere can be noisy; the fraternities are largely devoted to social activity; the gyms and fields are for exercise; lecture halls, seminar rooms, and labs are for classes; the Language Resource Center is for solitary study or semi-solitary side-by-side video watching; and the libraries are for solitary study with some classes in a small number of seminar rooms. If a student becomes hungry while studying in the libraries, he/she must don parka and boots to confront the Hanover winter, and take his/her chances on finding the motivation to return.

As a crossroads, the Berry and Baker Libraries should contain spaces that allow users to make a transition from intellectual activity to campus life without leaving the premises and breaking the momentum of a continuing project. There should be informal reading spaces that are outside of the secure stack areas and reference facilities, as well as computers that allow BlitzMail communication. There should also be a "coffee house" within easy reach of the libraries. In addition, there should be facilities that allow small groups to work together without disturbing others and without foregoing the possibility of consulting or checking out library materials easily.

Flexibility in the Future Libraries -- The vision of the resources that should be available in libraries of the future is clouded. It is clear, however, that computer technology will lead research methods rather than the other way around. As a result, the best preparation that libraries can make for combining printed materials with electronic resources is to be flexible and forward thinking.

The position of librarian, especially in those areas that are heavily impacted by developments in technology, already requires knowledge of communications networks, searching tools, databases, and electronic publications. Librarians must continually be surveying available books as well as researching software and electronic information in order to be prepared to incorporate new methods and technologies into the College's ongoing educational mission. As software develops, librarians will have to become proactive in finding those programs that provide significant aid to faculty and student research as well as to classroom learning. In effect, librarians will be partners with the faculty in enhancing the academic possibilities available in the new print and electronic libraries. It may even be true that Dartmouth's single-platform Macintosh culture will become more diverse, thus requiring library staff to have knowledge of several different computer systems. Offices, meeting and consulting spaces, and computer access are necessary for the library staff.

In addition, the Berry and Baker Libraries must be designed to accept new means of accessing knowledge by having flexible walls and means of wiring. As knowledge continues to be available in newer formats, the library staff may be restructured, and the staff offices should permit easy reconfiguration to allow maximum efficiency in the restructured organization. In the future, computing may require the reshaping of study space to accept the demands of new hardware design. Developments in the curriculum may require more cooperative projects necessitating an increase in group study facilities. Flexibility of walls and wiring should be a hallmark of the new Berry Library and the renovated Baker Library.

Electronics throughout the Libraries -- Baker Library has generally sought to mix computers and books, aiding researchers in combining print and electronic information. In general, the Task Force recognizes that information technology will be integrated fully into the libraries of the future. The goal is for both the librarians and users to move comfortably among various information formats; in the future, the culture of print and the culture of electronics will become a single culture.

Yet, there must be new physical spaces dedicated to information technology such as areas for high-end equipment and computing clusters, less powerful computers, and multimedia seminar rooms. The following will be important issues to consider in planning these new spaces.

It is important to plan thoroughly for and to install redundant conduit (including fiber interduct), wiring, network ports, and power to remain open-ended and cost effective for as-yet-unknown technologies. For example, network ports and electrical power should be available at all user work areas, seats, carrels, and desks, for devices such as laptop computers, hand-held scanners, etc. Network connections and electrical power should pervade the "old" Baker building as well as all new Berry spaces, with consideration given to the expense of such work in the old building as well as respect for rooms that have historic value or that must be adapted to uses that are incompatible with fixed wiring designs.

There should be easy access to black and white laser printers and photocopying machines throughout the Berry and Baker Libraries or through a central printing facility, depending on the arrangements and pricing available at the time. Somewhere in the libraries, multidimensional black-and-white and color scanning capabilities, color printing, and color photocopying capabilities for use by patrons, with consulting assistance, should be available.

Instruction/Experimentation in Information Technology -- The new Berry Library should contain an information technology "laboratory" -- an advanced technologies facility bringing together librarians, computer consultants, programmers, teachers, and students to explore and develop new uses for information technology. The emphasis would likely be on support of user-driven projects conducted in an experimental, venturesome spirit but with professional guidance. This space should offer access to the most advanced electronic resources available in the areas of audio instruction, video equipment, and computers. The basic requirements for this area are:

€ a public access room with high-end computing stations
€ video stations permitting use by two or three viewers at a time with earphones (and at least one recording/ editing facility)
€ audio stations with earphones
€ a small recording studio
€ space for consultants and other staff
€ a storage area for videotapes, laser-discs, and CD-ROMs
€ an instructional classroom (25 seats) in which training in the various interfaces and search tools can be offered, films can be shown, and lectures using a mixture of media can be given
Rapid changes in technology throughout the campus will be felt very directly in this area. Consequently it is necessary to plan maximum flexibility for the relocation of equipment and workstations as well as the relatively easy redesign of the walls.

