| What is the name of your committee? | Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee |
| Your Name | Jared Hoppenfeld |
| Your Email | jhoppenf@tamu.edu |
| If your committee is part of a section, please select it (if applicable) | Buildings & Operations |
| Which report are you submitting? | May |
| How many times did your group meet during this reporting period? | 4-6 |
| First Activity | |
| Please summarize work accomplished, decisions made, and follow-up actions determined during the past 6 months. Your summary can be a narrative or bullet points, see below for reporting on specific areas. |
Discussions on potential webinars to sponsor
We have been planning for ALA Annual 2026
We have been planning for Core Forum 2027
We have had great discussions in the 2nd half of our meetings covering the following topics:
|
| Second Activity | |
| If your committee has a specific strategic goal assigned, update any progress made on this goal. | |
| Third Activity | |
| Deliverables (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
With ALA Annual a month away, we have made significant progress on preconference tour planning as well as our session on sound in libraries. |
| Ongoing Work (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
Discussions on potential webinars to sponsor
We have been planning for ALA Annual 2026
We have been planning for Core Forum 2027
|
| Fourth Activity | |
| What will your group be working on for the next 6 months? Write these goals in SMART goal format. |
|
| Fifth Activity | |
| How did your work contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, or belonging within Core or the library profession? What areas of improvement do you see for your committee or Core in these areas? |
Our work and discussions consider different types of spaces for the needs of all – such as Wellness Suite with nap pods while taking into account different sensory needs. We have also spoken about prayer and meditation rooms as well as the needs of different sound levels throughout libraries. Our committee itself is made up of a diverse group – not just gender and background, but in our professional worlds – some are librarians, others architects, others consultants. We bring with us different experiences and a world of knowledge to share. |
| Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work? | We have had amazing support from Core staff, including Tom and Todd. |
| Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work. | |
| Please describe anything you need to bring to the Core Board or section leadership for discussion or action at their next meeting. | |
| Please share any additional comments, concerns, or suggestions you have. | |
| Today’s Date | 05/26/2026 |
Category: Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee
Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee – December 2025 Report
| What is the name of your committee? | Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee |
| Your Name | Rhonda Gonzales Manzanares |
| Your Email | rhonda.gonzales@csupueblo.edu |
| If your committee is part of a section, please select it (if applicable) | Buildings & Operations |
| Which report are you submitting? | December |
| How many times did your group meet during this reporting period? | 4-6 |
| First Activity | |
| Please summarize work accomplished, decisions made, and follow-up actions determined during the past 6 months. Your summary can be a narrative or bullet points, see below for reporting on specific areas. |
|
| Second Activity | |
| If your committee has a specific strategic goal assigned, update any progress made on this goal. | |
| Third Activity | |
| Deliverables (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
|
| Ongoing Work (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
|
| Fourth Activity | |
| What will your group be working on for the next 6 months? Write these goals in SMART goal format. |
|
| Fifth Activity | |
| How did your work contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, or belonging within Core or the library profession? What areas of improvement do you see for your committee or Core in these areas? |
With our preconference tours, we aim to visit a diverse selection of universities and spaces, and our ALA |
| Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work? | |
| Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work. | |
| Please describe anything you need to bring to the Core Board or section leadership for discussion or action at their next meeting. | |
| Please share any additional comments, concerns, or suggestions you have. | |
| Today’s Date | 12/11/2025 |
Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee – May 2025 Report
| What is the name of your committee? | Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee |
| Your Name | Jared Hoppenfeld |
| Your Email | jhoppenf@tamu.edu |
| If your committee is part of a section, please select it (if applicable) | Buildings & Operations |
| Which report are you submitting? | May |
| How many times did your group meet during this reporting period? | 4-6 |
| First Activity | |
| Please summarize work accomplished, decisions made, and follow-up actions determined during the past 6 months. Your summary can be a narrative or bullet points, see below for reporting on specific areas. |
|
| Second Activity | |
| If your committee has a specific strategic goal assigned, update any progress made on this goal. | |
| Third Activity | |
| Deliverables (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
|
| Ongoing Work (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
|
| Fourth Activity | |
| What will your group be working on for the next 6 months? Write these goals in SMART goal format. |
|
| Fifth Activity | |
| How did your work contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, or belonging within Core or the library profession? What areas of improvement do you see for your committee or Core in these areas? |
