Voices filled a space normally reserved for quiet on the School of Medicine campus yesterday, as the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library unveiled its newly renovated library facilities with a celebration to christen the space.
The renovation, which took approximately 10 months to complete, features a series of rooms and spaces meant to foster learning and innovation including a 125-seat classroom, eight 16-seat classrooms, four meeting rooms, 24 workstations, and lounge seating.
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Many of the print volumes were moved to the University’s Library Shelving Facility in Hamden, where library users still have access to them, says John Gallagher, director of the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.
He adds that since 2004, the library has transitioned from actively receiving approximately 2,600 print journals to offering access to more than 30,000 electronic biomedical journals, reducing the need for stack space to house physical volumes. “We quickly realized the convenience of electronic was going to replace the demand for print journals,” he says.
Source: Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library
Instead of volumes, the library hopes that its new teaching space will attract students and faculty alike to engage in new ways of learning. “Libraries are community spaces first,” Gallagher says. “So, we wanted to do something that would bring people into the library.”
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