Because investments in the tangible equipment and resources of information technology depreciate, become obsolete, and must be replaced on a regular basis, the Task Force strongly urges the creation of a library endowment fund for maintenance of a high standard of information technology services throughout the library system.

Efficient and Pleasant Work Space for Staff -- Because the Dartmouth College Library is service oriented, it is a major commitment of the Task Force to see that the individual work areas of the library staff be designed to be comfortable and efficient as well as effectively organized with adjacent departments. This space should conform to basic ergonomic standards and requirements in the work place today, should meet aesthetic standards appropriate for such areas, and should facilitate the flow of communication and physical materials among the staff.

Section 3: Space in the Berry and Baker Libraries

Integration of Library Spaces

 Traditional library design separates functions into specific rooms walled off from one another. The 1992 proposal for the Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University describes libraries of the past well:
"Discreteness is a hallmark of the classical library. Discrete physical volumes in discrete classification schemes housed in discrete areas, all examined by the user as discrete items, until the user's intellect is brought to bear on the problem and provides some synthesis of the various elements, a task that the classical library and the tools of the classical library cannot facilitate."
The "discreteness" that isolates the user as a lone agent rediscovering already discovered paths through the library should not characterize Dartmouth's libraries of the future. When library collections, data, and technology are productively combined, the user is enabled to assemble the record of previous research, to find help in analyzing that record, and to reach out for knowledge wherever it is located and in whatever form it is stored and presented. New means of assembling the results of previous scholars and relevant data allow the user to search, manipulate, and combine this record to form a new synthesis, and then to make this synthesis rapidly available to the wider scholarly community.

Well-functioning libraries of the future will unite a variety of talents into a coordinated system in which walled-off areas not only are not needed, but also may inhibit the effective working of the whole. As a result, we suggest an alternative approach to the dividing walls of the past; our intention is to bring the library staff and the users into a more creative relationship. This will expand the talents employed in the search for future knowledge and empower all involved in the enterprise of study and research.

For the foreseeable future, much material will be stored in the stacks in a traditional format, but technology will increasingly permit access to resources that will be available only in a digitized format and deliverable throughout the campus via the network. Users can come to such a library to find traditional materials, consult the staff, and gain access to digitized data; but, equally, they can gain on-line access from many locations throughout the campus. The library staff will be active in guiding users to the appropriate material, on- and off-site, as well as developing skills in managing library materials for themselves. The creative interfaces that are developed by the library staff and the computing services staff should continually stimulate and encourage users to devise new ways of searching and synthesizing material. Integration is the key word for Dartmouth's libraries of the future -- integration of user and staff, integration of materials in a variety of formats, integration of libraries and campus, and, most important for our purposes, integration of complementary library spaces.

Dartmouth's libraries of the future should draw rapidly and easily on the resources of libraries in the United States and other countries. These include information services and collections of knowledge that often are combined "behind the scenes" without the user's awareness of the many resources involved. It is important for the user to be able to move easily between sections of the libraries, between spaces adapted to individual study and group work, between the services of different members of the library staff, and between the various modes of knowledge. As a result, the major divisions of the space within the Berry and Baker Libraries must be carefully allocated to suit the defined functions of each area and to provide easy access to related staff areas.

In such an integrated space, walls should be less prominent, and as few as possible of these spaces should be so firmly bounded that they cannot be redesigned with a minimum of effort. This flexibility will suit the shifting needs of printed and electronic resources as well as the growth and reassignment of the staff in certain areas. At the same time, it will be necessary to ensure the security of collections and equipment in the Berry and Baker building designs.

Spaces to Reflect Increasing Levels of Service
The major new demand on the libraries of the future will be the combining of many different information formats in response to a variety of individual projects; the effective performance of the libraries will require increased skills on the part of both users and librarians.

The new Berry Library and the renovated Baker Library should seek methods of making their information systems as self-explanatory as possible so that professional librarians can productively spend time working with users on more complex problems of designing effective interfaces, assembling materials for class use, analyzing data, and interpreting information. The multimedia teaching facility in the libraries should be designed to provide hands-on training of users with the goal of making each user self-sufficient for basic searches and data manipulation.

