By: Jon Dusza, Managing Editor
Canisius Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Bridget Niland spoke to members of the library advisory council and students on Monday, Feb. 3 about future plans for the Andrew L. Bouwhuis Library at Canisius.
The second floor of the library is to become a new student success center. As a result, books housed there have to be removed or relocated, a process marked by the boxes of free-for-taking library books outside of the library. The Griffin has been covering library developments throughout the year, particularly in the Sep. 13, Oct. 4, Oct. 11 and Nov. 1 editions.
Throughout her talk, Niland spoke about her desire for community feedback when deciding the next steps for the library. “I’m a big believer in the suggestions box,” Niland said. There is a box currently on the library front desk that Niland said should be a place for the Canisius community to suggest ideas for the future of the library, and a place to do so online is in the works.
The school is specifically seeking feedback from students on what to do with the space currently occupied by Tim Horton’s inside the library. “We want that open when the library is open,” Niland said, adding “the gate should always be open.” While Niland said she personally had some ideas for what to do with the space, she wanted to hear from others, with the ultimate question being “how do we get more people to use that space and bring people in?”
Niland said that the library archives and rare books collection – the fate of which has been a topic of discussion around campus – will be moved to the first floor of the library, where the current Writing Center is. The Writing Center will be moved to the second floor, into the new student success center. While changes will need to be made to the current Writing Center room to allow it to preserve archived items, the archive will remain in the library.
Niland explained the process of removing books from the library. The first books being removed are duplicates and books that are clearly obsolete. Niland used the example of “a 2001 book on teaching internet marketing.” Part of the process also includes removing removed books from online databases, which takes time. All in all, the goal is for 50,000 books to be removed.
Acknowledging that “change is hard” and that the world has moved away from paper books, Niland said that fostering reading will still be a priority for the library moving forward. Niland brought up the story of the development of a new library at Daemen, and how an administrator said that “people aren’t going to be reading in 10 years.” Niland said that the administrator’s tenure was short, and that she does not believe in that logic. “I would love for us all to start reading together,” she said, emphasizing the role that a library can play in such an endeavor.
Niland was asked about communication between academic affairs and the library, which was a source of concern last semester. Explaining that turnover in the office of academic affairs made communication difficult last semester, Niland, as permanent Vice President of Academic Affairs, said, “I can’t guarantee that we will always agree on everything. I can guarantee that I will share it, I’ll be transparent and share information…. There will never be a point of a decision that you will not understand why a decision was made.” On the wide-held belief that the library’s staff has not been listened to regarding the changes, Niland said, “I want to apologize on behalf of the academic affairs unit, and I want to move forward, because this is a great building, and I want to hear opposing thoughts. I want to hear ideas and suggestions.”
Niland said that she had seen two different timelines for the library project, so she could not give much concrete information about the timeline. She did say that she expects another campus-wide meeting about the library before spring break, when more concrete information about the library plans will be discussed. The Griffin will continue to cover this story as it develops.
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