A new library for a new century...
The Academic Commons at Goddard Library is designed to meet the needs of 21st century researchers, students, and teachers
The Robert Hutchings Goddard Library is a physical symbol of Clark University's tradition for challenging convention. It is named for one of the university's most unconventional thinkers, and its bold, brutalist architecture is both loved and hated.
The Goddard Library may have been state-of-the-art when it opened in 1969, but times have changed around this structure and so have the needs of the faculty and students who use it.
"The ways in which faculty conduct research and students study and learn are always changing, and it's our responsibility to put in place facilities that are on the cutting edge of how research, teaching and learning take place today," says Provost David Angel, who has helped spearhead the research and planning behind the new Academic Commons at Goddard Library. The construction of the Academic Commons was approved by the Board of Trustees in January and the project will break ground in May.
This $15 million project includes an extensive renovation and redesign of existing space in the Goddard Library and the addition of 11,000 square feet achieved by enclosing the library's plaza level. Through this redesign of the Goddard Library, the Academic Commons project aims to address three key aspects of the educational experience for today's scholars, students and teachers, Angel says.
A dynamic learning space
First, he explains, teaching, scholarship and learning have become a far more social process than they once were. While the classic library experience of the student or scholar working quietly in solitude, studying, reading and writing is still very much part of academic life, it is now only one of many modes of scholarly activity.
"So much teaching, learning and research is collaborative and based upon teamwork," Angel notes. "It involves dialogue between and among students and faculty, and it is typically technology enabled."
With new flexible group study spaces, technology-rich workstations and multimedia areas, the Academic Commons supports this social process of learning and what has essentially become the new role of the university library. Increasingly, university libraries are being reshaped into the breakout space for the classroom, where undergraduate and graduate students benefit from a learning environment created by a complex intersection of information resources, technology-enabled services and social interaction. According to Angel, studies have shown that students who learn in this kind of dynamic environment are able to retain and make use of knowledge more effectively than those who learn in a less dynamic environment.
Transforming staff support
The second dimension of the project involves an equivalent transformation of the way in which the University's staff support teaching, research and learning, Angel says. Faculty and students need a variety of support to ensure excellence in research, teaching and learning. Clark has the component pieces, such as Academic Technology Services, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, the Writing Center and reference librarians. However, they are physically separate.
"Another key objective of the Academic Commons is to allow us to integrate those services more effectively for students and faculty."
However, relocating these services is about more than just geography. As the May groundbreaking approaches, Angel says, discussions about office moves are already sparking deeper dialogues about ways in which librarians, faculty and other staff can collaborate in strengthening course development and the academic planning process.
The hub of intellectual community
Thirdly, Angel stresses that the Academic Commons project speaks to ways in which campus facilities enable a rich and rewarding academic life. The value of a residential university in the 21st century rests in physical spaces that build intellectual community, he says.
"We need to ensure that the Goddard Library is the kind of facility that symbolizes and facilitates our highest aspirations for the academic life of the University."
The Academic Commons achieves this in three ways, Angel adds: by transforming the Goddard Library into the geographical and programmatic core of the campus; by providing a 24-hour study space on the plaza level that will provide the services students need whenever they need them; and by locating Clark's new Mosakowski Institute on the plaza level as a highly visible symbol of the synergies that are realized between faculty research and student learning, as well as the University's commitment to draw upon its academic strengths to make a difference in the world.
Part of the project, Angel notes, is ensuring that the building functions well from an environmental standpoint and that it is an attractive and welcoming space, where students, faculty and staff want to spend time. Many of the physical systems of the library—from heating, ventilation and air conditioning, to lighting, furnishings and bathroom facilities—are nearing the end of their expected functional life. The project includes a renovation of all of these basic systems, which also supports the critical strategic imperatives that underlie the Academic Commons.
"A world-class university needs world-class facilities," Angel says.
The Academic Commons at Goddard Library: floor by floor
 The Ground Floor will add 11,000 square feet of high-quality space by enclosing the "wind tunnel" and creating a multipurpose Plaza Level with a new main entrance facing the Campus Green that will make this facility the academic destination for faculty, staff and students. Features will include:
- A flexible and spacious two-story atrium
- A 24-hour quiet study space
- A café with self-service beverages available after hours
- Three technology-enabled group study rooms seating 10 to 12 students and equipped with whiteboards for collaborative projects
- A 25-seat multimedia development and production lab
- E-mail kiosks and general computing stations
- The Mosakowski Institute, a visible symbol of Clark's commitment to research, as well as inquiry-based learning opportunities for students.
 The Second Floor will create a spacious Learning Center where students engage in library research and scholarly projects. This will include improved sight lines onto the Campus Green to the east and the Bullock quad to the south and include the following features:
- Four small "closed" spaces seating six to eight students with translucent walls on the southern perimeter for group study
- Co-locate the Language Arts Resource Center (LARC) and the Reserve Desk to create "one-stop shopping" for students seeking books, CDs and DVDs
- Retain the present 12-seat dual-use "instructional space" in the northeast corner of the Service Level, where library staff, faculty and students gather to learn how to conduct research in a broad range of online databases and search engines
 The Third Floor will maintain its character as a prime student study space inside the library.
- Update the existing desktop microcomputing stations and networked printers on the east and south sides of the building
- Refurnish the open group-study area on the west side overlooking the Kneller Athletic Center
- Retain the recently renovated Ronald Olson Undergraduate Lounge facing Downing Street
- Enhanced data and power to study locations
 The Fourth Floor will be transformed dramatically from its current configuration—a warren of graduate-student and faculty carrels—into a Faculty and Graduate Student Gateway, a lively place serving as the foundation for innovative research and teaching.
- Relocate the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) from Corner House to renovated space on the north side of the fourth floor
- Move Academic Technology Services from the basement of Carlson Hall to renovated space on the south side of the library
- Refurbish faculty studies facing the Campus Green to make them more user-friendly, and install wireless internet access
- Re-equip the existing Fuller Music Room as multipurpose space where CETL and academic technology staff can assist faculty and students with research and teaching
- Retain the existing Prouty Seminar Room as a multipurpose meeting room and classroom
 The Fifth Floor, with its majestic views of the Worcester landscape, will be preserved as Quiet Space, a haven for individual study for the entire campus community.
- Add a mix of wireless and hard-wired internet access
- Install comfortable individual seating along the perimeter with desks large enough to accommodate laptop computers and reading materials
Learn more and get involved
Listen to interviews
Interviews with Provost David Angel, project architect Steven Foote and University Librarian Gwen Arthur are available online at clarku.edu/academiccommons.
Goddard transformation inspires $1 million gift to collections
The transformation of the Goddard Library has inspired a $1 million gift from the William and Jane Mosakowski Family Foundation. This gift will be used to support a significant expansion in library collections to meet the immediate research needs of faculty and students.
$1 million challenge gift
An anonymous source has offered a generous $1 million challenge gift, matching dollar for dollar every gift made by individuals to the Academic Commons project between Jan. 15 and May 31, 2008. To make a gift to the Academic Commons and help Clark meet this challenge, contact Andy McGadney, vice president for University Advancement, at 508-793-7512.
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