- Event: Walter C. Koerner Library opening
- Date: Monday, March 10, 1997
- Time: 3:30-4:15 p.m.
- Place: Plaza in front of Walter C. Koerner Library, 1958
Main Mall. Parking is available in the Rose Garden Parkade. Enter
off Northwest Marine Drive.
UBC’s new Walter C. Koerner Library, a state-of-the art facility
wired for the future, receives its official public opening on March
10.
“With the opening of the Walter C. Koerner Library, the services
and resources available to students and the community have dramatically
expanded,” says UBC President David Strangway.
“In addition to providing desperately needed space for UBC’s rich
and diverse collections, this state-of-the-art facility provides
on-line access to information from around the globe, a critical
link in ensuring that UBC keeps pace with our increasingly knowledge-based
world.”
Designed by Architectura and Arthur Erickson, the $24-million building
is the first stage of a long-term redevelopment plan for the UBC
library system.
The new building integrates the services and collections of the
former Sedgewick Undergraduate Library with related Main Library
resources: the Humanities and Social Sciences Division, Government
Publications and Microforms and Interlibrary Loans as well as the
library’s central administration offices.
Future plans include additional phases which will allow the relocation
to the new facility of all materials currently housed in Main Library,
the third largest research library in Canada.
UBC’s library holdings comprise more than nine million items, ranging
in format from rare Babylonian clay tablets to medieval manuscripts,
oriental scrolls, CD-ROMs and an expanding collection of on-line
resources.
“This new library is an important investment in promoting further
discovery of knowledge,” says University Librarian Ruth Patrick.
“Hundreds of computer workstations and laptop docking ports give
access to global systems and databases on demand, as well as to
computer training labs teaching Internet skills to navigate to knowledge
anywhere in the world.”
She adds that $1 million a year will be earmarked for new digital
acquisitions.
“Our great friend and donor, Walter Koerner, gave so much to the
university and the library,” Patrick says. “No name could do more
to inspire us as we approach the next millennium.”
-30-
