Changes to the building!

Network speed

Many of you have noticed very slow response times on your computers.  Much of this slowness is due to the 20 year old wiring in the building.  Over the next couple of weeks you will see workers running new cabling through the ceilings and into your work areas.  This should solve many of your response time problems.  The main library is funding this wiring upgrade.  Many thanks to them for helping us to work more efficiently!

New Study Rooms

As part of the 4th floor project, and financed by the Senior Vice President’s office, we will be adding eleven new rooms to the 3rd floor in place of the eight we are losing on the 4th.  Nine of these rooms will be individual rooms; about 5 feet by 8 feet, and two of the rooms will be similar to our current rooms, 8 feet by 10 feet.  They will be built on the west wall of the 3rd floor, “under” the current rooms.

Whiteboards

We are exploring what it would take to mount some of the whiteboards in the group study rooms on the second floor.  Some of them will be retained as is for use as needed.  The smaller whiteboards currently in the rooms may be moved to the new individual study rooms that will be built on the 3rd floor.

Public computers

We are beginning to explore options for redesigning the public computing area.  We will most likely be removing the old grey carrels and replacing them with two rows of tables.  I will share pictures and layouts as we move along.

Kudos to Brooke and Yamila!

Congratulations to Brooke

Brooke has been accepted as a participant in the 2015 Arizona State Library Leadership Institute.  Acceptance was highly competitive and required an extensive application and letters of reference.  Nationally known organizational development consultant, Maureen Sullivan, will facilitate this immersive 4-day leadership institute. Maureen has more than 25 years of experience in leadership development and is Past President of the American Library Association. She helped establish the ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute and is a faculty member for its annual program.

Recognition for Yamila

Yamila has been selected as a team member in The National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health (NLAPH). She and her other team members (Montserrat Caballero, Pima County Health Department; Jennifer Peters, UA College of Public Health; Annemarie Medina, YMCA) are part of a cohort of 12 teams who will be working to improve specific, measurable, and place-based public health problems, while developing their leadership skills. The Center for Health Leadership and Practice worked with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the selection of teams.

Furniture!

Office desk is finished!

Stop by to see the new reception desk in the office.  With the installation of the counters this morning Linda’s desk is now finished and it looks great!

4th floor project

This project is consuming a lot of time right now and probably will for the next several months.  As you’ve read in the update on Wednesday, we are taking several actions to preserve as much study seating as possible.  Over the break we’ll be making some changes to the old media listening rooms (see below) and staff from the main library will be coming over to move most of the study tables from the 4th floor down onto the 3rd and 2nd floors.

“Media listening rooms”

Over the break the built-in desks will be removed from the old media listening rooms.  These rooms have been used as group studies for many years and this should help to make them more useful for larger groups.

Javad, 4th floor

Javad is home!

Dave learned this morning that Javad has been released from the hospital.  We will keep you informed as we follow his progress!

4th floor project

Here is the text of an email that will go out to the AHSC students this week and again after the break.  A similar message will go out as an AHSC memo after the break.  We will host a session for students to express their concerns and to hear about our plans.

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AHSC Offices to Move into 4th Floor of Library

Effective December 19th, the 4th floor of the library will close and offices for the Arizona Health Sciences Center will be built in the space.  According to Facilities Management, construction will begin in early 2015 with completion of the offices expected in April.  The 4th floor has primarily been used as study space for AHSC students and includes 8 group study rooms and a large silent study room.

The director of the Arizona Health Sciences Library, Gary Freiburger, stated that his main concern is reducing the impact this change has on AHSC students and their ability to study in the library. Working with the Library Advisory Council, library staff and Facilities Management, he has quickly identified several short and long-term strategies to create additional study space on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the library.

As part of the construction project, eleven study rooms--9 individual and 2 group study rooms--will be built on the 3rd floor to replace the rooms on the 4th floor.  Current study space will be reconfigured to accommodate furniture from the 4th floor to be distributed throughout the 2nd and 3rd floors.  Some library staff will be relocated and office space converted to study rooms. Longer term strategies include reducing the print collection to free up additional study space.  Where possible print journals will be replaced with electronic holdings and lesser used materials identified and moved into off-site storage. 

AHSL is committed to making the library a great place for serious study. Your ideas and suggestions are important.  Join us on January 16th at a time to be announced in Room 2150M in the library so we can share our ideas and listen to yours. You can also use the contact form at: http://ahsl.arizona.edu/contact and choose "Give us feedback" from the dropdown menu.

Space, Space, Space

Student services in the library

The Graduate and Professional Student Council offers counseling to students regarding professional development, job hunting, etc.  They are looking for a space where they can meet with AHSC students.  We are currently talking with them about their specific needs but anticipate that they will use a group study room one or two half-days a week.

4th floor

Thanks to Dean Williams we have come to an agreement with the Dr. Garcia regarding library space.  The Vice President’s office will be taking responsibility for the entire 4th floor, including the silent study space.  In return the library will not face the loss of other space in the library, will get new group and individual study spaces built on the third floor and will have some voice in the planning of the HEAT building.  We believe that the opportunities for us in the HEAT building are tremendous and look forward to involvement with this planning.

Work on the 4th floor may begin any day in the form of architects, engineers and space planners doing measurements.  We have asked that they remember that students are studying for exams on that floor through Friday, December 19th.  We should be able to keep access to the eight group study rooms open for a while longer.  However, the floor will probably be closed to all early in January as work progresses.  The ambitious timeline for completion is April 2015.

The Administrative Team, Dean Williams and others will be meeting soon to discuss issues, ramifications and solutions.  We will keep you informed!

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers . . .

Each year we submit statistics to both the Association of Research Libraries and to the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries.  When added to the counts from other libraries these statistics allow us to see how we compare to other libraries, to see trends and to learn about new services being offered by others.  Every year Jeanette, with help from many of you, compiles all of these statistics.  She is close to finishing this year and I want to thank her and those who contribute statistics for the huge amount of work involved in gathering, collating and reporting these numbers.

Campus Building Plans

There are plans for a Medical Research Building (MRB) 2.  The building will sit between Cherry Ave and the two existing research buildings – MRB and Bio5.  It will create a “horseshoe” shape with those buildings and will go up on top of the long, thin parking lot that currently occupies the space.  Ground is scheduled to be broken sometime between March and May 2015.

The “HEAT” (Health Education and Advanced Technology) building planning was stalled but may now move ahead.  It is still probably 3-5 years in the future but may include a move of the library into that space.  Current thinking is that the new building will occupy a portion of the parking lot across the traffic circle from the current AHSL.