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Libraries adjust to new chapter

Jamie Martines
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210182
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Karly Krisovenski (left), a sophomore at Seton Hill, studies near the library's floor-to-ceiling windows while seniors Harleigh Solvesky and Lauren Shawgo work in a study room nearby at Reeves Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.
gtrlibraries0210181
Jamie Martines | Tribune-Review
Seton Hill students Brittney Racioppo (left), Arun Thalody, Lindsey Mifsud and Jake Willochell gathered in the Reeves Memorial Library to study and hang out on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.

Harleigh Solvesky spends a lot of time in the Reeves Memorial Library and Learning Commons on Seton Hill University's Greensburg campus — about eight to 10 hours a day, the senior physician's assistant major said.

She has her routine down: grab a table in a glass-walled study room, kick off her shoes and settle in for a homework session with her classmate, senior Lauren Shawgo, who also is studying to be a physician's assistant.

The pair quiz each other on material and discuss homework problems. “We don't just read articles on our computers,” Solvesky said.

When they need a break, they move out to the bright, open common area. Where rows of bookshelves once stood are big tables and couches designed to accommodate more than just the lone scholar.

In a departure from the cardinal rule of most libraries, students gathering at Reeves are encouraged to talk and collaborate, said David Stanley, Seton Hill's library director. The renovated library opened in 2014 and was designed to offer a “one-stop shop” for students' research, writing, tech support and career advising needs.

Seton Hill isn't the only school to rethink the role of the library on campus in recent years. Colleges and universities across the region are looking at ways to transform libraries to accommodate an increasingly digital learning environment, give students a place where they can work together and, if necessary, to be a little noisy.

A 2016 study by the Association of College and Research Libraries shows that libraries across the country are prioritizing collaborative work environments and information literacy instruction as ways to help students be successful.

Local university libraries like Seton Hill are in line with those findings.

Reeves has about 70,000 physical books and 140,000 electronic books, Stanley said. As the library reduced paper copies of journals — now down to two — the number of online subscriptions to journals and databases increased.

Arun Thalody was one of several students gathered around a table in Reeves on Friday morning going over notes from his polymer chemistry class.

“It's more of a space to come do work than to look at books,” said Thalody, a junior biology major. He comes to study but knows he is likely to run into someone he knows. It's a convenient place to get help with homework or find a friend for a study break.

Classmate Brittney Racioppo, a junior biochemistry major, said the bright, open space provides a less stressful work environment. She comes to the library to work, not to socialize, but being in a place that offers a balance between the two is important to her.

The shift in how students view the library can be traced back to their experiences in high school, said Jennifer Bates, president of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association.

“Libraries are just not quiet anymore,” she said. “If your library is silent, you probably haven't jumped into the 21st century yet.”

Libraries have become places were students go to produce information, not to simply consume it, she said. Starting at the earliest grades, students increasingly are being taught to work in groups and collaborate on projects and assignments. That doesn't change when they reach college or the workforce, she said. Libraries are where students can go complete a project from start to finish — for help with navigating both print and online resources to packaging it as a multimedia presentation or a research paper.

That's the library of the future envisioned by Kornelia Tancheva, director of the University of Pittsburgh library system.

“We don't just amass a collection, but we actually enable users to actively use it so that they can produce new and exciting artifacts or textual evidence using those primary materials,” she said of a library's unique physical resources like special print collections and archives.

And as libraries contend with the flood of digital information, librarians continue to play the critical role of helping students locate credible sources and find the best data and information for research projects.

Though the University of Pittsburgh is not downsizing its print collection, it is moving some of it to a storage facility about 2 miles from its main Oakland campus. The books and electronic copies could be available within 24 hours, Tancheva said. Spaces that are freed up could be devoted to more open seating, collaborative work spaces and multimedia labs.

Carnegie Mellon University's Sorrells Engineering and Science Library reopened in March following renovations that increased group study areas and upgraded technology. About 12,000 frequently used books remain in the building while others were moved to storage.

Almost all of the content CMU buys today comes online, said Keith Webster, dean of its libraries. While convenient, navigating digital databases that house journal articles and e-books can be complicated. A basic search could turn up thousands of hits, and knowing how to pick the best set of sources to support a research project can be tricky.

That's where librarians come in. Webster described them as disciplinary experts who can help students, faculty and other researchers on campus not only find the information they need, but also make what they produce — research papers, videos, computer code, for example — easily discoverable for the rest of the academic community.

“In the traditional print library world, people had to come to us to get information,” Webster said. “Today, all of that content is online, and we have to get out to you, wherever you are.”

Jamie Martines is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at jmartines@tribweb.com, 724-850-2867 or via Twitter @Jamie_Martines.