The Campaign for the UNIVERSITY OF DENVER

INTRODUCING THE ACADEMIC COMMONS

ibraries have always held a special place in the publics imagination. They are centers of exploration and inquiry, of mystery and romance. Theyre conservators of knowledge and intellectual heritage. The late Lady Bird Johnson once said of libraries, Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest. To adapt to changing times and demands, university libraries across the nation are rethinking everything from how they care for collections to how they assist patrons. Thats especially true at the University of Denver, where Penrose Library is embarking on a remarkable transformation into a new people-focused enterprise: the Academic Commons. The Academic Commons at Penrose Library will be a dynamic center that will support social learning, interactive technologies, student-centered programs, and, of course, individual study and reflection. In the new Academic Commonshoused in a reconstructed, state-of-the-art, LEED-certified

buildingstudents and faculty will find plenty of books and journals. Theyll also find a light-filled space designed according to a new learning model, one where students can work in groups, develop team projects, use the latest technology in innovative ways, and collaborate with professors and each other. Just as important, there will be continuity of service. As always, students can tap into services offered by the Writing Center, the Research Center, the Math Center and the Technology Help Deskhoused together in one location. Faculty will be able to draw on a vast array of resources, including the expertise of the Center for Teaching and Learning. There, they will benefit from many new opportunities related to pedagogy, from applying the latest technology in the classroom to learning the art of blogging. Penrose Library has long offered DU students and faculty a robust learning center. But the truth is that the buildingfor all its midcentury modern charm belongs to another era. When Penrose was built in the early 1970s, library spaces were designed to support individual study and a teaching style largely dependent on lecturing. Information had an address in the stacks or within a roll of microfilm. A research project started with the card catalog. Today, a new adventure in learning lies ahead. Penrose will continue to be the place where history comes to life, thanks to Ascend: The Campaign for the University of Denver. We are incredibly fortunate that the Academic Commons at Penrose Library will allow us access to extraordinary materials located around the world, as well as our own, right here, on site. Is there any higher or nobler cause than the promotion of wisdom and knowledge? As the inscription over the door of the ancient library at Thebes read, the new Academic Commons at Penrose Library will continue to provide medicine for the soul. Nancy Allen, Penrose Library Dean

A Library for the 21st-Century Scholar

When Penrose Library was completed in 1972, learning was largely a matter of lectures, books and labs. Todays learning model involves experience, collaboration and access to information in forms barely imagined 40 years ago. That model demands a one-stop resource where the activities of scholarship are assisted. That resource is on the way. When the Academic Commons at Penrose Library opens for business, it will provide integrated workspace for a full array of academic support services, including the Writing Program and Center, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Math Center, the Research Center and the Technology Help Desk. In addition, a Media Help Center will assist students and faculty in the emerging art of marrying different media into single presentations. Were all about empowering people and providing access to information, says Julanna Gilbert, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, which works with faculty to improve teaching and learning and to acquire high-tech

pedagogical expertise. I see the new building as responding to that. Now the books are almost a barrier to services, especially on our floor. Once the renovation is complete, the Center for Teaching and Learning, which is currently obscured by stacks of books in the southeast corner of Penroses upper level, will have a much stronger visual presence. An increased visual presence, adds Peggy Keeran, professor and arts and humanities reference librarian, will help patrons see the connections among services. It will allow students and faculty to get research assistance at one stop, advice on persuasive rhetoric at another and a consultation on embedding media in a PowerPoint presentation at still anotherall without leaving the building. Doug Hesse, director of the Writing Program, expects the new design, with its open floor plans and emphasis on transparency, to increase demand for services. I think the Academic Commons is going to be much more purposeful and inviting, he says. Its going to convey to students that this is central to the academic mission of the campus and not ancillary. As a result I can imagine students using the services more.

A NEW FACE FOR A CAMPUS FIXTURE

ACADEMIC COMMONS, SOUTH ELEVATION RENDERING

Inside the Academic Commons

When it opens its doors in late 2012, the Academic Commons at Penrose Library will offer an inviting environment focused on 21st-century learning styles. As Penrose Dean Nancy Allen notes, academic libraries today must complement the way learning occurs on campus. Higher education is no longer about students receiving knowledge from the sage on the stage. Rather, students are learning from peers and experience, as well as their professors. The commons will provide ample opportunities for quiet study, but it also will expand space for collaborative work comfy areas where armchairs can be pulled into a circle so that students can explore digital resources together. Project teams will be able to meet in group study rooms where they can put the finishing touches on class presentations. Think of the commons, suggests University Architect Mark Rodgers, as a place where different ideas collide, interact and intermingle. And think of it as a place where students prepare for careers increasingly reliant on collaboration: Very few people are hired to go sit in a corner and do their own thing. The commons main level will focus on matching people and services. It will house a caf with an inviting fireplace, browsable collections of in-demand books and periodicals and the many centers that help students create, access and share

