The library on any college campus is the center from which students and faculty draw information to create knowledge. As we look to Juniata’s future, Beeghly Library must not only evolve to provide many forms of information, it must host space and ideas that strengthen the ability of our community—students and faculty—to learn. The spirit of curiosity and engagement, interdisciplinarity, well-being, and citizenship come together on Juniata’s campus, and most powerfully in the intellectual heart of campus. All faculty, staff, and students use Beeghly Library. In the campaign underway for Juniata—an effort that will transform the College—it is the only project that will affect not only every Juniata student, but indeed everyone who participates in the learning enterprise at Juniata.

We believe our campus serves as a crucible where intelligence and curiosity meet opportunity. Our physical buildings and spaces must better meet that promise.

We believe our campus serves as a crucible where intelligence and curiosity meet opportunity. Our physical buildings and spaces must better meet that promise.

Rooms of Our Own

When John Dale '54 walked to the podium at the groundbreaking of the new Integrated Media and Studio Arts Building to reveal its namesake, he had a reason for honoring the couple he was about to name. It might be better, however, if the honoree told the story.

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Preservation of Memories

If there is one thing Bill Hayes knows like the back of his hand, it's how to build strong relationships. He knows that if you build on trust, even at a small rural institution, you can then grow that enterprise into a formidable player in a larger market.

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For millennia, libraries have resided at the core of learning, housing accumulated information accessible through the latest technological format, which, for centuries, was books. Now, the formats are a mix of digital resources, specialist networks, faculty talent, advisers and learning resources, and books. Juniata will renovate and expand Beeghly Library to include resources—among them spaces, people, and technology—that students, faculty, and staff will use to coordinate the learning enterprise.

Today’s students excel at collaboration, navigating social networks as they volunteer, gain experience, and learn. Often they arrive with learning styles and fluencies that benefit from interactive learning environments: small gathering areas, technologically enhanced spaces, video conference rooms, and the like. While one still can see students sitting alone, head bent over a book, students also shape their environment—moving tables together, huddling near an outlet where a laptop is plugged in—to suit their learning style. The renovated library will harness their spirit of collaboration and cooperation, structuring an environment where collaborative learning takes place.

In such spaces, students, faculty and staff network, engage with others and resources at distant locations, synthesize knowledge in collaborative workspaces and with assorted tools, and practice turning information into knowledge. They hone their problem-solving skills and teach one another, strengthening their own learning and helping find their passion. The context clarifies the relevance of the skills they hone and the knowledge they construct and critique.

Our faculty will sharpen their ability to guide students of varying strengths, perspectives, and interests toward success. While Juniata provides trained tutors and counselors (in addition to the faculty), they are located in various places. Our writing center and career services office exist in different parts of campus. Technology training and assistance are in another building. Undergraduate research programs are spread across departments and programs. Our vision is to bring learning resources to a single place for students.

Incorporating a learning commons in Beeghly Library will underscore Juniata’s key attribute: partnership. Our faculty partner with students in their total learning and students develop the capacity to partner with one another. The effect of such work? Learning depends less on the “sage on the stage” and more on the “mentor at the center.”

The changes made within the intellectual heart of Juniata will expand our work on how people teach and learn. Faculty will model engaged learning for students in how they interact with one another, as well as with students, in the same space. By hosting the people, spaces and technology reflective of contemporary learning and shaped by Juniata’s ethos of personalization, Beeghly Library and its learning commons will invigorate all that we do at Juniata.