Library of the Future

Library of the

Future McDermott begins transformation to more collaborative, comfortable space

By Jeff Holmquist

f you haven’t set foot inside the main entrance of McDermott Library recently, you’d never recognize the place.

The towering book shelves and aging study carrels that once dominated the Terrazzo level of the library are gone, replaced with comfortable study pods and varying seating arrangements to accommodate individuals and cadet study groups.

A series of glass-walled, six-person collaboration rooms — outfitted with whiteboards for cadet use — are situated along the edges of the redesigned space.

Larger media-scape lounges have been installed along the northern part of the third floor, providing space for presentation practice for up to 20 people. Large, wall-mounted television screens allow for quick computer connections within the rooms.

A new, automated snack bar can be found on the eastern portion of the main floor, with cafe seating and plenty of electrical outlets that allow USAFA cadets to plug in their laptops.

As an added bonus, the historic spiral staircase at the rear of the library has been given new life, no longer hidden from sight.

The entire space on the third floor is open, inviting and considerably brighter compared to the previous design. And there’s not a book in sight — other than those being carried by cadets.

“Basically the floor plate is completely open,” explains Duane Boyle, Academy architect and deputy director of Installations for the Air Force Academy. “When you walk in there, you get a really nice feel. It’s not a claustrophobic feel like it used to be.”

Boyle says the renovation project incorporated current trends observed at other university libraries. The Academy’s membership in the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) helped bring some of those library trends to light.

“Libraries all across the country are changing,” Boyle says.

“They’re no longer what they used to be — which was a book depository. Now they serve as the hub of learning and colEric Costello

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Cadet Michael Kearney, Class of 2018, is pictured in the library of the past and future.

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USAFA Cadets Dennis Callaghan (below) and Kevin Perez Ortega (above), both Class of 2020, take advantage of the new study pods.

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A cadet finds a quiet study spot at the end of the traditional book and document stacks inside McDermott Library.

have a good idea on how to proceed with the complete renovation of McDermott, Schaffter notes.

Boyle and Schaffter say the initial upgrade has been well received by cadets, but more feedback will be sought as to the direction of future phases.

“We’ve had nothing but positive comments,” Schaffter says.

“The group study rooms were in use within minutes of unlocking them. They are very popular.”

“I think our direction is spot on,” Boyle comments. “But we can’t make any judgments right now about where we’re ultimately going to go in the future.”

laboration that extends through the campus and into the community.”

The $1.6 million renovation of the third floor of McDermott (totaling about 40,000 square feet) was completed in June. Half of the funding for the project came from USAFA Endowment gift funds, while the remainder came from Civil Engineering.

Apart from all the furniture upgrades, the project included the installation of energy-efficient lighting and improved heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

The recently completed project is the first major work done to the cadet library since the 1981-era addition to the original 1958 facility.

According to David Schaffter, library associate director, the “interim refresh” of the third floor space is only a precursor of things to come.

“It is an experiment in design to see what the students will use and how they will use it,” he explains.

When work begins on the larger, phased “Library of the Future” project — which is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2020 — the Academy, its architect and eventual contractor will 44 · usafa.org

Library Trends Of the 880,000 volumes in McDermott Library’s collection, only 173,000 have been checked out at least once in the last 17 years.

Those unused books take up a lot of space inside the Cadet Library that could be used for other purposes.

According to Library Director Ed Scott, recent research indicates it costs libraries $4.85 per year to store a single book, when you take into account all utility, maintenance and personnel costs.

“That’s a heck of a lot of investment that is not being used,” he comments.

Scott explains the university library industry has shifted from a traditional “just in case” mentality to a new “just in time” approach to serving its patrons.

“Can I think of a reason that you may need this book?” Scott explains the more traditional library thought process. “If the answer to that is yes, then I want to buy it just in case you need it.”

For decades, that mindset led libraries to measure their value by the number of books and printed materials in their overall collection.

Today’s approach, however, is to secure materials quickly and electronically (if possible), but only based on the specific needs of the library user.

“It’s demand-driven acquisition,” Schaffter explains, “helping the customer to navigate an increasingly complex information environment, and not necessarily creating that extremely complex information environment with a labyrinth of books.”

“That’s not to say that we will not continue to get things in print, because we will,” Scott adds. “There are still a lot of things out there that are only available in print. But, on the other

hand, I do not have to buy it and store it just in case you need it, because there may be a more efficient way to get it.”

Some universities — such as Georgia Institute of Technology — are storing away all or most of their books in an effort to address the current information and collaboration demands of students. Other academic libraries, such as the McDermott Library, are taking a more modest approach to transformation and collection reduction.

“We’re bringing our collection space allocation down from 66 percent to 30 percent, and effectively transforming it into userdirected space or user-utilized space,” Schaffter says.

Decisions, Decisions McDermott officials are debating how to safely and efficiently whittle down the number of books the Cadet Library keeps on hand, Schaffter reports. The library will be working with Academy instructors to make sure books required for classes and other well-used materials remain within the walls of the facility.

The Cadet Library has already disposed of 80,000 bound volumes of journals, which are all available online today.

“We gave up a lot of stuff but not access to content,” Schaffter assures.

Library officials expect another 400,000 monographic volumes — many of which can be found online — to meet a similar fate in the coming months. The library staff eventually will conduct a time-consuming, title-by-title review of remaining books to reduce the collection further.

