Kristine Brancolini, 1/04/07
Title:
Building the Library of Tomorrow
Header:
Kristine Brancolini, dean of university libraries, knows that building a first-rate library involves more than simply putting together a vast collection of information resources.
Feature:
When Kristine Brancolini began her job as dean of university libraries in July 2006, she came to an institution with a major library of almost 400,000 volumes and extensive archives and special collections.
But she also came to an institution in the midst of planning for the construction of the new William H. Hannon Library, a facility that will feature state-of-the-art technology, a coffee shop for informal meeting and study, and areas tailored to faculty needs.
“I cannot wait for the opportunity to showcase our collections, services and expert staff in the new library,” Brancolini says. “The richness already exists in the Charles Von der Ahe Library, and I plan to spend the next three years improving the services and collections we already offer.”
Prior to coming to LMU, Brancolini was the director of the Digital Library Program at Indiana University-Bloomington. She has worked as a librarian for more than three decades, and has written about video and multimedia collections as well as digital library education and development.
“What I like about being a librarian is the involvement in the pursuit of knowledge,” she says. “I like the collection-building process, and I like thinking about creating resources that will be used by people in the future. It’s a really fun job.”
But Brancolini understands that building a first-rate library involves much more than simply putting together a vast collection of information resources.
“As we plan and build the new library, we are mindful that students come to libraries for a variety of reasons, not just information,” she says. “They come because they have positive associations with libraries and with the spaces within them. They like the comfort, and they like the human contact. They like the fact that when they’re looking for information and they reach a dead end, there is someone there to help.”
While the completion of the new library is still a few years away, students and faculty will soon see part of Brancolini’s vision for a library of the future when a newly designed Charles Von der Ahe Library website is launched on January 16. As head of its planning committee, Brancolini wanted to ensure the new site was modern, inviting and easy to use, and accurately represents the excellent resources the library has available.
“I think students and faculty will find that the new site is much more user-friendly,” she says. “We’ve spent several months revising designs, re-organizing content, researching other great library sites, and asking users what they’d like to see in a library website. The result, I think, is a site users will want to visit more often.
“Once the site is up, we’ll continue to make adjustments and improvements to reflect our ever-growing library and to accommodate the needs of students, faculty and researchers.”