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From the upcoming Langsdale Link:
If you could look on the actions of humanity in the same distanced and objective way you might the movements of a cell under a slide or a zebra in the African grasslands, then, if so inclined, it might be possible to map the ways in which technology has utterly transformed just about every aspect of our lives, and to predict how these effects might grow in magnitude. Progress (read: technology) doesn’t stop. And because it doesn’t stop, we, both at the library, and, generally, as people living on planet earth, always have our ear to the ground looking for the next new thing that will utterly transform our lives…again.
So we’ve made some changes to Langsdale, our feeble but educated attempt to guess which way the winds are blowing and will blow in the future. we have added some new technology—a web, print and game design lab on the lower level; a new touch-screen scanner to the first floor—as well as additional study and laptop space on the third floor.
Libraries are changing, and in addition to being the repository of books, we are also becoming a repository of technology and space to use and grow with that technology. We have designed space to study, space to work, space to prepare presentations and Power Points, space to write papers and design websites; space designed specifically for the tasks that now are part of everyday student life, which means space that can be adapted to a myriad of needs. To do this we have consolidated our print collection on the third floor to fit on one side of the building, leaving half the floor open to accommodate large tables for quiet study. We are also in the process of outfitting our second floor with movable tables and whiteboards, which will facilitate multiple uses and allow for greater flexibility, especially of interest to study groups.
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We continue to try to anticipate the needs of all UB students, here now and those who will attend in the future. To do this we have tried to keep our eyes open to all the possibilities that innovation brings. But unlike cells or zebras, humans come up with some crazy devices that are impossible to predict. So to plan for the future we’ve made space for you to grow.