To help ease the decision-making process about which books should stay and which ones should go, library officials are hoping to join the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL) to better partner with academic libraries throughout the state. If the Academy library joins CARL, cadets will be able to access books and other printed materials throughout the network, allowing McDermott to keep its permanent collection at a more reasonable number.

“If there are 10 copies of a book in the state, maybe we don’t need to keep that one,” Schaffter says. “But if it’s unique in the state … we’ll probably keep it.”

The Academy also will coordinate with the Military Education Coordinating Council’s Librarian’s Working Group to make sure it keeps books that are unique within the military academic library network.

“We’ll make sure we’re not doing anything irresponsible with our collection,” Schaffter says. “We have a responsibility to the scholarly record to retain as much as we can for the future.”

In addition, the Academy is negotiating with PASCAL (the Preservation and Access Service Center for Colorado Academic Libraries) in Denver to determine if some of the Academy’s collection can be stored there. If an agreement can be reached, books or other printed material stored at PASCAL could still be requested by a cadet. The storage facility would locate and deliver the item to the Academy within a day.

“It’s demand-driven acquisition ... helping the customer to navigate an increasingly complex information environment, and not necessarily creating that extremely complex information environment with a labyrinth of books.”

Future Plans As McDermott moves toward full implementation of the “Library of the Future” plan, the Academy will be securing federal funds to tackle much of the estimated $78 million project.

The USAFA Endowment will likely be involved with fundraising from graduates and friends for the “margin of excellence” amenities that the government won’t pay for — i.e. furniture, technological upgrades, collaboration spaces, says Schaffter. The Friends of the Air Force Academy Library organization also will be involved in the planning and executing of the overall renovation.

The most recent “Library of the Future” plan developed for the McDermott Library was completed in early 2016.

The Academy has been working with Shepley Bulfinch of Boston (a nationally recognized library consultant) on the overall library transformation.

The preliminary plans call for special collections to move from the sixth floor to the fifth floor (part of which was recently renovated for CyberWorx but will revert back to the library once that cyber program builds a new, freestanding facility). Actual books for cadet use will be moved to the sixth floor.

The Academics Success Center and tutoring program will move from first floor to fourth floor, according to current plans, and some library offices will move to first floor.

“The Library of the Future plan will not in fact increase the amount of space assigned to the library,” Scott reports.

“But how we use that space will be significantly re-assigned and re-designed.”

When the “Library of the Future” is fully operational, the collaboration hub on the third floor is expected to be available to cadets 24/7.

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Plans call for the front entrance — which is often locked up during high winds — to be moved to the sides of the structure and shielded from Colorado’s unpredictable weather.

In addition, plans call for the automated snack bar to be replaced by a full-service coffee shop. “Cadets want to be able to go to the library and not be in a stuffy environment,” Boyle explains. “They want to actually enjoy their time there.”

Schaffter notes that all future renovation phases will emphasize functionality and flexibility.

“Libraries are changing too rapidly,” he says. “Working with the architects, we will tell them there should be nothing too custom. It will need to be adaptable.”

The newest iteration of the Academy’s “Library of the Future” is considerably different than the original proposal developed in 2011. At that time, the project was estimated to cost $154 million and included a new underground book storage facility (with a capacity of two million books) under the Terrazzo.

The expensive storage facility is no longer needed, Scott says, because so much material is now available electronically that the number of actual books can be safely reduced.

“The accessibility of information electronically has just skyrocketed in five years,” he says, “and I see no reason why that won’t happen again in the next five years.”

A Sneak Peek The finishing touches to the third floor project were completed in early June, as the final pieces of furniture were moved into place. A grand opening celebration for the recent renovation project will be scheduled sometime before Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson ’81 retires.

Scott, who plans to retire at the end of June after 22 years leading McDermott Library, says witnessing the beginning stages of the “Library of the Future” is a great way to wrap up his career.

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“When I started off in libraries 51 years ago, people would come to the desk and say they needed this journal. We would tell them we could get it for them in two weeks,” he laughs.

“They didn’t blink … that was fine.”

Today, cadets expect almost instantaneous access to the same information.

“Things have changed vastly, to be sure,” Scott says. “Now it’s all about how you are meeting your students’ needs.”

Boyle agrees, noting that prospective cadets and their parents often check out the library facilities to see how USAFA compares to other universities and colleges. “Our desire is to bring our library up to a standard that is commensurate with what other universities are doing, both from a functional standpoint and an image standpoint,” Boyle says.

“Today’s students are a different student than they were in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s or 1980s,” he continues. “Their study requirements are diverse. Individual study will always be important, as is the ability to collaborate. We need to provide the facilities where they can do that. We were not providing the cadets the kind of space they needed to fully enable their success. With this library renovation, we’re trying to provide them with the tools … to be able to do what they need to do in today’s world.”

From talking with earlier USAFA graduates, Boyle found out that working in groups was often frowned upon.

“Because that meant, in a way, that you were cheating,” he says. “You weren’t getting through on your own.”

Today, working together helps prepare cadets to become better Air Force team members after they graduate.

“It is obvious that critical and creative thinking, along with strong collaborative abilities, are key to today’s higher education environment and we plan to fully embrace these concepts as we plan for future academic renovations and new facilities,” Boyle says.