There should be two levels of public service recognized by the design of the space:

1. The initial contact should be a user-friendly electronic introduction and guide to the Berry and Baker Libraries available in the entrance halls. Supporting this contact, there should be several all-purpose workstations (on-line resources). The design of the two buildings should permit the electronic guides and primary workstations to be combined as much as possible in one or two entrance areas.

It is important that there be a central information/service area for users to obtain help from staff members as well as from the electronic guide to the library system. A small staff with knowledge of library resources as well as basic technology should be able to offer guidance to appropriate areas of the libraries for aid with individual research projects, assistance with the database and gateway systems, and problems with access. The work of this center should be supported by appropriate signs throughout the libraries identifying areas of specific research needs. This center should be located near or within view of the public services area (see below, section 4).

2. Complementing the services of the central information center should be the reference librarians and subject specialists who conduct specific reference searches, choose and evaluate library resources in all formats, and give instruction in locating and accessing information. These librarians will aid users in sorting through the overwhelming quantities of information available to them on and off campus via the Internet and other servers. At this level, the work of the reference librarians should stress interdepartmental assistance. They will need access to the full resources of the collection, both print and non-print materials, through powerful workstations so that they can aid users in drawing together resources in the full variety of formats.
Space for Study, Learning, and Research

The role of the librarian is to mediate between the users and information of all kinds -- books, electronic data, images, films, audiotapes, etc. -- in order to make users' research efficient and effective. It is important, in fulfilling this goal, to encourage smooth transitions, to adjust to shifting relationships, to create space for quiet study and thought, to encourage the combination of varying formats of information, and to enable cooperative projects. Consequently, these features are important elements in the Berry and Baker Libraries:

Flexibility of Space

 In general, the new Berry building and the redesign of the current Baker Library should stress the creation of large spaces that can be reconfigured by movable walls to meet future needs. Floors should be level throughout larger spaces so that there is no unnecessary built-in inflexibility. In areas heavily dependent on electronic services, spaces for wiring should be designed beneath the floors to permit easy redesign of wiring patterns in case of reorganization. Semi-enclosed office spaces may permit a sense of privacy while they still retain the possibility of changing shape in the future. The same flexibility can be designed into enclosed offices, conference rooms, seminar rooms, and group study rooms.

Of course, certain areas should be tightly structured to accommodate environmental control. These might include conservation areas, work areas where chemicals are used, areas that house special books, or rooms designed for noisier activities. In addition, certain areas will contain security for specialized equipment, art, or furniture, such as the classroom for library instruction, the multimedia seminar rooms, the reserve room containing the Orozco murals, etc.

Certain parts of the collection should permit some storage efficiency. Compact stacks and storage can be used where there is only the need to find a specific item and there is little need for browsing. Examples include the microtext center, areas housing bound journals, or areas containing collections available only through librarians.

Section 4: Configuration of Service Areas

The two basic service areas of the library system, the technical services area (which includes collection services) and the user services area (which includes reference, circulation services, instruction, government documents, maps, media, microtext, current serials, and interlibrary loan/document delivery) are currently housed in cramped and badly configured spaces in Baker Library. We propose that these areas be redesigned.

Collection Services

 Collection services identifies, purchases, and processes library materials in all formats; provides bibliographic access to the collections, including cataloguing, and creation and maintenance of bibliographic databases; develops and maintains the library system's automated systems; and maintains fiscal control for the materials budget.

Specifically, the responsibilities of the department are divided as follows:

1. Acquisitions Services -- Manages the wide range of activities relating to the acquisition of resources in all formats for the Dartmouth College Library, and is responsible for overall management of the resources budget.

2. Bibliographic Control Services -- Organizes and provides access to the Dartmouth College Library collections through the production of catalog records and authority files, and develops bibliographic standards and policy.

3. Bibliographic Records Management Services -- Manages the Dartmouth College Library's bibliographic databases and maintains the quality of records contained in these databases.

4. Preservation Services -- Provides stewardship for the Dartmouth College Library's general collections. This includes binding and repair programs; making recommendations concerning the preventative care, environmental conditions, and security of the general collections; maintaining a preservation training and awareness program for library staff and users; and assisting bibliographers in determining appropriate treatment of materials.