With our preconference tours, we aim to visit a diverse selection of universities and spaces, and our ALA tour always appeals to an international audience; we are already seeing several registered attendees from various countries. We had numerous presenters in our webinar series speak about diversity and inclusion in their spaces and at least one of our presenters came from a university with three designations of minority-serving. We continue to seek to diversify our membership on the committee, along multiple axis, including encouraging more architects. We have had some success, but there is still room for improvement, so it will remain among our recruiting goals. |
| Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work? | |
| Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work. | |
| Please describe anything you need to bring to the Core Board or section leadership for discussion or action at their next meeting. | |
| Please share any additional comments, concerns, or suggestions you have. | |
| Today’s Date | 05/27/2025 |
Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee – December 2024 Report
| What is the name of your committee? | Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee |
| Your Name | Carla Lee |
| Your Email | carlalee@virginia.edu |
| If your committee is part of a section, please select it (if applicable) | Buildings & Operations |
| Which report are you submitting? | December |
| How many times did your group meet during this reporting period? | 4-6 |
| First Activity | |
| Please summarize work accomplished, decisions made, and follow-up actions determined during the past 6 months. Your summary can be a narrative or bullet points, see below for reporting on specific areas. |
|
| Second Activity | |
| If your committee has a specific strategic goal assigned, update any progress made on this goal. | |
| Third Activity | |
| Deliverables (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
|
| Ongoing Work (Fill in bullet point and progress made) | |
| Fourth Activity | |
| What will your group be working on for the next 6 months? Write these goals in SMART goal format. |
|
| Fifth Activity | |
| How did your work contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, or belonging within Core or the library profession? What areas of improvement do you see for your committee or Core in these areas? |
Our Core Forum presentation included practitioners from across a variety of institutions, including a minority-serving university. We continue to seek to diversify our membership on the committee, along multiple axis, including encouraging more architects. We have had some success, but there is still room for improvement, so it will remain among our recruiting goals. |
| Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work? | |
| Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work. | |
| Please describe anything you need to bring to the Core Board or section leadership for discussion or action at their next meeting. | |
| Please share any additional comments, concerns, or suggestions you have. | |
| Today’s Date | 12/20/2024 |
Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee – May 2024 Report
| What is the name of your committee? | Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee |
| Your Name | Carla Lee & Kris Johnson |
| Your Email | cl9eb@virginia.edu |
| If your committee is part of a section, please select it (if applicable) | Buildings & Operations |
| Which report are you submitting? | May |
| How many times did your group meet during this reporting period? | 4-6 |
| First Activity | |
| Please summarize work accomplished, decisions made, and follow-up actions determined during the past 6 months. Your summary can be a narrative or bullet points, see below for reporting on specific areas. |
|
| Second Activity | |
| If your committee has a specific strategic goal assigned, update any progress made on this goal. | |
| Third Activity | |
| Deliverables (Fill in bullet point and progress made) | |
| Ongoing Work (Fill in bullet point and progress made) | |
| Fourth Activity | |
| What will your group be working on for the next 6 months? Write these goals in SMART goal format. |
|
| Fifth Activity | |
| How did your work contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, or belonging within Core or the library profession? What areas of improvement do you see for your committee or Core in these areas? |
We take this work into consideration when creating programming. For example, our panel session for the 2024 Annual Conference in San Diego directly addresses this topic: “Designing Libraries with Diverse Communities in Mind Using Lenses of Neurodiversity and Process Driven Approaches.” |
| Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work? | a. We’ve never heard anything back about the Diversity Liaison program. Even if this liaison is no longer in existence, please just let us know so we no longer appoint a member to this role. Thanks. b. Acknowledging receipt of committee report(s). Just a note or auto response that the report was received would be much appreciated. |
| Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work. | a. Additional tours. If hosting an in-person conference or event, consider BCUL as your go-to committee to organize tours or academic and/or innovative spaces |
| Please describe anything you need to bring to the Core Board or section leadership for discussion or action at their next meeting. | a. The same feedback as from our last report: When promoting presentations or tours created by units under Core, such as our committee (BCUL), it would be greatly appreciated that you use the name of our committee in that promotion, so our group gets the credit for our work, which drives interest and membership vs Core simply being the name on all events. Thanks for considering. |
| Please share any additional comments, concerns, or suggestions you have. | a. The committee continues to need members who are architects. Anything the Buildings & Operations Section of Core could do to help us recruit architects for our committee would be appreciated. |
| Today’s Date | 06/03/2024 |
Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee – December 2023 Report
Part of the Buildings & Operations Section
The group met 4-6 times this quarter.
