Planning for the College Campus Library: Current Trends and Challenges - Donnegan

Written by Sarah | May 27, 2025 9:56:11 PM

Space Planning Considerations for Libraries

When you step foot on a college or university campus, it appears as if you have stepped into a small town or city. They have their own library, health center, apartment complexes, gymnasium, office buildings, and sometimes even their own police force. Having so many areas of the campus is challenging to begin with, add in the fact that each area is unique and has vastly different needs, it becomes any planners nightmare. Luckily, Donnegan Systems has worked with institutions both large and small across New England and New York, helping them increase both space and efficiency in every area of the campus. In this series of blog posts we will break down the college campus piece by piece, talking about current trends and challenges affecting each individual area, and how you can plan for them in this upcoming school year.

Library Trend: Makerspaces

One of the major trends that Libraries have been seeing in recent years is the use of Makerspaces. Makerspaces are collaborative workspaces inside libraries used for making, learning, exploring and sharing. These spaces usually have a pretty open floor plan with tables and chairs that people can use to make things. Along with the physical space needed in these areas, there also needs to be a storage area to keep craft items, sewing machines, and whatever else might be needed for these crafty sessions. In a time where space is at a premium in all areas of the campus, how do you make space for things like makerspaces?

Library Challenge: Space Constraints

Libraries are a quintessential part of any college community, and more than likely one of the first buildings to go up on campus. With campuses being replica’s of small cities (within larger, real, cities) usually, these areas are fairly landlocked with little to no space to add new buildings. Many colleges and universities have added additions to existing buildings to expand their footprint, but what if that isn’t an option? Some libraries are historic buildings, and some are so landlocked that there isn’t space for an addition even if one was desired. In this instance, librarians and planners are forced to make a tough decision. Do they weed out collections to make space for a new layout? Do they go digital with most of their resources? Do they have a separate satellite library elsewhere? Do they move slow-moving collections offsite? All of these options present their own set of challenges but there are two options that have been the most beneficial to libraries we have worked with: High-Density Mobile Shelving and Offsite Storage.

High-Density Mobile Shelving

High-Density Mobile Shelving has quickly become one of the best solutions for a campus looking to save space. The concept is simple: mobile shelves replace static shelving in order to eliminate wasted aisle space and double storage capacity. This concept has been applied to every area of campus imaginable, but we see it prevalently used in libraries because of their unique position on campus and the sheer magnitude of what they have to store. We have worked with many librarians to design spaces that would maximize their collections storage areas, therefore maximizing the number of collections they get to keep on hand as well. In instances where space is a huge issue, there may be the need to minimize the collections kept on hand, while also maximizing the storage for what is being kept. Many librarians are hesitant to get rid of collections, so where do the collections go that are less frequently accessed but still important to keep? The answer: Offsite Storage.

Offsite Library Storage

When librarians can’t weed collections enough to fit everything in the campus library, they often look for an offsite storage facility to hold the rest. The caveat with these facilities is that they are extremely expensive to own, rent, and provide energy to. Depending on the size of the campus, smaller schools might decide to go in on a warehouse with another college or university nearby. This can help keep costs down while freeing up space on both campuses, and it also increases the amount of resources both schools have access to. The high-density shelving concept can be applied to warehouses as well and on a much larger scale. Because weight loads can be much higher in an industrial setting, the stacks of mobile shelves can be that much higher. Utilizing the vertical space in a warehouse will give you astronomically more storage space and room to store your collections, or even grow them.

Library Trends: Digital Labs

Digital labs are becoming a MUST on all college campuses, and can primarily be found in the library. Although most students these days own their own laptops, they still need access to some of the new technology that may not be available to them on an individual basis. Having digital labs allows students to work on projects together on a larger screen, and can even be a place where students can learn new tools and software programs. Digital labs are more than just rows of computers on tables with chairs in front of them. There are wires that need to be accounted for (and in some cases, hidden), and there are new pieces of technology as well as software programs that should be implemented for students to use. The generation of students who are in college at this time have never known what life was like without technology, and because of this, they expect all the latest and greatest programs and tools to be available at their fingertips (and they’re not wrong in expecting this). Colleges and Universities, now more than ever, have been implementing the latest and greatest in tech trends for one simple reason: to stay current. With enrollment fluctuating from year to year, campuses are doing everything they can to increase enrollment, including buying new toys and programs for their students to use.

Library Trend: TEAL Classrooms

TEAL stands for “Technology Enabled Active Learning” which is a trend affecting many colleges and universities across the country. These so-called “TEAL” classrooms need to have technology in place, as well as be able to accommodate student’ laptops and their own tech that they bring to class. These classrooms (as seen above) are designed specifically for group work and lend themselves well to “blended” or “flipped” courses which have emerged as another trend in the higher education community in recent years. Blended or “flipped” courses are college classes that don’t follow the traditional style of a class (one where a teacher might give a lesson around a particular subject matter and then the students are given homework to further familiarize themselves with the material). A new style of learning has emerged in these “flipped” courses. Now, the courses are structured where students are given a piece of material to learn in their free time, and then the class time is used as a more hands-on approach where the students put what they learned into action, and the teacher is there to better their understanding of what they began learning for themselves.

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