Ian R. M. Mowat, Librarian to the University
Although Edinburgh University Library has a glorious past, its sights are set very much on an even more impressive future. A priority for the start of the new millennium is the proposed new Science and Engineering Library Learning and Information Centre (SELLIC). The architects of the prize-winning competition, Webster, Forrest, Reiach and Hall, have been working with a University team over the past six months to bring the initial design up to the tender stage and final decisions are expected in the autumn on phase 1 of the building. The campaign for phase 2 will start immediately thereafter and around $10,000,000 will be required. All contributions are welcome!
SELLIC will not only bring together the small and scattered departmental libraries on the King's Buildings Campus. It will also act as the flagship for new directions in the new century. Instead of (or, more accurately, in addition to) the traditional images of the academic library - quiet, introverted places for the individual study of books and journals - the new building will attempt both in design and function to be extrovert and lively. As University learning becomes more individualistic (with group lectures being replaced by personally experienced videotaped equivalents), the role of the Library as a place where groups of students will get together in specially designed areas to work on communal projects will become an ever more important part of the learning and social experience of University life.
All seats in SELLIC will be wired up to the campus network and increasing quantities of information will be delivered electronically. Where, in the past, librarians waited to be asked for assistance, it is hoped to develop a "demonstrator paradigm", with librarians circulating round the building providing on-the-spot assistance to students using new technology. A coffee lounge will be provided right in the heart of the building to encourage a social environment (and discourage students from eating, drinking and talking too loudly in those parts of the library intended for more traditional quiet study). In addition, the Library will act as the home of the SELLIC Online team who will be engaged in developing links to electronic courseware and providing a common interface across the campus network.
The new building is at the heart of the Science campus and is intended to act as a visual hub of that part of the University. The architects have already built into the initial design imaginative plans for a Media Wall, which will serve not only as an artistic feature, visible from the entrance to the site, but also as a means of communicating information - opening hours, number of seats available, and so on. The architects are also bidding for a Royal Society of Arts grant to involve an artist in the final design concept. Rather than treating art as an add-on, it will be an integral part of the overall plan.
Number of visits
since 4 Mar 99
Last updated on
4 Mar 99