By Micaela Morales and Carrie Russell
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 6, 1997

IIF and library are not related

Editor:

We are writing in response to D. Shayne Christie's article "Board Approves $8 Million for Library" appearing in the November 3rd issue of the Wildcat. We are members of the Library's Space Study Team and would like to take this opportunity to clarify the history and purpose of the Library Expansion Project recently passed by the Arizona Board of Regents. The Wildcat and other media such as the Arizona Daily Star failed to examine the full scope of the Library's proposal.

The Library Expansion Project is not tied to the Integrated Instructional Facility (IIF). The Library has been working since 1989 to secure funding for expansion and renovation of the libraries. The current Space Study Team would have submitted a proposa l regardless of the status of the IIF.

The benefits of the proposal to all University and community users are many. If approved, users can look forward to a Library Information Commons, a 24-hour facility with 200 computer stations, to provide access to the Internet, multimedia, electronic re sources, and other high-tech programs.

Because of the approval of the IIF and its physical link to the lower level of the Main Library, up to sixty library staff must be relocated to another floor. This led our team to place the Library Information Commons adjacent to the IIF. This series of events led to the false assumption that the IIF and the Library proposal were linked. It is unfortunate that this misconception became the focal point of the Regents' discussion as well as the media coverage of the ABOR meeting.

This project will support the Library's expanding and evolving role as the intellectual crossroads of the campus.

We welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with Wildcat staff.

Micaela Morales
Assistant Librarian
Main Library

Carrie Russell
Associate Librarian
Main Library