Committee Work
Summary of work accomplished, decisions made, and follow-up actions determined during the past 6 months
- The committee delivered two successful events at the 2023 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. These were not reported on in our last report so will be reported here.
- Pre-Conference Tour: 35 attendees participated in “Innovative Learning Spaces: A Tour of Innovative Chicago Area Academic Institutions”. We traveled to two libraries at the University of Chicago and also toured the Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).
- Panel Presentation: We had an overflowing room of attendees for our panel session “Academic Libraries, Campus Partners, and Student Success”. Estimates are that we had over 150 attendees, who asked a lot of questions of panelists during the Q&A then stayed to talk to panelists after the session. Core has asked us to turn this panel session into a Core webinar. Member David Zenk is working with Core and panelist on two possible webinars to happen in the spring of 2024.
- The continuing co-chair Kris Johnson onboarded Carla Lee, who volunteered to help co-chair, to the duties and processes.
- The committee co-chairs performed successful outreach to potential new members, replenishing the membership for the current year in an effort to sustain the committee through the next year when a large number of long-time members will need to step off the committee. Eight new members were added to the committee roster.
- The committee delivered two successful events at the 2023 Core Forum in New Orleans.
- Pre-Conference Tour: Twenty attendees participated in “Inspiration for Library Design: A Tour of Alternative Creative Making Environments in New Orleans Sponsored by BCUL.” We traveled to Tulane University’s School of Architecture Fabrication Labs & Studio BE, a NOLA landmark and cultural destination.
- The committee submitted two events for the 2024 ALA Annual conference in San Diego, a pre-conference tour and a panel session proposal.
Progress on Goal Assigned in the Strategic Plan
N/A
Progress on Deliverables
- Delivered two programs at the 2023 ALA Annual Conference.
- Delivered two programs at the 2023 Core Forum.
Progress on Ongoing Work
- Meeting monthly
- Continuing with discussion topics and slide shows at monthly meetings
- Coordinating and working on logistics for our pre-conference tour for 2024 Annual Conference in San Diego. Proposal submitted. Acceptance pending.
- Preparing our panel presentation for 2024 ALA Annual Conference in San Diego. Proposal accepted.
- Working on possible proposals for the 2024 Core Forum in Minneapolis
- Reviewing our alignment with other Building & Operations Section Committees
What will your group be working on for the next 6 months?
- Meeting monthly
- Continuing with discussion topics and slide shows at monthly meetings
- Coordinating and working on logistics for our pre-conference tour for 2024 Annual Conference in San Diego. Proposal submitted. Acceptance pending.
- Preparing our panel presentation for 2024 ALA Annual Conference in San Diego. Proposal accepted.
- Working on possible proposals for the 2024 Core Forum in Minneapolis
- Reviewing our alignment with other Building & Operations Section Committees
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Not Applicable/Operational
How did your work contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, or belonging within Core or the library profession? What areas of improvement do you see for your committee or Core in these areas?
