ENTER THE GATEWAY TO IDEAS
With the start of the fall term, USC's long-awaited
high-tech teaching library opens its doors.
When one of the leaders of the design team of UC Berkeley's
new library called on university librarian Peter Lyman several
months ago, he declared unequivocally that USC had "the new
template of the library."
It wasn't mere flattery.
"Everybody who is asking for a new library building is
asking that it be designed around this model," said Lyman. "We're
the new archetype."
Now that the "Gateway to Ideas" - the theme of the new
Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Library - has opened wide, the university
community is being invited to enter and take part in a new approach
to research and learning. A planned opening date of Aug. 29 will be
followed by celebrations and demonstrations welcoming students,
staff and faculty.
The Leavey was conceived as a teaching library that would
carry the university into the future by bringing students and
faculty together in an atmosphere of collegial learning. Long
before its doors opened, the library's concept was being copied by
other universities around the country.
This university has an edge, however. While other libraries
may be amending their facilities piecemeal to incorporate the
teaching philosophy, the Leavey was designed as a teaching library
from the ground up. It incorporates the visions of Lyman and his
predecessor Charles Ritcheson, creating a place where teaching and
21st-century information technology go hand-in-hand with
traditional books and forms of study.
The Leavey Library was built entirely from donor funds. The
cost of the complete project - which includes the operation
endowment and necessities such as landscaping, furniture and
information hardware and software - was $27.5 million; about $14.2
million of that total went into construction. The Thomas and
Dorothy Leavey Foundation donated $9 million for the project. Other
major contributions included $4.5 million from the Ahmanson
Foundation and $2.5 million from the Weingart Foundation.
The Leavey concept is being used as a model for other
libraries here and abroad, said Betty Bengtson, director of
libraries at the University of Washington.
"When the teaching library was conceived several years ago,
it was a very new idea - a library as a place where faculty and
students and librarians come together in a technologically oriented
library for teaching and learning. It's a very new, rearticulated
vision," said Bengtson, adding that USC was "quite fortunate" to be
able to build it from scratch, while existing libraries have only
been able to use "a kernel of the idea."
It's not just the computer chip and diskette that make the
Leavey distinctive. It's the philosophy of wedding technology to
teaching and learning, so that faculty will be comfortable using
this information-rich resource in their classrooms.
Lyman envisions the Leavey supporting innovative teachers
who are designing curricula that take full advantage of new
technologies. And he envisions the library serving demanding
students who expect to have access to world-class information
resources.
"The Leavey Library is designed to be an experimental
'think tank' for new modes of teaching and learning," said Lyman.
"We created a flexible and information-rich environment as a
catalyst in which faculty and students would be free to invent the
university of the future."
Leavey director Chris Ferguson and his staff spent the
summer moving books and equipment into the 86,000-square-foot
recast concrete and brick structure at 34th Street and Hoover
Boulevard and acquainting library personnel with its five levels.
The Leavey is unique, Ferguson said, "in its combinations
and concentrations" of electronic capabilities and networked
workstation sites. "No one else is advancing what we call a
teaching library - an intellectual center for undergraduates," he
said.
As the library of first choice for undergraduates, the
Leavey frees specialized libraries to concentrate on meeting the
research needs of faculty, graduate students and undergraduates. It
also relieves demand on the venerable Doheny Memorial Library,
which now focuses on research in the humanities and social
sciences.
As USC's undergraduate library, the Leavey is built on a
solid core of 50,000 volumes transferred from Doheny's College
Library collection, as well as 15,000 new volumes and shelf space
for an eventual collection of 120,000 books. The library also is
the new home of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and the
Center for Scholarly Technology.
On a rotating basis, different faculty and research groups
will be invited to develop and display their innovations in the new
library. In its first year, the Leavey is hosting: photography
professor Robbert Flick's imaging lab; associate professor of
anthropology Gary Seaman's Center for Visual Anthropology;
associate professor of music Gilbert Blount's electronic music
laboratory; associate professor of classics Carolyn DeWald's use of
multimedia images and sounds in teaching; and a cinema-television
course in the production of multimedia materials.
