The College received a challenge grant of $575,000 from the National Endowment of the Humanities that will generate nearly $3 million for the renovation and expansion of Schaffer Library.
The NEH challenge grant also will be used to provide multimedia equipment for the refurbished library and to endow acquisition funds for multimedia equipment and materials.
The College will match the grant with private, non-federal donations at a rate of four-to-one-a total of $2.3 million. The final total will be $2.875 million.
President Roger Hull, announcing the grant, said it “is crucial as we begin to create a new library that will be the intellectual center of the campus. Friends of the College will provide a vital role in providing the support that will make this building a reality.”
The NEH announced thirty challenge grants to help institutions in eighteen states. Union received the largest grant of the three recipients in New York State. Of the thirty challenge grants nationwide, Union's was the fourth largest, tied with three other colleges and universities.
Plans are for an expansion and renovation that will include a bibliographic instruction room, a special collections library, a current periodicals room and workspace, a government document center, the Writing Center, an expanded language laboratory, and group and individual study areas.
Barbara Jones, library director, said the key to a successful library in the twenty-first century “will be the ability to provide a gateway to the world's information, since no one library will have everything.
“The new Union library will have the flexibility and the organization to provide access to libraries and other sources of information around the world,” she said.
The cost of the project is estimated at about $15 million, with another $2 million for an endowment fund to support maintenance of the building.
The new library will combine the renovation of the 1960
Schaffer Library with new construction. The 1974 annex will be dismantled and a new three-story facility will be built. Space also will be added to the north and south sides of the 1960 library, and most of the interior will be rebuilt. All told, there will be about 50,000 square feet of new floor space.
Architects for the project are Perry, Dean, Rogers & Partners of Boston.