A team of university students in the anthropology and architecture majors will redesign McKeldin Library’s interior.
For many students, class assignments are typically confined to exams, papers and projects — however, those who frequent McKeldin Library will feel the effects of some architecture and anthropology students’ coursework.
In a collaborative effort between McKeldin and the anthropology and architecture departments, students in ANTH606: Qualitative Methods in Applied Anthropology and a spring architecture class will be given the liberty to redesign the building’s interior, thanks to a $50,000 donation to the library. Patricia Steele, libraries dean, said the overall goal of the program is to reformat McKeldin to cater to the needs of students.
“How can we make the library a successful place for their academic work?” Steele said. “That’s the question to be answered.”
This semester, the anthropology students will use a variety of methods to find an answer to this question. They’ll perform observational anthropology that will be comprised of formally observing how students use the library at different times of the day and performing on-the-spot interviews designed to determine how often undergraduates, graduates, faculty and staff use — or don’t use — the library.
Some students said they hope group study spaces, like the ones found on McKeldin’s second floor, would expand as a result of the redesign.
“I think they should add more floors like this, because this floor is always the most crowded,” said sophomore kinesiology major Olivia Woycheck. “That way you can still sit with your friends without having to be secluded in a cubicle.”
This student input will be factored in to the library’s overhaul. Additionally, undergraduates, graduates, staff and faculty will be placed in front of a drawing board to illustrate their visions of a perfect library, and the anthropology students will interpret these images.
“The ethnographic work is figuring out how they conceptualize the library,” Steele said. “If you could think of the most successful library space to get your work done, what would it look like?”
Students will digest this information and then hand it over to the architecture department, which will team up with contractor Ayers Saint Gross to craft a blueprint for a McKeldin makeover slated to be completed by the end of this school year. The students will gather data about the building — such as its square footage, layout and information about its heating and air conditioning systems — to complete their design, an overall effort that Steele called “groundbreaking.”
Professor Michael Paolisso, who teaches the anthropology course, said the project will allow students to use their areas of study to contribute to the greater university community.
“It’s all about getting the student perspective about what they want from a library, how they study and how a future library would meet those needs,” he said.
The library would act as a natural habitat, ripe for observation of students within, according to Paolisso.
“They’re treating the library and how students study as a culture, as a community,” Paolisso said. “They’re learning, and they’re also contributing to this redesign. … The students are incredibly excited.”
foley@umdbk.com
