Get Your Game (And Learning) On

Maybe it was the applause and gasps that gave it away, but once the doors opened to the new D.H. Hill Library Learning Commons, you could tell students had gotten what they had been asking for: wide-open workspaces that encourage collaboration, more computers, laptops and iPods for loan; gaming systems (including a Wii), and room to walk around and use all the resources the library offers.

The 2007 renovation of the D. H. Hill Library’s East Wing transformed the overcrowded and outdated space to 14,000 square feet laced with learning-enabling technology. The new space has proven not only beneficial but also transformative to learning and research. Students fill the Learning Commons 24 hours a day, where they make intensive use of research materials, digital datasets and the university’s full suite of software tools essential for their work.

Students can listen to instructors’ podcasts or audiobooks anywhere, at anytime. Working groups can transform projects into digital documentaries through the device-lending desk’s laptops, digital cameras and camcorders, and video and audio mp3 players. Study groups can collaborate among 100 new computer workstations arranged intuitively in clusters; individuals can access private study rooms with wall-mounted LCD screens, even work through presentation jitters in practice rooms outfitted with projectors and interactive touch-controlled screens.

For those in search of quiet study, the new Special Collections Research Center features an inviting Reading Room, conservatory and exhibition gallery. And thanks to the Center, important collections housed in off-site storage and faculty relegated to doing research in the basement, now, quite literally have seen the light.

The project was funded with $9.2 million from the 2000 higher education bond and additional support from both major donors and grassroots supporters, including the Wolfpack Club, which made an instrumental unrestricted gift of $100,000.