ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Marist College opens new library

— John W. McGinty, library director, Marist College, e-mail:JohnMcOinty@marist.edu

Marist College, located in Poughkeepsie, New York, opened the new James A, Cannavino Library designed by Perry, Dean Rogers and Partners of Boston, Massachusetts, this January. The 83,000 sq. ft., granite and sandstone structure is dramatically situated on the crest of the main quad area of the campus, overlooking the Hudson River. The $19.6 million project took 16 months to complete, and was the recipient of a $3 million gift from James A. Cannavino, CEO of CyberSafe in Issaquah, Washington, and a $500,000 matching grant from the Kresge Foundation.

The library links the academic and residential sectors of the campus with entrances on the eastside and the westside of the building, allowing easy access from either side of the campus as students move to and from classes or their dorm rooms. The ample study spaces in the three story edifice enable 725 students to work individually or in small groups at soft seating, single or double carrels, study tables, or 18 small study rooms.

Digital functionality defines the central concept of the building, as it attempts to be a dynamic transitional space in the history of collection development, as collections rapidly evolve from paper to digital form. Although the building has the capacity for 235,000 volumes, we are already experiencing a rapid decrease in the need for maintaining and shelving paper materials. The library displays only 370 current paper periodical titles, while giving access to over 5,900 digital full-text periodical titles through the campus network.

The building encompasses all the principal features necessary for creating and sustaining a digital library. A robust network (3 LAN rooms) capable of transmitting large video files to 24 simultaneous users supports an array of servers (2 server rooms), collaborative digital work rooms (10) for producing and capturing content, 205 patron accessible workstations, 5 classrooms fully computerized for teaching and learning, and nearly 400 network jacks for student laptops. Thus the technology environment can be considered a physical digital library.

The library staff can use one of three different rooms for information literacy instruction, depending on the size of the class and the format of the materials covered.

Photo Credit: Victor VanCarpels