Among the Leavey's features are touch-screen information
kiosks; a traditional reading room; a periodicals room; a reserve
service area with study carrels and a copy center; a 50-seat
auditorium; seating for 1,475 patrons; two hands-on rooms for
learning library skills; facilities for locating and retrieving
networked information and operating USCInfo and Gopher information
systems; and a staff that includes eight librarians, nine library
assistants and other support personnel.
A computing Discovery Center provides expert assistance to
students and faculty who wish to explore the latest hardware and
software in a comfortable setting.
In addition, the Information Commons, which is to remain
open on a 24-hour basis through most of the fall and spring
semesters, houses a core reference collection and offers computer
consulting and research assistance.
The commons also contains 21 rooms for group study, several
of them outfitted with special multimedia equipment. "Navigation"
assistants are on hand to help users connect to the vast array of
electronic systems; reference librarians support in-depth research
needs; and computer consultants assist with word processing,
spreadsheets and other productivity software.
To think of the Leavey as just an undergraduate library is
"deceptively simplistic," Ferguson emphasized. While its main role
is to provide an intellectual center for undergraduates, he said,
"I want it very much to be a campus and social-life center where
students come to exchange ideas, as opposed to a passive center."
While it offers nearly 1,000 spaces for solitary study, the
Leavey provides many carrels where students can gather, exchange
ideas and learn in groups. USC's graduates, said Lyman, will be
better prepared for their places in society if they have learned to
participate in cooperative environments. Today's work environment
demands that students leave school with expanded skills for
critical thinking, he said, including aptitude in "non-print forms
of knowledge."
But the Leavey was designed to be more than an
undergraduate study hall. Lyman and Ferguson maintain that it
accommodates different learning styles of students, and that it
will "supersaturate them in information." The information will come
from many sources: from other students in group study sessions;
from librarians and books; from teachers and computer networks.
Seminars and speakers also will be regular features at the library.
Ferguson is working to ensure that the Leavey shows a
"human side" to its users. Thanks to a cross-training system for
library personnel, students won't be shunted from desk to desk
before they can get assistance or the answer to a question. "I want
to make it a humane learning place," Ferguson said.
But the main focus of the library is to teach students how
to find information on their own and to inform them of what's
available in other university libraries.
As the Leavey takes its place within the university's
library system, it also fits comfortably within the architectural
scheme of the University Park Campus.
In the first phase of a project to recapture green space on
campus, the area of Hoover Boulevard in front of the building,
between West 34th and Childs Way, will be converted to walkways.
Meanwhile, the elegant exterior of the library, with its intricate
pre-cast concrete and diamond-patterned brick facing, complements
neighboring university structures.
The Leavey's interior, described by some as a mix of
Southwestern and art deco, is a stark contrast to its sedate
outside. While the Doheny is a place of fine wood, stained glass
and intricate design, the Leavey's interior, said Ferguson, "is all
metal, paint and fabric." As a design concept the idea is to
emphasize modern materials, colors and forms.
"It's a riot of color," said a delighted Lyman, whose love
of modern art spilled over into the choice of bold wall colors.
Patrons are treated to luscious wall tones of peach and
deep turquoise on one floor, then to lavenders and dark pinks, and
pale greens and rich eggplant on another. This palette serves a
practical purpose by color-coding sections, said Lyman. If the
combination of hues seems odd, one need only look out the
upper-floor windows at the blooming lavender and green jacaranda
trees beyond: it comes straight from nature.
As the Doheny now takes its place as a research library and
provides new homes to the redesigned Cinema-Television Library and
the Feuchtwanger Memorial library, the Leavey will be "the key" to
USC's academic quality in undergraduate education, Lyman said.
NOTE: The Department of Special Collections will be available to
users by appointment only during the renovation of Doheny Memorial
Library&Mac185;s second floor. The site of the Cinema-Television Library
is to become that of the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library. Special
collections is scheduled to return to full service in the spring
term. For information or appointments, call 740-5946 or 740-2587.
