Located in the heart of campus, the reimagined Moffitt Library will redefine how a library can serve students in the 21st century. With peer-to-peer tutoring, welcoming spaces, and tools for making, the library will embolden students to ask questions and empower them to find answers.
In 2016, Moffitt’s reimagined fourth and fifth floors, with their sleek and vibrant look and feel, opened to a warm reception. That renovation has proved wildly popular, with flocks of students vying for seats on the updated floors.
Construction on the library’s lower floors is tentatively expected to start by 2024. Among the project’s priorities are cultivating an environment that is welcoming and inclusive; reimagining spaces to support collaboration; and creating spaces for quiet, individual work.
Moffitt puts students at the center of the learning experience, offering barrier-free access to a range of spaces and resources, and friendly help from experts and peers alike. The renovation will strengthen the library’s legacy of fulfilling students’ diverse and changing needs, and provide a space where every student can find support and belonging.
“Moffitt is a hub for undergraduate discovery,” said Elizabeth Dupuis, senior associate university librarian and director of Moffitt Library. “It’s a launchpad. It’s often the first place where new students feel comfortable as they get started on their journey at Berkeley.
“It’s a place that students should feel is their own.”
The Library is continuing to work with donors on capstone gifts to further improve Moffitt Library and enhance the undergraduate experience. To learn more about how you can support the project, contact the Library Development Office at 510-642-9377 or give@library.berkeley.edu.
The vision
What should the library of the future look like? Answering that question has relied upon Berkeley’s most valuable resource: its people. Across workshops and conversations with members of the Berkeley community, a vision for a reimagined Moffitt Library began to take shape. Architecture firm BNIM drew on the results of those meetings, along with plenty of other research and outreach — including 94 meetings with more than 150 people — to crystallize the vision for the library’s lower floors.
Students at the heart
Dreaming up a new vision for the library has relied heavily on feedback and ideas from undergraduates, the very people the library is designed to serve. So what do they want to see? Many emphasize a strong sense of community, where students can work with, and learn from, one another. Some want to be able to plug into the latest technology. Others want a place that embodies a spirit of innovation and recognizes that the people with the boldest ideas often make the biggest difference. And nearly everyone agrees that there should be more seats — a valuable commodity around campus, especially when exams hit.