The overall goal of the collection services departments is to provide centrally coordinated bibliographic and conservation services. In the existing Baker Library, these departments are spread over two floors and on one floor further separated by the stack core. This situation hinders staff interaction, the flow of materials, and the ability to adopt efficient, cost-effective work flows. In addition, the existing spaces are inadequate in terms of environment, size, and configuration.

Ideally, the renovated Baker Library should provide contiguous and flexible space for the four collection services departments on a single floor with direct access to the general stacks, circulation, reserves, and the loading dock. Such access could be accomplished through adjacency or immediate access to appropriate elevator service. The mail operation, which is presently housed in preservation services, should be near the loading dock. While immediate adjacency to the user services area is not a requirement, staff interaction has a positive impact on the ability of these departments to provide effective services. Direct and easy access to the collection services departments for all library staff is essential.

More specifically, collection services needs secure, non-public spaces for performing a wide variety of computer-oriented processing and conservation tasks. These spaces must have appropriate environmental controls for people, materials, and equipment. Design of the spaces and their furnishings must be ergonomically sound and capable of housing and moving large amounts of material with ease. Adequate private office and meeting space must be provided for staff.

Library Systems

The library systems department is responsible for developing new information systems, maintaining existing databases, and providing programming support for systems used in library operations. The systems staff provides hardware and software support for desktop computer users throughout all of the libraries. User support is done most often via telephone or electronic mail, but also can require visits to a department within the main library as well as any of the associated libraries.

The library systems department requires private, non-public office space for the director, programmers, and support staff. While specific adjacencies to other library departments are not a requirement, it is essential that the library systems office be conveniently accessible for all library staff.

User Services

User services include reference, circulation services, instruction, government documents, maps, media, microtext, current serials, and interlibrary loan/document delivery. Each of these service areas is vital in providing the appropriate library environment for the Dartmouth College community.

From the users' point of view, the user services desks are the focal point of information services in each library. The central information/service center should provide an initial contact point for assisting and directing users to the appropriate user services area.

In Baker Library, there are eight staffed user services points located on two floors without effective sight lines to allow for communication and clear directions, or to facilitate librarians' work in leading users to a combination of sources to answer questions. This confusing situation must be corrected in the new Berry Library and the renovated Baker Library.

Ideally, the new plan should combine, on one floor, the currently separated resources with as few walls as possible. This arrangement would allow the reference staff (who are both subject specialists as well as generalists routinely working with all subjects and material formats) to deal most efficiently with the way library users approach their work; that is, the tendency of users to move from books to journals to documents, print to microform to electronic formats. Users do not differentiate information by format; they tend to be focused only on the information they need at the moment.

In the user services area, there should be a cluster of networked workstations with a variety of information resources available, from CD-ROMs to the Dartmouth College Information System. Sophisticated specialized systems, such as the Geographic Information System, would likely be located here as well. The user services space should contain:

1. General Reference, Humanities Reference, and Social Sciences Reference Collections -- Located here would be the paper-based reference sources; the electronic reference sources would be available in the adjacent computer cluster described above. Sufficient stack space should be provided to house what is currently in the Baker reference room and to bring back many sources that now are shelved in the general stacks and in the storage library.

2. Government Documents and Maps -- At Dartmouth, work with documents is integrated with general reference work. Ideally, documents and maps would no longer be housed in separate units but would become an integral part of the main floor information center, located adjacent to microtext.

3. Microtext -- This reference area is organized by physical format (microfilm and microfiche), but the content of its materials cuts across all the humanities and social sciences disciplines. Microtext resources are often one of several media explored in any given research effort. These materials (with appropriate storage) and reading/copying equipment should be located adjacent to documents and current serials.

4. Current Serials -- A constant feature in undergraduate use of reference tools is the need for close proximity to the most current information in print. A well appointed room with a variety of seating and enough display shelves to house the current issues of a significant portion of the serials received in Baker Library should be located adjacent to the microtext area.

5. Document Delivery/Interlibrary Loan -- Because of their breadth and historical depth, materials housed in Baker Library and throughout the world's major research libraries often require considerable knowledge and skill to be identified and successfully retrieved. It is important that this office be in close proximity to the reference collection and in a place visible to the users in the reference area. It also should have easy access to circulation services.
This operation utilizes a wide variety of electronic equipment and will need to be appropriately wired and outfitted.

Located around the rim of the user services area should be the following areas:

1. Offices for Librarians and Staff -- These offices should permit a degree of privacy, even as they are easily accessible to the user services points.

