ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090038
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
Like many other 40-year-olds, Virginia Tech's Carol M. Newman Library is adjusting old equipment to meet new demands.
Conceived and constructed in old-fashioned card catalog days, the facility is undergoing a radical internal makeover, as the electronic information revolution creates 21st-century expectations and opportunities.
Today there will be a birthday party for Newman Library, an event staged by the Friends of the University Libraries, to commemorate the original building's 1956 dedication.
It will be an occasion of celebration and reflection. At the time it was built, Newman Library replaced a converted chapel building that was dubbed the "temple of termites." Twenty-five years later, the overcrowded "new" building was replaced by an expansion that doubled its size and capacity.
In recent years, growing pains have involved reorienting the facility and its staff to serve computers and many new, external customers. Newman Library is also mature enough now to have spawned offspring of its own - such as VTLS Inc., the library computer cataloging system - and seen them depart the nest for their own independent lives.
Traditional library resources remain a primary focus. "The book is not going to go away," said Eileen Hitchingham, Tech's dean of University Libraries.
Lately, however, there's been what she calls "a shift in balance" regarding the old and new ways to gather, store and convey information. This quiet yet dynamic change has repositioned the library's staff, its limited financial resources and its physical space.
The goal, Hitchingham said, is to make the library "more in tune with what our users are asking."
For example, three years ago the library didn't have a New Media Center. Now it's one of the busiest places on campus, if all the activity on one morning late in Tech's spring semester is indicative.
The room on the library's second floor is filled with computers and students intently pursuing sophisticated class assignments, such as setting up their own Internet home pages or creating their own programs on CD-ROM .
Initially, the New Media Center provided Tech faculty members with computer training, said Director Ed Schwartz. Now it's diversified its mission to training students, members of the public and local organizations, also.
"Technology just keeps on moving forward," Schwartz said. "It's pretty incredible. None of this was available four years ago."
Around the corner on Newman Library's second floor, computers also have assumed a much wider role in the reference department. "Now, more and more, people are asking, 'What database do I use?'" said Ann Keys, a reference assistant.
Instead of thumbing through thick tomes or picking the reference librarian's brain, users conduct key word or subject searches in any of the various electronic services that cover current events, business, the arts, science or law.
Internally, the library's holdings are accessed by VTLS, the innovative computer system Tech developed a decade ago to replace card catalogues. When first designed, VTLS was housed inside the library. Now, it's a multimillion dollar business used by libraries across the nation and overseas.
External customers benefit from two new programs housed inside Newman Library.
The Virginia Technical Information Center conducts research for business, industry or governments on a variety of topics, presently serving 450 clients in the United States, Australia and Western Europe. And the Scholarly Communications Project makes scholarly journals and student theses or dissertations more readily accessible by publishing them on the Internet.
Newman Library's Special Collections department focuses on innovative ways to perpetuate venerable items. Gail McMillan, head of special collections, said the department is looking into digitizing the thousands of photographs and negatives in the Norfolk and Western Railway archives stored there. Again, the idea is to make library resources more accessible.
Special collections is the university's attic, even though the department is located on the ground floor. Within it are eclectic treasure troves such as the NW Archives, the 5,000-volume E.E. "Josh" Billings collection of Civil War books, papers of the American author Sherwood Anderson, an extensive science fiction collection of books and magazines, a book published in the 15th century, an original painting by N.C. Wyeth, the International Archive of Women in Architecture and many old photographs of Virginia Tech and Blacksburg.
All of these facets of the library's diverse mission compete for space and money. It's been challenging to adapt the library's physical layout to new uses, Hitchingham said.
There's no talk of another expansion, except for a skybridge reading room linking Newman Library to a new building across the Mall in Tech's master plan.
As state funding for university programs has declined in recent years, Friends of the University Libraries was formed in 1994. With about 400 members, the group advocates the library by encouraging use of the facility and philanthropic support of its programs, said Margaret Shuler, head of the organization.
Hitchingham said Newman Library's adjustments for a new century benefit from the university's forward-looking spirit. "They're willing to explore a different way of looking at things. If you move forward, you've got to think forward."
The 40th anniversary of Newman Library's dedication will be observed at 10 a.m. today in the library's lobby, and is open to the public. A reception will follow on the Alumni Hall lawn.
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Lora Gordon. 1. With Albert Einstein watching over,by CNBForsetry graduate student Rob Farell (above) conducts a literature
review and search for articles using the Agricola system at Newman
Library at Virginia Tech. Agricola uses CD-ROM disks with listings
of a wide range of articles and information related to agriculture
and other related sciences. 2. Kirk Dolson (left) and other students
work on multimedia projects for class in the new media resource room
at the library. The terminals in this lab are named for cities in
North America in an effort to make keeping track of computer
addressing. color. 3. Sue Fritz (left) and Mary Beth Welsh move
rolls of microfilm into a new location in the microforms department
at Virginia Tech.