[Photo:] USC library staff gathered Aug. 24 on the terrace
of the new Leavey Library for a reception celebrating the
realization of a 10-year dream. The Leavey Library was built
entirely from donor funds. The cost of the complete project was
$27.5 million.
[Photo:] There will be plenty of experts available in the
Information Commons to help students navigate their way through
what may at first seem to be complex systems and programs, as well
as offer assistance with word processing and spreadsheets. Above,
Adam Crespi introduces students to the computer system at one of
the Leavey's pie-shaped workstations, which facilitate
collaborative projects.
[Photo:] Peter Lyman and Chris Ferguson in the stacks of the Leavey
Library. The Leavey's collection is built on a solid core of 50,000
volumes transferred from Doheny's College Library, as well as
15,000 new volumes and shelf space for an eventual collection of
120,000 books.
high-tech teaching library opens its doors.
When one of the leaders of the design team of UC Berkeley's
new library called on university librarian Peter Lyman several
months ago, he declared unequivocally that USC had "the new
template of the library."
It wasn't mere flattery.
"Everybody who is asking for a new library building is
asking that it be designed around this model," said Lyman. "We're
the new archetype."
Now that the "Gateway to Ideas" - the theme of the new
Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Library - has opened wide, the university
community is being invited to enter and take part in a new approach
to research and learning. A planned opening date of Aug. 29 will be
followed by celebrations and demonstrations welcoming students,
staff and faculty.
The Leavey was conceived as a teaching library that would
carry the university into the future by bringing students and
faculty together in an atmosphere of collegial learning. Long
before its doors opened, the library's concept was being copied by
other universities around the country.
This university has an edge, however. While other libraries
may be amending their facilities piecemeal to incorporate the
teaching philosophy, the Leavey was designed as a teaching library
from the ground up. It incorporates the visions of Lyman and his
predecessor Charles Ritcheson, creating a place where teaching and
21st-century information technology go hand-in-hand with
traditional books and forms of study.
The Leavey Library was built entirely from donor funds. The
cost of the complete project - which includes the operation
endowment and necessities such as landscaping, furniture and
information hardware and software - was $27.5 million; about $14.2
million of that total went into construction. The Thomas and
Dorothy Leavey Foundation donated $9 million for the project. Other
major contributions included $4.5 million from the Ahmanson
Foundation and $2.5 million from the Weingart Foundation.
The Leavey concept is being used as a model for other
libraries here and abroad, said Betty Bengtson, director of
libraries at the University of Washington.
"When the teaching library was conceived several years ago,
it was a very new idea - a library as a place where faculty and
students and librarians come together in a technologically oriented
library for teaching and learning. It's a very new, rearticulated
vision," said Bengtson, adding that USC was "quite fortunate" to be
able to build it from scratch, while existing libraries have only
been able to use "a kernel of the idea."
It's not just the computer chip and diskette that make the
Leavey distinctive. It's the philosophy of wedding technology to
teaching and learning, so that faculty will be comfortable using
this information-rich resource in their classrooms.
Lyman envisions the Leavey supporting innovative teachers
who are designing curricula that take full advantage of new
technologies. And he envisions the library serving demanding
students who expect to have access to world-class information
resources.
"The Leavey Library is designed to be an experimental
'think tank' for new modes of teaching and learning," said Lyman.
"We created a flexible and information-rich environment as a
catalyst in which faculty and students would be free to invent the
university of the future."
Leavey director Chris Ferguson and his staff spent the
summer moving books and equipment into the 86,000-square-foot
recast concrete and brick structure at 34th Street and Hoover
Boulevard and acquainting library personnel with its five levels.
The Leavey is unique, Ferguson said, "in its combinations
and concentrations" of electronic capabilities and networked
workstation sites. "No one else is advancing what we call a
teaching library - an intellectual center for undergraduates," he
said.
