Each is a case study in partnering with donors to meet the information needs of students and faculty at a research university. The House Undergraduate Library, built in the days of flower power, is wilted. The Robert B. House Undergraduate Library shortly after its completion in 1968. Students crowding in for group study spread their books and papers on the floor of a stairwell. Self-service copy machines churn away beside individual study areas, adding to the din.
Lines form at computer terminals inside the front door and in the stuffy basement computer room.
Students with their own computers can't find electrical outlets, much less plug into the campus network. Bookshelves block natural light and a prime view of Polk Place. State funds will gut and rewire the building for better electrical and telecommunications connections, upgrade heating and air conditioning and reconfigure the floor plan to provide space for group study, quiet study and high-tech classrooms. More computers will be installed, but, most important, the building will be flexible enough to accept new technologies as they appear. Ed Pleasants '62 of Winston-Salem, a longtime library donor, chairs the Friends of the Library committee raising private funds to complement the state appropriation.