“From RLUK:

Commissioned by RLUK, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and delivered by research consultancy Evidence Base, the report takes an inclusive definition of libraries, which includes archives, special collections, museums and galleries. The report provides a detailed overview of the current role of academic and research libraries as partners and leaders of research, their potential to enhance these roles, and the barriers they might face in doing so.

The report has 10 headline findings and makes 13 far-reaching recommendations for libraries, members of the academic community, parent organisations, RLUK, and the AHRC.

The report is accompanied by detailed case studies charting the experiences of libraries as partners and leaders of research, drawn from across the UK and internationally. Combined, the report and case studies offer one of the most comprehensive accounts of the role of libraries as research partners and leaders, and are the result of an extensive series of consultations with libraries, academics, research managers, university leaders and funders.

The project underpinning this research has already generated valuable discussion through its events, workshops, and a long table discussion at the DCDC21 Conference. This report acts as an invitation to colleagues working across the library, information, and academic communities to work with RLUK and the AHRC to further enhance the role and ability of academic and research library colleagues to act as participants and leaders of scholarly research.

Report Resources

• Full Text Report (71 pages; PDF)
• Summary: Findings and Recommendations
• Case Studies
• Development of the Study
• DCDC21 Video Recordings“

“the New York Times:

Muddling along for four decades in a nondescript former department store, the Mid-Manhattan library, at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street, served a growing swarm of local residents and commuters even as the branch steadily became a dilapidated “embarrassment” to the New York Public Library system, as Anthony W. Marx, its president, put it.

After three years of construction and $200 million, the library system was ready to reopen its largest circulating branch in spring 2020. Instead, the pandemic extended the closure. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, or SNFL, as it is now known (after a $55 million gift), finally threw open its doors to unlimited browsing in June.

Its theatrically expressive heart is a dramatic atrium billowing upward from the second floor, where book lovers will delight in a vista of the vast circulating collection of up to 400,000 volumes.

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The architect of the transformed Mid-Manhattan is Francine Houben, founding director of Mecanoo, based in the Dutch city of Delft. Houben is known for such challenging library designs as a largely subterranean facility at the Technical University, Delft, in which a wedge-shaped roof covered in grass erupts from the ground to form a sloping lawn popular for lounging and sunbathing. For the Mid-Manhattan branch, she partnered with Elizabeth Leber, the managing partner of the New York architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle.

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Librarians throughout the system know that many people who need their extensive services don’t know they exist. This library will truly come to life when passers-by can gaze into those monumental windows and see people studying, talking, arguing or simply sitting with a book open, staring dreamily at the city.

Learn More, Read the Complete Review/Article (approx. 1700 words)

Background

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) Website

New York Public Library Receives $55 Million Gift to Renovate Mid-Manhattan Library, 2nd Largest Gift in History of NYPL (September 13, 2017)

The New York Public Library’s Transformed Central Circulating Library, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), To Open For Expanded Service on June 1 (May 21, 2021)

Exploring SNFL: A Library Transformed from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.