2. Conference Rooms -- These rooms should be fully equipped for all types of computer and other media displays and must accommodate groups of five or six people.

3. Stack Entrance -- A single, secure entrance to the stacks will permit access control. The stack entrance, as well as the nearby stack exit, will serve as the bridge between the reference area and circulation services. The circulation desk should be visible and accessible upon entering the Berry or Baker Library. Nevertheless, it should be situated in such a way that it does not become the primary inquiry point, or a substitute for the central information/service center from which it should be visible. The circulation desk must be the control point for exit from the stacks in order to ensure security for the collection. Self-checkout stations should be incorporated into the design. Circulation should control its own storage space for materials on hold or in transit. Related to this, document delivery/interlibrary loan should have convenient access to circulation.

Reserve Reading Rooms

The reserve reading room should remain in its present location in Baker Library both because of the historical quality of the room and its inherent separateness; a reserve room is not dependent upon any other service area or collection for its day to-day operation. The area needs updating, particularly at the service desk, storage areas, and study areas. Workstations for electronic reserves and ports for plugging in laptop computers will be needed. Photocopiers and networked laser printers should be in the room.

An open reserve area should also be established. This would be a reading room with open shelves dedicated to particular courses that have assigned general reading and books for browsing. These books would not circulate, but would be issued separately for a limited time, such as one term. Since there must be a secure entrance to this room, this area may have to be separate from the current reserve reading room.

Conclusion

In offering this outline for the new Berry Library and the renovated Baker Library, the members of the Task Force are aware that we have not dealt with all future eventualities. There remains an ongoing and developing series of grand challenges that will be faced by libraries of the 21st century and must be confronted by Dartmouth. In fact, the physical structure of libraries in the future may remain the only constant, while the materials, staffing requirements, and user needs may change. It is clear that print will continue as a pervasive communication and publishing medium for at least a few decades, but it will be supplemented and often replaced by the rapid growth of information technology (including digital and networked information). The timing of this change is not known, but it will occur. Dartmouth must continually monitor this balance and be ready to respond by reconfiguring space within its library facilities, developing the library staff to address new technologies, redefining the role of the libraries within the structure of the institution, and making the library system's budget responsive to new directions in academic resources.

This full plan for the new Berry and Baker Libraries will require not only a new building but the reassignment and renovation of the space existing in Baker. It is important that this plan represents an integration of the existing Baker Library with the new Berry Library, so that the whole will be greater than the original parts. The libraries of the future for the Dartmouth campus must provide a significant expansion of resources and formats in support of scholarship and research. The very word "library" will acquire new meaning as traditional library materials become increasingly available through remote computers in faculty offices and student rooms; it will become less necessary, for example, for users to come to the building to access important information.

But the Berry and Baker Libraries remain necessary as resource and study areas for students who need materials and equipment that are available only in a physical center, as well as for those who are seeking quiet study areas in which to do their work. Of equal importance is the new role of the library staff as full participants in the educational process; users will come to the libraries to receive instruction on new interfaces and searching possibilities. The libraries will become a significant instructional area that also must provide equipment and space for its trained users to become independent searchers of the available formats.

In the new Berry and Baker Libraries, all inhabitants of the Dartmouth "village" should be able to meet in order to plan, pursue, and complete many of the highly varied tasks of an academic community. These libraries should be, in both design and function, the crossroads of the campus.


Members of the Task Force on the Library of the 21st Century:

Della Bennett, Class of '96
John Chung, Class of '94
Pamela Crossley, Professor of History
George Cybenko, Dorothy and Walter Gramm Professor of Engineering Sciences
Margaret Dyer Chamberlain, Assistant Provost for Development
Alan T. Gaylord, Henry Winkley Professor of Anglo-Saxon and English Language and Literature
Gordon W. Gribble, Professor of Chemistry
Joshua W. Hamilton, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology
John R. James, Director of Collection Development and Bibliographic Control
Phyllis E. Jaynes, Director of Library User Services
Gary D. Johnson, Professor of Earth Sciences
Lawrence M. Levine, Director of Computing
Fillia S. Makedon, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
Nancy P. Marion, Professor of Economics
Victor E. McGee, Professor of Applied Statistics
Margaret A. Otto, Librarian of the College
Ellis L. Rolett, Professor of Medicine
William C. Scott, Dartmouth Professor of Classics, Chair of the Task Force
Anne E. Waters, Graduate Student
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