Underutilization of ESMB library space

We have recently been asked to increase the density of our graduate students.  Offices without windows that now hold 2 graduate students should be packed with 3.  We have been told to "think out of the box" on how to do this.  I have done so.

Let us enter the Earth Science Mitchell Building library at a random time which happens to be Monday, May 24, 2004 at 10:30am.

From the outside of the Mitchell building you feel you are looking at a giant glass box.  Let us look inside, at the four corners of this giant glass box.  Observe there are no people present!!  Do piles of boxes suggest people are rarely crowded in here?

This is is truely glorious space!  I wish you would view it yourself.  Let us look at those same same four corners again.  Look at the high ceilings.

It is really nicer than it looks.  Please come and look!!

Remember the building is a glass box.  The book cases on this floor block me from snapping a sweeping view, but let us look south from the center of the building.  This is the periodical reading area.  See any people here?  Have you seen any people yet?  If you think Monday, May 24, 2004 at 10:30am is a non-typical time, I invite you have a viewing yourself at a time of your choosing.

Let us go to the center of the building (2nd floor).  Look north.  Now you can get a sense that the two-story walls are all glass.

See any people?

You didn't see the person?  Look carefully at the computer terminal. So what do you think?  Has the internet replaced the paper library yet?  When I came to campus, Meyer Library contained books.  Now it contains computers.

 Please come and look.  There are unobstructed views to the north and south, views thru the biggest walls of glass on campus.  Likewise, there is nobody there!!

While you are outdoors looking at the Mitchell Building, you might notice the magnificent outdoor balconies on this glass box. There are 7 on each side and 3 on both ends. They're huge!!  Of course no library should have balconies.  People could toss books out them to friends below!  Those balconies are locked.   Look at these beautiful balconies!  Better yet, walk over and have a look in real life!!

Can you imagine how much graduate students would covet outdoor balconies?!   Even department chair persons would wish an office with a balcony.  There are many many offices with balconies next door in Durand where I took this picture from.

It's been said that the railings on the balconies need to be raised a couple inches to bring the building up to code.  Well, let's do it!!  Hard to imagine anything that would be better for morale of everyone.  Most of the rooms in ESMB have no windows.  No windows at all!  That's a fact.

You'll appreciate how nice it really is if you click on any of the three pictures above. The middle one is my favorite. Make your screen wide and then click on it.

Here is the mezzanine floor where the sweeping views just above (and all below) were photographed from. Perhaps people belong here instead of map cases.

We are on the mezzanine floor; the elevator is behind the globe. I'll be showing you pictures taken from the balcony overview on either side (not the bright far end).

We are in a big glass box. The view below shows about 2/3 of one side of it looking towards Durand and Skilling.

Here is 2/3 of the other side of the big glass box looking towards Terman. The curtains block a nice view up towards the New Guinea garden and lake.

It's pretty clear that no book wants to be in a sunny glass box.  The architect should have known this.  The books themselves would like to be in the sub basement.  There ceilings are high and could hold a monsterously complex warren of mezzanine shelves.  Here are three plans.  The first can be implemented in very short notice at no cost.

PLAN A:

Our new arrivals, the IPER group, should tour the Library mezzanine level.  This area is currently being used for storing maps.  Rearrange the furniture here and you have the most magnificent location on campus.  It has elevator access and also stairway access thru the "west shaft" (same stairway access as 4th floor).  The stairway to the main library is easily blocked off.  The US Geological Survey is rapidly computerizing their maps.  We can safely leave the map cabinets unlocked until all maps are moved to the subbasement or otherwise obsoleted by technology.

PLAN B:

Partition the library into an east half and a west half.  Move half the library to the sub-basement.

PLAN C:

Move all the library to the sub-basement.

I came to Stanford in 1967 so I can say this problem, the problem of wholly inappropriate use of valuable space, has been with us pretty much the whole time.

There is a kind of a turf battle.  A battle between the Dean of Earth Sciences and the Director of Libraries.  Our dean reports she "hasn't a chance" against the Director of Libraries.  It seems she isn't even trying.

I hope you don't feel I am attacking the Earth Science Library. I am not. It is a magnificent resource. The problem is that the earned money around here (not the free money from the endowment) is money earned by faculty proposals with very close support of the graduate students.  They're the ones creating new knowledge, bringing fame to Stanford.  They spend their days and nights in this empty glass box while a great many of them (including all mine) are on a floor without any window!  Then suddenly, they are asked to shrink into 2/3 the space!!

It is no longer my problem.  It's a problem for the next generation.  If they want a solution for their generation, they need to "think outside the box."  As a group they need to approach higher levels in the University.  They need to make themselves heard.

This document is at http://sep.stanford.edu/sep/jon/trash/ESMB/.