Jackson Library Renovation

Overview and Updates | Collections Data | Frequently or Recently Asked Questions | Timeline and Process

Frequently or Recently Asked Questions

Building Issues | Collections Issues

Eighty-one million dollars is a lot of money! Will that totally transform the building?

It is a lot of money and we are very appreciative that our project was funded! But our request was for $120 million, so we'll have to scale things back a bit. And rising construction costs and COVID supply chain issues have conspired to further reduce the buying power of the money we did receive. A big chunk of the funding will go to infrastructure like fire suppression, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical in the existing building, so no one should think that we have $81 million to spend on new construction.

I heard other campus units may move into Jackson. Is that true?

There are no current plans to move entirely new untis into the Library. The Academic Achievement Center will expand its current footprint in Jackson and ITS will greatly reduce theirs. The amount of library space allocated to other units will remain about the same.

Are other UNC System campuses converting library stack space to other uses?

Yes. About half of the 17 have recently completed or are currently planning to repurpose stacks space in their main library building. Some of the new purposes include campus bookstore, tutoring, innovation studio, advising center, visualization studio, expanded student seating areas, data experience lab, academic success center, quiet study room, writing center, speaking center, graduate study room, and office of undergraduate research.

Collections Issues | Building Issues

Are print materials going to be removed from the Jackson Tower?

Yes. When Jackson is renovated, we will have to comply with current building codes relating to fire safety and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Jackson Renovation Oversight Committee has also decided that we should meet the minimum national standards for student seating for a campus our size. These changes will result in a significant reduction of our shelving capacity, so many print volumes will have to leave the tower.

What will happen to the books and journals that leave the tower?

Most will move to remote storage elsewhere on campus. Some will be donated to a non-profit that will scan them and make them publicly available. They will also preserve the print item.

If UNCG decides to digitize and donate books, won't that inevitably lead to the destruction or removal of the last extant copy of some books?

No. Of course not. Among librarians it is taboo to remove the last copy of any print item. In fact, we hate to see any print book getting down to its final library copy and have developed multiple processes to avoid that situation. First, libraries share a large database that shows which libraries hold which books, so we can readily see which books are widely held and which are relatively rare. Second, many modern academic libraries (including UNCG) participate in shared print retention programs. There are an estimated 80,000 academic libraries world-wide. To ensure the long term survival of print, we do not need every single library to keep every single copy of every single book; we need enough libraries to keep enough copies of every single book. Retention programs allocate responsibilty for maintaining specific print titles long term.

Some people strongly prefer print. How can they obtain print materials post-renovation?

UNCG's faculty, students, and staff currently have access to 388 million print items through a mixture of onsite shelving, offsite storage, and Interlibrary Loan (ILL). That will continue to be true after the renovation.