By Laura Huenneke, Provost and Vice President
for Academic Affairs
If clever promotional posters of nocturnal animals or the coffee at Scholar’s Corner haven’t been enough to entice you to Cline Library lately, then consider this: It’s now, more than ever, a place for people.
Much of the first floor has been transformed into a work area with moveable furnishings, more computer stations and an integrated help desk for research and technology support. An expanded studios space—for listening, viewing, digital media production, presentations, assistive technology and a Mac studio—will open in early spring.
Greater access to the improved space certainly helps. Extended hours through a partnership with ASNAU have driven heavy student use.
Benefits also abound for faculty and academic staff. The first-floor Faculty Commons is a meeting place and home to faculty development resources. And a technology-enriched experimental classroom, ideal for “flipped classroom” and team-based learning approaches, will open next fall.
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Cline staff are key allies in incorporating technology to enrich courses and student learning; they digitize and deliver streaming media for class use—nearly 1,500 such requests were filled last year. Cline provides access to fantastic digital content, from 12,000 film titles to large music databases to ARTstor, which includes more than a million images across a range of humanities and fine arts fields.
And of course the library is central to faculty research and scholarship. Our librarians routinely collaborate with faculty to identify and obtain resources, support development of grant proposals and satisfy funders’ requirements for archival or open access posting of research results.
Cline Dean Cynthia Childrey and her colleagues welcome all members of the NAU community to stop in and explore the latest enhancements.
