WSU Library System
Message from Dean Sandra G. Yee
Every year, we strive to make the Library System closer to our users' ideal with improvements and additions to our resources, study spaces and learning experiences. With our new strategic plan firmly in place, we have aligned with the University's updated plan to renew our commitment to service excellence, enhanced facilities, improved accessibility to resources and knowledgeable and friendly staff. In addition, we continue to strive to provide access to electronic information whenever possible and we are working to support research and teaching at th eUniversity by integrating our library resources into instructional design and delivery methods.
2007 saw a number of enhancements to our physical spaces. The Purdy/Kresge library received an "extreme" makeover, with a transformation of the first floor. The area that previously housed the current and bound journals and microform cabinets in the Kresge Library was turned into a quiet learning space for serious students, with access to wireless technology. Planning has already begun to continue the renovation by finishing with a redesign of the reference area on the Purdy side.
We are excited to have engaged an architectural design firm to define how we can convert the former Kinko's space on the first floor of the UGL into a Special Collections/Rare Book room. Following the receipt of several special gifts we have launched a campaign to raise $200,000 for the renovation of the area and the creation of a special collections reading room. The room will include significant collections like the African American Special Literature Collection, a collection with a Detroit-centric focus of over 4,000 volumes including the Dudley Randall Collection, which forms the core of the African American Special Collection. The Library System would like to thank Distinguished Professor Melba Joyce Boyd, the literary executor of the Dudley Randall estate, for gifting the Library System with Randall's private library. Given Randall's significance as a writer, librarian, educator, publisher, mentor and friend to many African American authors, this is a very important collection.
The special collections room will have regular hours of operation and will be attended by a staff librarian to assist scholars with accessing and using the materials. We look forward to not only making the materials available to current researchers, but also to preserving them for the historical record and for the use of future researchers.
Watch our Web site (www.lib.wayne.edu) for many more interesting programs, activities and developments in the coming year. Thank you again for your support!
Sandra G. Yee
Dean