To the Campus Community:
On Wednesday, April 4, Rutgers–Camden hosted a celebration for our city, our campus, and our region when the Camden County Library opened its new branch on the lower level of the Paul Robeson Library.
This critical resource for our community transforms underutilized space in the Robeson Library into an area that now delivers children’s services, public computer access, and other services to the citizens of Camden County. The section that had been occupied by book shelving also has space for two Rutgers–Camden functions: the Future Scholars Program and the Hill Family Center for College Access.
As a national model for collaboration between a university and its community, this work addresses the core values of Rutgers in a seamless and simultaneous fashion. The presence of the county library on our campus offers unique learning experiences for many of our students and faculty across multiple programs, such as childhood studies, psychology, social work, and teacher preparation. Rutgers students will be connected with Camden youth as role models in an environment belonging to both.
The county library provides staffing and materials for this space, which has its own dedicated entrance from the Fifth Street side of the building. The main area of the Robeson Library is not accessible to the public from the county library space. Renovations to this portion of the Robeson Library were funded by the Camden County Library Commission.
The books that were located in the renovated area have been relocated to retractable shelving within the library. Patrons of the Paul Robeson Library continue to have direct access to these volumes, along with more than three million volumes within the Rutgers Library System.
Our work on transforming the Paul Robeson Library into a research library suited for the 21st century needs of our students, faculty, and community now enters a new phase. Starting this summer, we will begin a significant renovation of the second floor of the library facility. The Honors College will be relocated to 319 Cooper Street to allow better service for its ever-growing population of top undergraduate students. The second floor of the Robeson Library will be converted into comfortable space with more individual and group study areas for students. A seminar room will be added to the second floor.
In addition, the classroom on the lower level of the library will be renovated; rest rooms will be built on the library’s main level; and the ventilation/climate control system will be upgraded.
Through these renovations, we are recapturing space for students to study and to conduct research. When completed in 2013, the Robeson Library will be a vastly improved facility that will serve our campus in good stead for decades to come.
Wendell E. Pritchett, J.D., Ph.D.
Chancellor
