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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