Plans for the new UTC Library are in active design and moving forward. The New Library Program Statement Committee was recently presented with schematics.
Construction of the new library building is scheduled to begin in July 2010 with a completion date after January 1, 2012.
UTC’s Lupton Library opened in 1974 with:
• 4,574 enrolled students; current enrollment is now 9,807
• 170,000 volumes; now the library holds 1.7 million items
The current library is 116,000 gross square feet. A renovation and expansion to the Library has been on the UTC Capital Project list since before 1990. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission found the current library building deficient by 58,575 square feet in 2000.
Student learning styles and habits have changed significantly since the current library was first opened as have information research and scholarly practices.
The faculty, staff, and student assistants at the Lupton Library envision the new Library as the academic and intellectual center of campus, a marketplace of ideas. New building components will include classrooms, additional meeting and group study space for collaborative conversation and learning, quiet study spaces for contemplation and inspiration, informal and formal learning spaces to read, talk, rest with increased seating and flexible technologically-enhanced learning spaces.
Operations that will call the new library home include the Writing Center, Student Success Center, Walker Teaching Resource Center, and the Graduate Student Association.
According to the dean of the UTC library, Theresa Liedtka, student use of the facility has nearly doubled in the past 10 years
“For much of the academic year there isn’t an empty seat in the house, and just about the entire academic year there are no computers or laptops available. We are simply maxed out in the current building and are only able to provide about half of the services and programs we could with technology due to the limitations of the building,” said Liedtka.
