'Columbia University Libraries/Information Services'
Doi
Abstract
The evolution of library space utilization at Columbia University over the past decade is characterized as a realignment of library space with changing educational and research missions through the purposeful reallocation of space from collections storage and processing to emerging, strategically important priorities. This evolution is discussed as a series of strategic trade-offs – trading places for diverse purposes, with various partners, but always toward the end of active, meaningful engagement with the research and teaching activities of faculty and students. Whether it is the conversion of collections space to increase and improve student workspace, to build needed classrooms or laboratories for faculty, to incentivize and support important new service partnerships, or even to leverage financial resources to further other organizational priorities, an intentional, flexible approach to library space planning is essential to the ongoing vitality of research library organizations and the services provided to the scholarly communities they support
