Library » Renovation http://www.drew.edu/library Just another Drew University Sites site Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:48:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Drew Today: A Special Place for Special Collections http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/12/drew-today-a-special-place-for-special-collections http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/12/drew-today-a-special-place-for-special-collections#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:56:55 +0000 Jennifer A. Heise http://www.drew.edu/library/?p=6382 http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/12/drew-today-a-special-place-for-special-collections/feed 0 Renovation of the United Methodist Archives and History Center at Drew University http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/12/renovation-announcement http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/12/renovation-announcement#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:55:14 +0000 Jennifer A. Heise http://www.drew.edu/library/?p=6341 The United Methodist Archives and History Center at Drew University will undergo a major renovation during 2012-13. This work is made possible thanks to a generous gift from the university’s long-time benefactor Norman Tomlinson, who has previously given the Drew University Library significant collections of Byron, Whitman and Churchill. A new, ideal climate-controlled environment will be installed on the second floor, including a non-water fire-suppressant system. Security measures will be tightened, and movable compact shelving will replace the traditional shelving, thereby doubling storage capacity.

Work is scheduled to run from December 2012 through August 2013. Collections housed on the second floor will be moved to temporary storage areas. These collections include all Methodist books, periodicals, pamphlets and serials, as well as the Byron Society of America collection and the Society for Biblical Literature archive. They will be unavailable for the duration of the renovation project. All Methodist manuscript collections, microforms, Drew University Library’s special collections and Drew University Archives will continue to be available.

For further information or to check the availability of collections, please contact Chris Anderson at cjanders@drew.edu.

]]> http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/12/renovation-announcement/feed 0 Collins Gift to Refurbish Wilson Reading Room http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/10/collins-gift-to-refurbish-wilson-reading-room http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/10/collins-gift-to-refurbish-wilson-reading-room#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:51:36 +0000 Jennifer A. Heise http://www.drew.edu/library/?p=6270 A long-time friend of Drew University, Maribeth Collins of Portland, Oregon, has donated $100,000 for the renovation of the Wilson Reading Room. The room is named for her father, Clarence True Wilson, a well-known Methodist minister and prohibitionist whose papers are among Drew’s holdings. The room will be refurbished with new furniture and a new lighting system and a 1,200 square foot single-story addition to the room on the south façade will be added in the future. Fund raising for the expansion is continuing. The generosity of Mrs. Collins will be a catalyst for gifts from additional donors.

Collins was a lead donor in the funding of the Methodist Center thirty years ago. In collaboration with Drs. Robert and Vivian Bull and Dr. Ken Rowe, she has donated a number of unique collections to Drew, including Civil War papers that were pivotal to History Professor Wyatt Evans’ volume, The Legend of John Wilkes
Booth: Myth, Memory, and a Mummy (University of Kansas, 2004).

]]> http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/10/collins-gift-to-refurbish-wilson-reading-room/feed 0 $1M Gift to Create Space for Special Collections http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/10/1m-gift-to-create-space-for-special-collections http://www.drew.edu/library/2012/10/1m-gift-to-create-space-for-special-collections#comments Mon, 22 Oct 2012 17:39:36 +0000 Jennifer A. Heise http://www.drew.edu/library/?p=6262 The Drew Library is known for its special collections, unique materials that expand undergraduate— as well as faculty, graduate student, and visiting scholar—opportunities for research. Noteworthy among the holdings are Willa Cather manuscripts, the Methodist Archives, the Governor Thomas H. Kean Archive, the Byron Society Library, the Bela Kornitzer Collection, the R.S. Thomas Collection, the Robert Frost Collection, and the Tomlinson Lord Byron, Walt Whitman, and Winston Churchill Collections.

At the present time, these collections are scattered throughout the three Library buildings and not always readily available for use. But not for long. Thanks to a $1 million gift from Norman Tomlinson of Miami, Florida, most of these collections will soon be brought together in one location in the Methodist Center.

The second floor of the building will be renovated so that an ideal, climate-controlled environment will be provided for these unique materials—an environment that will rival that of the fabled underground vaults. A new, non-water fire-suppressant system will also be installed and security measures tightened.Movable, compact shelving will replace the traditional shelving, thereby doubling the storage capacity. Several deferred maintenance projects will also be addressed.

The collections currently residing on the second floor will be moved to temporary storage areas in other parts of the building starting in October 2012 and will not be accessible until May 2013. However, the other collections in the building, including the microforms and many manuscript collections, will continue to be available. In May, the collections in the other buildings will be moved to their new home.

Mr. Tomlinson has taken a keen interest in the care of Drew’s special collections and has urged Drew to do all it can to make them easily accessible, especially to undergraduates. During the Library’s strategic planning in 2007, and again last year, he helped shape plans that extended these values. Tomlinson has not only donated priceless collections to Drew but has actively encouraged others to do the same and played a strategic role in convincing the Byron Society of America that Drew was the ideal location for its library.

As further funds become available, the second phase of the project will unfold. It calls for renovating the Wilson Reading Room and doubling the cramped space with a glass-walled addition. The expanded reading room will become a beautiful and inspiring space worthy of the collections and conducive to scholarly exploration.

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