- Our pre-conference tour at the Core Forum in New Orleans, “Inspiration for Library Design: A Tour of Alternative Creative Making Environments in New Orleans Sponsored by BCUL” highlighted important work happening in New Orleans to harness the power of creative expression and community, related to New Orleans Black history and culture, and students (the designers of our future) design work on the Tulane campus. Through awareness building, as library designers we can become more empathetic and understanding in order to create libraries of the future for all users.
Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Core staff are fabulous and helped us in many ways this year. Julie, Thomas, Mia, Jenny, and Amber are all fabulous.
Unlike ACRL, Core has no mechanism to provide honoraria for panelists or gifts for tour hosts. Carving out a budget for honoraria or gifts would be a nice addition. We understand the low number of Core members as compared to ACRL is likely the reason but are including this to get in on your radars, nonetheless.
Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
One initiative that Core could facilitate is joint projects and collaborations between sections. In our case, BCUL would like to partner more with other committees within the Buildings and Operations Section. More communication within the Buildings and Operations Section overall would be welcome and appreciated.
Submitted by Kris Johnson on 12/22/2023
Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee – May 2023 Report
Part of the Buildings & Operations Section
The group met 4-6 times this quarter.
Recent Activities
First Activity
We continued our regularly scheduled meetings on the last Friday of every month.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Membership and Value to Members
Second Activity
Discussion Topics: We continued our timely topics discussions, set aside as the last half hour of every monthly meeting. We have discussed the ACRL survey of academic libraries and the trends section of that survey that rotates from year to year, as well as master planning and Occuspace data counting.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Membership and Value to Members
Third Activity
The committee developed and submitted a presentation proposal for the 2023 Core Forum in New Orleans – “Are We at New Normal? What's Happening with Academic Library Space Utilization". This proposal has been accepted.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Career Building and Recognition
Fourth Activity
The committee developed and submitted a tour proposal for the 2023 Core Forum in New Orleans – “Inspiration for Library Design: A Tour of Alternative Creative Making Environments in New Orleans Sponsored by BCUL ". This proposal has been accepted.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Career Building and Recognition
Fifth Activity
Preparing our presentation for 2023 Chicago Conference. Delivering the panel session. Coordinating and working on logistics for our pre-conference tour for 2023 Core Forum in New Orleans, if accepted.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Career Building and Recognition
What will your group be working on for the next 6 months?
a. Meeting every month
b. Continuing with discussion topics and slide shows at monthly meetings
c. Coordinating and working on logistics for our pre-conference tour for 2023 Annual Conference in Chicago. Delivering the tour.
d. Preparing our presentation for 2023 Chicago Conference. Delivering the panel session.
e. Coordinating and working on logistics for our pre-conference tour for 2023 Core Forum in New Orleans, if accepted.
f. Preparing our presentation for 2023 Core Forum in New Orleans.
g. Preparing our tour for the 2023 Core Forum in New Orleans.
h. Reviewing our alignment with other Building & Operations Section Committees
Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
a. Communication related to our appointment of a Diversity Liaison.
b. Acknowledging receipt of committee report(s).
Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
a. Additional tours
Additional comments or concerns:
a. The committee needs an architect co-chair. No current members have volunteered to fill this role. (See next point.) Perhaps an architect from another group in our Buildings and Operations section might like to co-chair?
b. Our committee needs new members. This group has been together for quite some time, with most members rotating through the co-chair at one time or another.
Submitted by Kris Johnson on 05/30/2023
Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee – December 2022 Report
Part of the Buildings & Operations Section
The group met 4-6 times this quarter.
Recent Activities
First Activity
Regularly Schedule of Monthly Meetings
To increase predictability of meetings for committee members, we moved to a regularly scheduled meeting the last Friday of every month. Previously, meetings were schedule on an ad hoc, as needed basis. The committee unanimously agreed to this change, which has been working well.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Membership and Value to Members
Second Activity
Monthly Discussion Topics & Slide Shows During Monthly Meetings
1. Discussion Topics: To increase value of our monthly meetings, we have set aside the last half hour to discuss a timely topic that affects our members. For example in October we discussed “What do we see as new metrics for library building use as we move away from the start of the pandemic?” This informal discussion allows participants to learn from each other through what has worked and not worked in their particular institutions.
