Library staff are getting ready to relocate and shift collections in the H-L basement in preparation for this summer’s construction of the new Telepresence Classroom. The classroom will be located in the Media Commons, enhancing and extending the functionality of this active and collaborative space. Funded through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and equipped with flexible seating, multiple HD flat-panel monitors and a touch-screen, interactive panel, the Telepresence room will support courses in a variety of disciplines and a host of multimedia applications.
To accommodate the classroom, the government documents currently shelved in the Hubbard corridor will be relocated to the north side of the basement, where a portion of that collection is already housed. Selected bound journal volumes will be moved temporarily to the Colby College storage facility and the remaining volumes will be compacted to make room for relocated documents. Librarian liaisons have worked closely with faculty over the past months to identify those journals to relocate. Selection criteria included titles that are 1) wholly or partly available in electronic form in one of the Library’s subscription databases, 2) primarily text-based, or 3) tangential to the curriculum. The journal volumes will be moved back to Bowdoin in the next several years, once the planned Library annex, slated for construction adjacent to campus, is completed.
Collection moves will begin on May 23. Those volumes relocating to Colby will be unavailable until June 6, after which time they will be requestable via CBBcat. In the meantime, individual articles may be requested using the Library’s ILL form. The Library is happy to return specific journal runs to H-L if needed for teaching or research. For questions about the collection moves or the status of a particular journal title, contact Joan Campbell, Collections Librarian.
This summer’s construction will necessitate the temporary closing of the Media Commons for several weeks. Staff will retrieve materials and work with students and faculty to provide access to media equipment as needed. Please contact Carmen Greenlee, Humanities and Media Librarian, for assistance.