The New School Libraries, Collections, and Academic Services Unveils New Space Plan
Original sketches by Coco Chanel; an audio recording of a speech Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered at the university on February 6, 1964; scrapbooks of press clippings from the first decades of the school; and blueprints and photos from 1930 of the construction of the 66 West 12th Street building are just a few of the treasures housed in The New School’s Archives and Special Collections. Part of Libraries, Collections, and Academic Services, Archives and Special Collections has been physically separate from the libraries’ services for years. But a recent renovation is bringing the collection to a larger space in the University Center Library and consolidating student-facing services in one location.
“This renovation and relocation are years in the making,” says Ed Scarcelle, the associate provost for Libraries, Collections and Academic Services. “The library has been in the University Center [UC] since it opened in 2014, and around the same time, a library was opened in the Albert and Vera List Center on 16th Street. However, both locations were missing a place for the university’s special collections. We’ve been thinking for years of ways to create a place of pride to showcase the incredible pieces we have in our collection.”
The New School libraries have undergone dramatic changes since the university’s founding. The library was initially housed at 465 West 23rd Street, before the opening of the 66 West 12th Street building in 1930. Since then, the university had established the Raymond Fogelman Library, located at 65 West 11th Street and later 65 Fifth Avenue; Mannes’s Harry Scherman Music Library, at 157 East 74th Street and then 150 West 85th Street; and the Adam L. Gimbel Design Library, later renamed the Adam and Sophie Gimbel Art and Design Library at 2 West 13th Street, which served as the library for Parsons School of Design from 1974 until the opening of the University Center and List Libraries, which allowed the university to house a major portion of the university’s collection in new locations. Now the library is moving to a new phase, focusing on expanding the services it provides to students and researchers.
“We’ve brought the University Learning Center to the UC and moved student-facing librarians down to the sixth floor, which allowed us to concentrate our student services on one floor. It’s turned into much more of a one-stop for academic support services,” says Scarcelle.
The library is moving the archives to the seventh floor to address problems with space. “The archives outgrew its space in the Parsons building a while ago. It’s not large enough to bring in a class to look at archival materials, and it’s a very small space for outside researchers to look at the university’s history. Moving it to the seventh floor provides the space needed to house an expanded and more centralized archive, and we’ll still have an open area for quiet seating,” says Scarcelle.
The archives, which began as the Kellen Design Archives, catalogs and houses works connected to Parsons and has been located in the Parsons building at 66 Fifth Avenue up till now. Over the years, it has grown into The New School Archives and Special Collections and has played an ever-expanding role in collecting and preserving items documenting the university’s history.
“Like most universities, we have many objects and photos that are unique to our university history, like old course catalogs that document all the courses that have been taught here, which are also digitized and can be viewed online; photographs; correspondence with notable figures; and our founding documents. There are also remarkable objects that have been collected over the years by people at The New School. My background is in music, so I love that we have a first edition from 1705 of Arcangelo Corelli’s violin sonatas,” says Scarcelle.
Scarcelle notes that while the layout of the seventh floor made having a stack area there awkward, it is perfect for archival storage. There is also space to create a timed reading room for those visiting the special collections, and eventually rotating displays exhibiting special pieces and artifacts. “Now the library, archives, and learning center are in one space. That gives us more opportunities to offer programming, exhibitions, and instruction to the New School community,” says Scarcelle.