Students examine history boards depicting the
University and the opening of OUGL in 1972.

Odegaard Undergraduate Library Looks to the Future with 25th Anniversary

Jill McKinstry, Odegaard Undergraduate Library

With music, displays, balloons and cake, the Odegaard Undergraduate Library at the University of Washington celebrated its 25th anniversary on November 19, 1997; dedicated the UWired Commons, the largest drop-in computing center on campus; and paid tribute to Dr. Charles E. Odegaard, former University of Washington president (1958-1973) and visionary for the library that bears his name. The presence of the 240-seat computing lab, located on the second floor of the library, was a perfect backdrop for ceremonies that celebrated the continually evolving nature of library service to undergraduates.

As a tribute to how library and information service has changed over the past quarter of a century, the occasion was a joint celebration with current students, who helped fund the new computers in the lab from the newly implemented Student Technology Fee, and with the principal partners in UWired: the University Libraries, Computing & Communications, the office of Undergraduate Education, and UW Educational Outreach. Paula Walker, former head of Odegaard Undergraduate Library, discovered in researching the history of the library that over thirty years ago planners did think about technology and its role.

"The `Library Long-Range Development Plan,' dated December 10, 1964, notes in the section on the Undergraduate Library that `space should be provided for a computational facility even though its functions are not immediately applicable to an undergraduate library. Use for such instruments is not distant; space adequately wired and insulated for such purposes does not now exist in the University Library and the opportunity of providing such space de novo will spare expensive remodeling later.' Unfortunately, the funding for the Undergraduate Library as it was built did not allow for this farsighted planning."

OUGL has, however, become the "UWired" library. In 1994, UWired was formed to enhance undergraduate education by bringing technology into the service of teaching and learning, and to build learning communities in which collaboration and active learning are an integral part . It has grown from a pilot project for a small number of incoming freshmen to a campus-wide initiative that serves thousands of students and hundreds of faculty. In addition to a 240-seat computing lab, UWired has hands-on teaching facilities, called "collaboratories," and an extensive training and workshop program for faculty, teaching assistants, and librarians housed in the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, also located on the second floor of the library.

One of the many benefits of placing the lab within the library is the physical proximity. Every day over 5,600 students, faculty and staff come to the undergraduate library and most of them will head to the new lab at least once during the day.

Louis Fox, UW vice provost for educational partnerships, sees locating the Commons in the library as particularly advantageous. "An `information commons' is more than just a computer lab where you can get help when you are having trouble with the software," he says. "Students can consult not only with computing professionals, but with librarians--the campus information experts--who can help them think of research strategies that include traditional print as well as online resources."

In contrast to the library of 1972, computing functions are now as much an integral part of library service for students, faculty, and staff as providing a quiet place to study or read. Students and faculty now come to the library for access to online information resources, participate in online class discussions, consult class syllabi, and submit homework or projects electronically from the library.