*This plan became the basis for the major component of ZSR Library’s Capital Fund – see Build a Library for the Future.

ZSR is the most heavily used academic building on campus, but it is showing its age, with most of its original infrastructure and some furnishings from the 1950’s. Concurrently, systemic disruptive changes in the academic information landscape are having major impacts in how our patrons want to use the physical space that is ZSR Library. To address these issues and ensure success for Wake Forest faculty and students, the ZSR Library proposes to make radical changes to the existing building and the way it is used.

Together with Facilities’ infrastructure needs for the building and the programmatic plan for functional enhancement of library services, we are seeking to identify total funding, from both university and capital campaign sources, that will address both this long deferred maintenance and programmatic renovation for the future.

Over the next five years (2012-2016), we propose to

• Empty the 4th and 6th floors in the Wilson Wing of printed materials and construct collaborative learning spaces where students will enjoy the support of library professionals as they learn how to find, evaluate, and utilize digital information of the highest quality.
• Use the Reynolds Wing, with its structural stacks that cannot be easily used for anything else, to house the most heavily used print collections.
• Utilize the library’s new offsite storage facility to house lesser-used materials that have not yet been replaced with permanent, digital access. Collaborative regional agreements with the libraries of the Association of Southeast Research Libraries will ensure access to print originals of a large number of research journals, where digital access is the norm.
• In collaboration with Facilities, address long deferred infrastructure needs including HVAC distribution, plumbing, electrical and exteriors.