A new Science and Engineering Library was built by Columbia University to support chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy and psychology. It opened on January 18, 2010 and was announced in a New York Times story. The new building is called the Northwest Corner Building. The building is very impressive looking though at first I did not realize that the library was only a part of the new building. The picture on the left was taken by Robert Caplin for the New York Times.
Science & Engineering Library
401 Northwest Corner Building
550 West 120th Street
New York, NY 10027
Ouroussoff, N. (2011, February 8). A building forms a bridge between a university's past and future. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
New research in the sciences increasingly involve interdisciplinary collaboration. By combining study of chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy and psychology in close proximity; faculty, students and researchers have greater access to these other disciplines. The library is included in this mix to support and provide the study and collaboration space to support the users.
ReplyDeleteIntegration is always a debate. Having our own building adds an identity to the library, and usually means more space and more room for growth. The loss of foot traffic by passer-bys however is a huge loss. The Library Director at our main campus is in a big, beautiful new library but laments their previous location which was in the thick of it, surrounded by classrooms and a computer lab. Not sure if her gate counts have plateaued or gone down, but they definitely lost out a little.
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