April 6, 2000

 

Library Advisory Board to Create Vision for ASU

John T. Bennett  Administration Beat

 

Members of the Appalachian State University Library Advisory Board will be in Northern California today through Monday touring the Ruben Salazar Library at Sonoma State University.  The objective of the trip will be to tour the facility and establish a future vision for Appalachian State’s proposed $47.6 million Library/Information Commons, which is  slated to begin construction in 2005.  Among the ASU contingency will be Gene Branon and Ben Holtsclaw, both of whom are student advisors to the library planning board.  Branon said it was important for the board to make the venture across the United States to tour the Sonoma State facility because it has been billed as the “library of the new millennium.”  “It will give us a chance to tour the library see what worked and what didn’t work there,” said Branon.  Another reason the board picked Sonoma State is because it is comparable to Appalachian in terms of size and enrollment, which will help the group determine if what worked at the California institution could potentially work for Appalachian.  Branon said the goal of the Library Advisory Board is to help plan a facility that will be ranked among the upper echelon libraries in the University of North Carolina System.  “Our goal is to be number one because to be a teaching institution, we need the technology that a new library would have,” said Branon.  While construction on the library/information commons is still scheduled to begin in 2005, Branon said the board has hit an obstacle in the form of funding.  Due to the North Carolina General Assembly being in a tight financial situation, Appalachian lost $1 million in planning money that had been intended for the library/information commons project.  Despite the financial setback, Branon said the members of the board have been “very diligent in working on this.”  After returning from California, the board will present their findings to Chancellor Francis T. Borkowski.  “We will sit down and review the photos with the Chancellor and talk to him about a future vision for the project,” said Branon.

 
   

theapp@appstate.edu