Voskuyl Library @ Westmont College, Santa Barbara, Jan. 31

Voskuyl Library director Debra Quast took me on a tour of her newly-renovated building.  Here's a shot of the first floor reading room:

 And the view from it:

Debra was given full creative control of the renovation and completed it without consulting architects.  The color schemes were chosen by votes of student and faculty patrons. 

The seating was designed to allow for comfort, movement and collaboration.  Because many people are kinesthetic learners, several slow treadmills were added to the floor:

Notice that there is a table for books, magazines or laptops.  These aren't fitness machines; 2 mph tops.  They are very popular with library users.

Westmont has a unique take on its combination help/reference desk:

Student IT technicians sit back-to-back with librarians.  This way, students can receive technical and content-based assistance in the same location and each group of employees learns from the other.  I think this is a service idea worth serious consideration at Oxnard College.

Another idea I hadn't seen before:  all the desktop terminals are Macs with dual-boot capability to run Windows 7.  This facility has the usual mix of open computer lab and group study spaces that are de rigeur for modern academic libraries.

Besides the FF&E shown here, phase one of the renovation including tearing down many walls on the first floor to make the space more open, inviting and attractive.  Gate counts have tripled since completion.  Phase two will incorporate further improvements, especially on the other two levels of Voskuyl. 

Here's a blog with much better photos than my cell phone:  http://blogs.westmont.edu/magazine/2010/09/22/it%E2%80%99s-not-your-mother%E2%80%99s-library-anymore/ 

And a video:  http://westmontimpact.org/?s=library