home Catalogs Research Help
 



Information

Director's Message

Welcome to the Brooklyn College Library, one of the dozen largest academic libraries in New York State.

Brooklyn College has been described as an oasis in the heart of Brooklyn. The Library with its gilded clock tower anchors the graceful oval green around which the College's grand Georgian brick buildings cluster. This lovely and serene setting suggests the sort of contemplative spirit libraries were created to nurture.

Inside the Library, however, another story unfolds--one of motion, vibrancy, and excitement. Here, a progressive and energetic staff delivers both the College's library and academic computing programs, services that emphasize teaching students to identify and evaluate contemporary information resources and encouraging faculty to incorporate technology in their instruction, research, and scholarship.

Building is a major theme in the Brooklyn College Library. Two state-of-the-art multimedia classrooms, each networked and offering full Internet access, are activly used for teaching. These spaces were designed by the firm of Kliment and Halsband, New York City . In January 1999 we opened the Library Café, an Internet café offering students relaxed study space, light edibles, and high-end networked computing from fixed workstations and laptops. The firm of Thanhauser and Esterson, New York City, are the architects for this facility .

But our biggest project by far is the new Library. The College is renovating and expanding the existing building, transforming it into a state-of-the-art information hub for the entire campus. In the summer 1996, the State Legislature appropriated $53,000,000 to remodel the Library (125,000 NSF) and build onto it another 72,000 net square feet. When one adds to this the funding for design, furniture, and equipment, the total cost of the project will exceed $70 million. The new Library was programmed by Randall Rice and Robert Hayes of the Omni Group. Architects Buttrick White & Burtis, New York City, and Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott, Boston, have designed a splendid facility. We are elated by this major construction project, the first to be built under the campus' new master plan. We will occupy the new building in the summer 2001, and we invite you to watch its construction via our WebCam.

As you browse our home page, you will get a good idea of what the Brooklyn College Library and Office of Academic Information Technologies is all about. The Library's most recent annual report is also available for your perusal. If there's something you'd like to know that we've left out, please contact me-- I would be very glad to hear from you.

Barbra Buckner Higginbotham, D.L.S.
Chief Librarian & Executive Director, Academic Information Technologies
Brooklyn College
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210
718/951-5342 (Voice)
718/951-4799 (Telefacsimile)


  Brooklyn College Library Home Page
CUNY+ || Research Resources || Help with Research || Hours Information || Locations Directory
Brooklyn College Home Page