From the outside, Penrose Library has always been discreet about its mission. Nothing about the building tells passersby that it is a center for learning and inquiry. And apart from its location on campus, little about the building communicates that it belongs to the University of Denver. That will change once renovations to the structure are completed, says University Architect Mark Rodgers. Plans for the update call for a 10,000-square-foot expansion to the southern side of the building, a relocated entrance and a materials upgrade that will unify the exterior with other campus buildings. The two-story expansion will run the length of Penroses southern side. The entrance will shift from the southwest corner of the building to the center of the southern face, where it will open to the pedestrian traffic along Carnegie Green. The south side is where the people are, and we want to make it enticing, Rodgers says. With that in mind, southern walls will feature large windows on both stories. These will give the building

a transparency it does not enjoy now. That will be particularly true at night, Rodgers says, when lights will glow from study areas populated by students preparing for exams and class presentations. The exterior of the Academic Commons at Penrose Library will be made even more inviting by a patio that will face the green and the Rocky Mountains. The patio also will offer seating to patrons of a new caf. Rodgers expects the patio will enjoy year-round use, as students take their beverages, books and laptops outdoors for continued study. The east and north sides of the building will remain largely untouched, Rodgers says, though windows will be updated and signature materials will be integrated into the design. The west side of the commons will benefit from the addition of windows along the lower floor. To ensure the building complements other campus fixtures, the southern side will incorporate DUs signature materials: limestone, sandstone and copper. It will, says Nancy Allen, dean of Penrose Library, sing the DU song.

knowledge: the Writing Center, the Math Center, the Media Help Center (where students can learn how to incorporate new and old media into presentations and projects), the Research Center and the Technology Help Desk. The main level also will host an events arena, a glass-walled spacea fish bowl, Rodgers explainssuitable for poetry slams and author readings. The upper level, which currently houses most of the stacks, will include a legacy reading room with a stone fireplace. It also will house the Center for Teaching and Learning and offices for the faculty of DUs acclaimed Writing Program. Students will be able to study in a deep quiet area and work with peers in sections devoted to open seating. In addition to numerous spaces for quiet and group study, the lower level will accommodate Special Collections and Archives and the bulk of the book and journal collections. Thanks to compact shelving, the commons will afford access to about 75 percent of the Penrose book collection. Although final selections for furnishings and materials have not been made, Rodgers expects the commons will incorporate DUs Southwestern-inspired color palette and a handful of heirloom furnishings, including a selection of the midcentury modern pieces that made Penrose Library a mecca for design enthusiasts.

A new adventure in learning lies ahead. Penrose will continue to be the place where history comes to life. ... Is there any higher or nobler cause than the promotion of wisdom and knowledge?
Nancy Allen, Penrose Library Dean

A Safe and Secure Shelter for the Collections

The numbers boggle the mind: more than 1.1 million books, 250,000-plus bound journals and 851,000 government documents. Add to that well over 1.1 million microfiche, DVDs and CD-ROMs. It totals almost 3.4 million items. Before the first hammer falls, the materials housed at Penrose will need to be moved to the Hampden Center, the Universitys new 51,500-square-foot storage facility in southwest Denver. The center, which will have a climate-controlled section to accommodate the Universitys rare books and fragile materials, will store DUs collections during construction. Once the renovation is complete, the Hampden Center will provide permanent storage for the librarys low-use materials. The collections that will remain at the Hampden Center include seldom-accessed print journals and those with digital replacements, government documentsmany of which are available electronicallyand low-use books. All the materials will still be accessible to the DU community, but theyll also be stored safely and securely in an environment designed with conservation in mind. Browsing materials, such as new and popular books, magazines and DVDs, will return to campus, as will special collections and about 75 percent of DUs books. These will be shelved on the librarys lower level in high-density compact shelving. During construction, patrons can access Penroses robust digital collections online and page physical materials through an online request form. Two vans will circulate between the Hampden Center and Penroses temporary pop-up library in the Driscoll Center Ballroom, where users can collect held items. Its not like moving the books in your apartment, observes Michael Levine-Clark, collections librarian at Penrose, anticipating the logistics challenge associated with vacating Penrose Library so that the transformation to the Academic Commons can begin.
Visit ascend.du.edu for more about the Academic Commons project.

FUNDRAISING FAST FACTS: THE ACADEMIC COMMONS

$33 million. hand of $27 million. the next two years is $6 million.

MAKE YOUR GIFT TO THE ASCEND CAMPAIGN TODAY!

Ofce of University Advancement 2190 East Asbury Avenue Denver, Colorado 80208 800.448.3238 giving.du.edu