As the library of first choice for undergraduates, the
Leavey frees specialized libraries to concentrate on meeting the
research needs of faculty, graduate students and undergraduates. It
also relieves demand on the venerable Doheny Memorial Library,
which now focuses on research in the humanities and social
sciences.
As USC's undergraduate library, the Leavey is built on a
solid core of 50,000 volumes transferred from Doheny's College
Library collection, as well as 15,000 new volumes and shelf space
for an eventual collection of 120,000 books. The library also is
the new home of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and the
Center for Scholarly Technology.
On a rotating basis, different faculty and research groups
will be invited to develop and display their innovations in the new
library. In its first year, the Leavey is hosting: photography
professor Robbert Flick's imaging lab; associate professor of
anthropology Gary Seaman's Center for Visual Anthropology;
associate professor of music Gilbert Blount's electronic music
laboratory; associate professor of classics Carolyn DeWald's use of
multimedia images and sounds in teaching; and a cinema-television
course in the production of multimedia materials.
Among the Leavey's features are touch-screen information
kiosks; a traditional reading room; a periodicals room; a reserve
service area with study carrels and a copy center; a 50-seat
auditorium; seating for 1,475 patrons; two hands-on rooms for
learning library skills; facilities for locating and retrieving
networked information and operating USCInfo and Gopher information
systems; and a staff that includes eight librarians, nine library
assistants and other support personnel.
A computing Discovery Center provides expert assistance to
students and faculty who wish to explore the latest hardware and
software in a comfortable setting.
In addition, the Information Commons, which is to remain
open on a 24-hour basis through most of the fall and spring
semesters, houses a core reference collection and offers computer
consulting and research assistance.
The commons also contains 21 rooms for group study, several
of them outfitted with special multimedia equipment. "Navigation"
assistants are on hand to help users connect to the vast array of
electronic systems; reference librarians support in-depth research
needs; and computer consultants assist with word processing,
spreadsheets and other productivity software.
To think of the Leavey as just an undergraduate library is
"deceptively simplistic," Ferguson emphasized. While its main role
is to provide an intellectual center for undergraduates, he said,
"I want it very much to be a campus and social-life center where
students come to exchange ideas, as opposed to a passive center."
While it offers nearly 1,000 spaces for solitary study, the
Leavey provides many carrels where students can gather, exchange
ideas and learn in groups. USC's graduates, said Lyman, will be
better prepared for their places in society if they have learned to
participate in cooperative environments. Today's work environment
demands that students leave school with expanded skills for
critical thinking, he said, including aptitude in "non-print forms
of knowledge."
But the Leavey was designed to be more than an
undergraduate study hall. Lyman and Ferguson maintain that it
accommodates different learning styles of students, and that it
will "supersaturate them in information." The information will come
from many sources: from other students in group study sessions;
from librarians and books; from teachers and computer networks.
Seminars and speakers also will be regular features at the library.
Ferguson is working to ensure that the Leavey shows a
"human side" to its users. Thanks to a cross-training system for
library personnel, students won't be shunted from desk to desk
before they can get assistance or the answer to a question. "I want
to make it a humane learning place," Ferguson said.
But the main focus of the library is to teach students how
to find information on their own and to inform them of what's
available in other university libraries.
As the Leavey takes its place within the university's
library system, it also fits comfortably within the architectural
scheme of the University Park Campus.
In the first phase of a project to recapture green space on
campus, the area of Hoover Boulevard in front of the building,
between West 34th and Childs Way, will be converted to walkways.
Meanwhile, the elegant exterior of the library, with its intricate
pre-cast concrete and diamond-patterned brick facing, complements
neighboring university structures.
The Leavey's interior, described by some as a mix of
Southwestern and art deco, is a stark contrast to its sedate
outside. While the Doheny is a place of fine wood, stained glass
and intricate design, the Leavey's interior, said Ferguson, "is all
metal, paint and fabric." As a design concept the idea is to
emphasize modern materials, colors and forms.
"It's a riot of color," said a delighted Lyman, whose love
of modern art spilled over into the choice of bold wall colors.
