Publication Date

Summer 2005

Abstract

Message from Jay:

The "Library as Place" might be a good subtitle for this issue of the Friends of the Library Newsletter. The UMass Amherst Libraries are an important center on campus, not only for accessing the resources and services traditionally offered to students and faculty, but also as a welcoming place for collaborative study, campus support services, and socialization. The renovation of the Integrated Sciences and Engineering Library was our first experience with this at the UMass Amherst Libraries. The new facility offers comfortable seating, wireless internet access, and areas where students can work together in a collaborative environment. The success of this project has inspired a transformation of physical space in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. Procrastination Station, the new café in the lobby of Du Bois Library, is an immediately visible statement of this new philosophy for our facilities. In contrast to this very busy social space, we have created a quiet study area on the second floor. The new Learning Commons on the Garden Level is an exciting project sponsored by the Provost that will support students in their learning and in their campus life. We also have great aspirations for a new media viewing area, an expanded Special Collections and University Archives, and some extraordinary event space onthe 26th floor. To make this transformation of our current facilities posssible, we are depending on the support of the Friends of the Library. Your philanthropy will allow the UMass Amherst Libraries to create the new spaces so richly deserved by our students. I look forward to working with youand other Friends as we move ahead with these exciting new plans.

Jay Schafer

Director of Libraries

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