2. Slide Shows: These were conceived as another opportunity for members to interact and share informally and interesting libraries they have visited. For instance, Kris Johnson shared slides of her tour of the Marriott Library at the Core Forum, as well as the Charles Library at Temple University as part of the Designing Libraries Conference. These allows members to learn about current trends and practical solutions at other academic institutions.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Membership and Value to Members
Third Activity
2023 ALA Conference Proposal:
The committee developed and submitted a proposal for the ALA Annual Conference – “Academic Libraries, Campus Partners, and Student Success”. This proposal has been accepted.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Career Building and Recognition
Fourth Activity
2023 ALA Annual Preconference Proposal
The committee developed and submitted a proposal for a preconference tour for the ALA 2023 Annual Conference – “A Tour of Innovative Chicago Area Academic Institutions”. This full day tour will include the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library, and the Illinois Institute of Technology’s (IIT) Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation. This proposal has been accepted.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Career Building and Recognition
Fifth Activity
Coordination with Core Procedures
Another activity was to actively coordinate BCUL activities with Core practices and procedures. We moved all communication onto ALA Connect, uploaded previous meeting minutes and agendas (that we could locate), reports, presentation submittals etc. We schedule all committee meeting through the Core Zoom account. We appointed a diversity liaison but have yet to hear anything back related to their duties and responsibilities nor have they been contacted to participate in any way.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Membership and Value to Members
What will your group be working on for the next 6 months?
a. Meeting every month
b. Continuing with discussion topics and slide shows at monthly meetings
c. Coordinating and working on logistics for our pre-conference tour for 2023 Annual Conference in Chicago
d. Preparing our presentation for 2023 Chicago Conference
e. Developing proposals for presentations and a tour for 2023 Core Forum – New Orleans
f. Developing a webinar series on Master Planning
g. Reviewing our alignment with other Building & Operations Section Committees
Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
More communication related to our appointment of a Diversity Liaison
Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
Additional tours
Additional comments or concerns:
In addition to the comment above, which is important to us: We have spent much of this year rebuilding the committee following the pandemic to be a functioning and productive committee focused on our topic. We have also actively attempted to coordinate our activities with the new procedures as presented in the Core Buildings and Operation Section Handbook. We feel we have a good core group – but would like to see the committee expand to reach more members.
Submitted by Kris Johnson & Nanette Andersson, Co Chairs on 12/30/2022
Buildings for College and University Libraries Committee – December 2021 Report
Part of the Buildings & Operations Section
The group met 1 time this quarter.
Recent Activities
First Activity
Our committee reviewed proposal options for CORE Forum and ALA Annual Conference. We established a sub-committee group to look at issues of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion associated with the design of academic libraries. The group proposed bringing together a panel which would include an academic library director, and institutional EDI research specialist, and possibly an architect to discuss recent experience with the topic. Committee members reached out to another CORE group who was planning a similar proposal with Public Library groups. Our sub-committee decided not to proceed with the proposal submission.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Advocacy and EDI
Second Activity
Our committee reviewed proposal options for CORE Forum and ALA Annual Conference. We established a second sub-committee group to look at developing a proposal to continue an Academic Library Survey discussion that was started through a Chronicle of Higher Education Program & Perkins Eastman Architects. The data results were not available and we decided not to proceed with the proposal submission.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Continuing Education
What will your group be working on for the next 6 months?
Our committee is a mix of institutional librarians and architects, the institution participants were still in limbo on travel and in-person participation as of our meeting in September 2021. This has created a lack of enthusiasm to engage with the committee work. The uncertainty of in-person conferences and forums and reluctance to participate in the virtual events is also a problem.
Our efforts will be to build back more excitement around developing proposal ideas and meeting as a committee again.
Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
The CORE transition on top of the pandemic has created a high level of uncertainty that has impacted our group. It would be good if things get on track and lines of communication are improved so everyone has a strong sense of the direction forward.
Submitted by David Zenk on 01/27/2022