Patrons are treated to luscious wall tones of peach and
deep turquoise on one floor, then to lavenders and dark pinks, and
pale greens and rich eggplant on another. This palette serves a
practical purpose by color-coding sections, said Lyman. If the
combination of hues seems odd, one need only look out the
upper-floor windows at the blooming lavender and green jacaranda
trees beyond: it comes straight from nature.
As the Doheny now takes its place as a research library and
provides new homes to the redesigned Cinema-Television Library and
the Feuchtwanger Memorial library, the Leavey will be "the key" to
USC's academic quality in undergraduate education, Lyman said.
NOTE: The Department of Special Collections will be available to
users by appointment only during the renovation of Doheny Memorial
Library&Mac185;s second floor. The site of the Cinema-Television Library
is to become that of the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library. Special
collections is scheduled to return to full service in the spring
term. For information or appointments, call 740-5946 or 740-2587.
[Photo:] USC library staff gathered Aug. 24 on the terrace
of the new Leavey Library for a reception celebrating the
realization of a 10-year dream. The Leavey Library was built
entirely from donor funds. The cost of the complete project was
$27.5 million.
[Photo:] There will be plenty of experts available in the
Information Commons to help students navigate their way through
what may at first seem to be complex systems and programs, as well
as offer assistance with word processing and spreadsheets. Above,
Adam Crespi introduces students to the computer system at one of
the Leavey's pie-shaped workstations, which facilitate
collaborative projects.
[Photo:] Peter Lyman and Chris Ferguson in the stacks of the Leavey
Library. The Leavey's collection is built on a solid core of 50,000
volumes transferred from Doheny's College Library, as well as
15,000 new volumes and shelf space for an eventual collection of
120,000 books.
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USC in the News
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Los Angeles ran an op-ed by Bill Deverell of the USC College about looking to the past in order to move on to the future. “You can do better, Los Angeles. You’ve heard it before: admonishment from the lecture hall pulpit or the pages of a book or magazine. History matters. You should pay closer attention,” Deverell wrote. “The history of Los Angeles reflects and illuminates American and world history all at once. With a little effort, something powerful happens: historical sensibility provides perspective on the here and now. Who wouldn’t want that?” The column is the first in a series for the magazine’s new CityThink section, L.A. Observed reported.
SoCal Minds featured the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, in which USC faculty and staff donate money for programs benefiting the neighborhoods surrounding the USC campus. The program was launched under the direction of USC President Steven B. Sample in reaction to the Los Angeles riots, the story noted. The campaign raised a record-breaking $1.2 million in donations this past year, despite tough economic times, the article stated. The story reported that several university units had 100 percent participation, including the USC Rossier School, KUSC-FM, the USC Fisher Museum of Art, the Office of the Treasurer, the Office of the Senior Vice President, Administration, the Health Sciences Libraries and USCard Services.
CNN cited research conducted by Adam Rose of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development for USC’s Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. Rose’s study found that the standard economic costs of the 9/11 attacks, estimated at $25 billion, were exceeded by the costs of behavioral reactions far from the site of the attack (for example, an additional $85 billion due to a decrease in demand for air travel).
Variety reported that the 22nd annual USC Libraries Scripter Award was given to “Up in the Air” novelist Walter Kirn and to USC alumnus Jason Reitman and Shelton Turner, who adapted Kirn’s book for the screen. In his acceptance speech, Reitman noted that his father, Ivan Reitman, used USC’s Doheny Memorial Library as a stand-in for the New York Public Library in “Ghostbusters.” The Wrap noted that Catherine Quinlan, dean of USC Libraries, emceed the ceremony.
National Public Radio’s “13.7” ran a commentary by K.C. Cole of the USC Annenberg School about the role of science in diplomacy. “We all know that the technology produced from scientific research can make international conflicts more deadly than ever. But can science help stop war?” Cole said. She mentioned that she recently took part in a USC Center on Public Diplomacy conference on science diplomacy and the prevention of conflict.
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