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What it’s missing is more books.
The College Library, housed in Helen C. White Hall, holds about 30,000 fewer volumes than it did five years ago.
But unlike some libraries that have emptied in the digital era, this undergraduate library is thriving with about 1.2 million visitors a year, said Ken Frazier, UW-Madison director of libraries.
“This isn’t about going into the coffee shop business and abandoning the library,” Frazier said. “There are people who really lament this change. But if we hadn’t done it, we would have lost the users, the students.”
UW-Madison is adapting to students whose study and research habits are vastly different than they were a generation ago by changing the concept of a library.
College Library has long been considered a social space on campus, and librarians appear to be encouraging fraternization.
Meanwhile, there are only about 100 paper journals and magazines left in the library, where previously there were a thousand. Most of them are less academic and more focused on popular culture or current events, such as Bicycling or Time. Scholarly journals are still available, but they’re housed at the more traditional Memorial Library or in digital form.
The main book collection has not gotten smaller at College Library, and book circulation remains about the same as it was five years ago.
With the changes came more room for study and gathering spaces. The school has added 15 to 20 percent more seats in the past two years.
It also added about 500 new electric outlets for laptops and other devices, although students complain it’s still not enough, said Dave Luke, acting associate director for technology.
For those who don’t want to work amid the chatter, there are designated quiet study rooms.
Memorial Library remains a full-fledged research library, retaining all its books and offering carrels for students looking to study in cloistered silence.
But with more books and journals available digitally, some librarians mourn the loss of browsing, which can lead to finding a new or unexpected book on the shelves.
But Frazier and his staff realize it is the price they must pay to keep libraries a vibrant, relevant space on campus.
“Some people think it doesn’t look like a library unless it’s got spines,” Frazier said. “I think it looks like a modern library.”
