For the Love of Books
Chicago finds a high-tech solution to keep library materials accessible on campus.
In autumn 2010, a bright new glass-domed structure—now under construction next to the Regenstein Library—will open its doors to a brave new world of automated library book retrieval and digital preservation.
More importantly, the opening of the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, designed by renowned architect Helmut Jahn, will make it possible for countless scholars to touch, peruse, and spend fruitful time with texts that might otherwise have been hauled away to off-campus storage. The new facility is made possible by a $25 million gift from Joe Mansueto, AB’78, MBA’80, chairman and CEO of Morningstar, Inc., and Rika Mansueto, AB’91.
Students Helped Shape the Project
Graduate students following the plans for the new library are grateful and excited about both the symbolism of the project—a dedication to books—and its purpose at a time when other universities are thinning out their shelves.
“We’re spoiled,” says Fran Spaltro, who is finishing her Classics dissertation on dance and cognition in Plato. “This is one of the best libraries in the country. When I visit libraries elsewhere, I feel like I’m in a desert.”
She was among the graduate students who requested input into the plans for the new library. As a result, the Library Student Resource Group formed as a vehicle for expressing student needs and concerns about all kinds of library issues.
“One of the greatest things about browsing is that you tend to find something crucial right next to the item you were looking for,” says Spaltro.
“Regenstein is one of the few physically browsable libraries left, and we wanted it to remain that way. We wanted to be sure that periodicals and books stored in the new facility would be the ones least often browsed.”
Creative Storage and Preservation
The Mansueto Library will use state-of-the-art conservation and retrieval systems, with a digital technology laboratory to preserve manuscripts and other rare materials. Students recommended to bibliographers what kinds of materials should go into the new retrieval system and what kinds should remain in the regular stacks.
“I’m really pleased with the creativity of the new storage system and with the commitment to keep our libraries browsable. This is so important to research, not just for students but for all the faculty and visiting scholars who come precisely for the unique research resources available here,” Spaltro says.
An Aesthetic Appreciation for Books
Larisa Reznik, a theology graduate student in the Divinity School, expects to make use of the Mansueto Library’s digitally operated high-density shelving system and retrieval robots to access older manuscripts.
“As someone who spends ridiculous amounts of time in the library, I find it aesthetically exciting that we will have a place to read that is also architecturally interesting,” she says.
Reznik believes it’s important to keep rare or less-frequently-used manuscripts visible for scholars who might “discover” their usefulness in the course of doing their research. That kind of availability tends to expand research sources for many scholars, she says.
“It’s important for students to retain some sort of connection with the materiality of the text,” says Reznik. “It’s nice to have manuscripts available online, but I appreciate that digitization is complemented by the availability of physical texts at the University of Chicago: that communal quality of reading, of having texts in common is preserved. Although digitization is very useful and important, particularly for scholars who travel frequently, digitization shouldn’t be driven by the desire to sidestep having to negotiate sharing communal resources. Making space and priority for retaining analog materials, I hope, provides a visual reminder of the communal character of research.”
