March, 2018
The planning of the Alderman renovation has entered that phase of a capital project when real budgets begin to be calculated, based on articulated goals, real measurements, and fairly specific construction plans. Costs over time are also calculated, to take into account predicted inflation in construction materials and services. The economy is fairly strong right now, and there are billions of dollars of construction projects in the marketplace, just in Virginia, so predicted inflation rates are high.
In this moment, when things are looking more expensive than originally estimated (years ago now), some compromises will likely need to be made. My goal is not to compromise on the things we can’t change after they are built—so, for example, not to compromise on the carrying capacity of the floors in the new construction. But in the short run, I might need to settle for less compact shelving, or for not finishing the lowest basement level, etc. Shelving can be swapped out, basements can be finished, after the library is built.
The consequence of all this for planning the future Alderman collection is that, just at the moment, I can’t give you an authoritative answer to the question “How many linear feet of shelving will there be in the new Alderman?” Later, I will be able to do that, but right now, that’s one of many things that are subject to negotiation.
So, for those interested in helping to define and curate the browsable Alderman collection, this would be a good time to take up qualitative questions about the various weighting factors that should be used to select that collection. What other programs might define that collection (periodic rotations from storage, for example—but to what end?).
There are also some important near-term questions about what should go into Clemons (beyond items deemed likely to be in high demand), and there’s a long-term question about the identity of the Clemons collections. There are numbers to that suggest we might look at Alderman as the humanities library, and Clemons as the social science library: does the community think that is a good idea? If so, where would we draw the line in call number terms? The Library could use advice on all these matters, right now. On the other hand, the assembly of the future Alderman collection is about seven years out, which gives us time to grapple with shelf space, which will be known in a few months.
While we navigate this inevitable strait, I want to emphasize that the project’s steering committee remains committed to designing and constructing a library building that will serve our needs for the next century, and making a place at this university for the future of print.
John Unsworth
March 30, 2018
Attachment: Linear feet of shelf space analysis: March 2018