Friday, Jan 31, 2020
Dear Rider Community,
Earlier this month, I mentioned that the plan to transition the materials of Talbott Library to Moore Library was approved by the Facilities Monitoring Committee.
Today, I’m excited to share with you more details about the plan, which will create dedicated spaces intended solely for Talbott materials while also making significant improvements to the overall functionality and efficiency of Moore Library.
These plans were created with input from librarians from the Princeton and Lawrenceville campuses, as well as other faculty and staff. Our goal was to preserve student and faculty access to Talbott's important scholarly resources while improving Moore Library in ways that will benefit all Rider students. I'm very encouraged that the resulting vision will achieve these goals.
Complete renovations to the two top floors of Moore will become the new home for Talbott’s resources. On the top floor, a new space will be created solely dedicated to housing scores, choral music titles, sound and video recordings, and more, as well as Talbott’s Special Collections. On the third floor, brand new offices for the Talbott faculty and staff will be created, as will a new circulation area for Talbott materials.
Rider’s Historic Typewriter and Business Machine Collections will be moved to the second floor where they will be publicly displayed and Rider’s Rare Book Collection also will be relocated to the second floor. All current offices on the third floor will be preserved, and Riderana, the University’s archive collection, will be expanded to include appropriate materials from both Talbott and Moore.
On Moore’s second floor, where most patrons enter the building, a new circulation area has been designed to create a more open and efficient working area that also allows for the processing of materials that currently takes place on the top floor. Four current offices will be moved to this area and a new conference room for staff and a computer area for students will be created. The 24-hour study lounge will be removed and reestablished in the Student Recreation Center.
No changes are currently expected to the ground floor of Moore Library as part of this plan. Work on the project is expected to begin by March and continue through the summer.
I'm delighted that this plan, which is the result of a collaborative effort, allocates the necessary space to continue the extraordinary work of our library faculty and staff in meeting the needs of the Rider community.
Sincerely,
DonnaJean Fredeen, Ph.D.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs