Running Head: THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF THE INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT
The Changing Landscape of the Information Environment:
Creativity, Collaboration, and The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
Grant Outerbridge
Professor Shimelis Assefa
University of Denver
November 6, 2011
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Abstract
The library and information environment is evolving. Information and information resources can
be discovered, accessed, and perused from anywhere in the world with only a computer and an
Internet connection. Which begs the question: If it is no longer necessary to visit a library in
person in order to interact with its holdings, how, then, is a library to remain open? As a jointuse venture between the San José Public Library (SJPL) and San José State University (SJSU),
the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library represents one possible solution. Through creative
collaboration, and innovative uses of information technology and building design, the King
Library not only effectively serves the population of 30,000 students, staff, and faculty of SJSU
and the nearly 1,000,000 residents of the city of San José, but it also has dramatically increased
visits and usage. Thus, the King Library serves as a possible model for joint-use libraries and
information commons.
Keywords: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, King Library, joint-use, information
commons, information environment, collaboration, technology, innovation,
service
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Introduction
The library and information environment is evolving. Gone are the days of black screen
monitors with yellow letters attached to clunky keyboards, stationary reference desks, paper card
catalogs and policies of hushed tones. Sleek, state-of-the-art computers populate many libraries
and often can be used for almost anything; stationary reference desks are being removed in favor
of “roving reference” whereby librarians proactively assist patrons instead of waiting to be
approached; Online Public Access Catalogs (OPACs) often contain cover images, reviews, and
tables of contents, and can be accessed remotely from any computer with an Internet connection;
and lively collaboration is no longer dissuaded, but encouraged.
With so many changes occurring so rapidly, libraries may be in the position of having to
reevaluate the types of services they provide, how they provide them, and how best to inform
their communities about those services. This paper focuses on the unique partnership between
the San José Public Library and the San José State University Library, which offers joint library
services to the public and academic communities of San José, California. The Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. Library is not only an illustration of the power of creative collaboration, but also an
example of how libraries can thrive in our changing information landscape.
A Grand Vision
After six years of discussion and planning, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
opened its doors in August 2003, offering both academic and public library services to the San
José State University population of 30,000 and the city of San José population of nearly
1,000,000 (Berry III, 2004). Neither Jane Light, director of the San José Public Library (SJPL),
nor Patricia Breivik, director of the San José State University (SJSU) Library, refer to the
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partnership as a merger, as that often denotes a loss of identity; they call it a marriage because
the two sides have retained their personalities and strengths (Breivik, Budd, & Woods, 2005).
The King Library occupies an advantageous location on the border of the SJSU campus
and the city of San José. There are two entrances, one from the university and one from the city,
which, as Peterson (2005) points out, “invites community users to explore not only the library
itself but also the wider university” (p. 57). The building covers 475,000 square feet spread over
eight floors, a mezzanine, and a lower level, through which an atrium extends floor to ceiling
(Peterson, 2005). The ground floor promenade is home to the information and circulation desks,
checkout stations, a café, a children’s room, and a section for browsing current popular
materials; the next four floors are dedicated mainly to public library and merged materials such
as reference resources and teen and adult books; the fifth floor is home to the SJPL and SJSU
special collections and acts as a sort of dividing line between the public and academic libraries;
floors six through eight are dedicated to reading and books, housing 900,000 academic volumes;
and the Grand Reading Room, situated on the eighth floor, offers a policy of absolute silence and
stunning views of the university campus (Peterson, 2005).
As evidenced by its general layout, the public and academic parts of the King Library are
integrated, yet still separate. During the planning stages for the library, it was thought that public
and academic reference services are quite different and that a public librarian could not do the
job of an academic librarian, or vice versa (Eanes, 2010). After much deliberation and an
independent study, it was determined that there was far more overlap between public and
academic librarians than there were differences, and an interleaved system of “tiered reference”
was established (Eanes, 2010). This provides the King Library with the distinct advantage of
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being able to serve the general public, university students, staff, and faculty simultaneously
(Kauppila & Russell, 2003).
The Marriage
When the San José Public Library and the San José State University Library were still
separate, both experienced an increasing lack of public support. Both libraries needed a new
building, and neither was going to get one on its own. After a meeting between the mayor of San
José, the San José State University president, and the directors of the public and university
libraries, a vision of the King Library emerged (Berry III, 2004).
Both libraries operate on budgets much smaller than their peers across the country, so a
partnership makes sense (Berry III, 2004). The overlap in public and academic services raises
the quality of both, and increases the reach into the San José community (Breivik, et al., 2005).
After its first year, the King Library saw an increase in overall visits of almost 70 percent, public
library patrons borrowed 38 percent more materials, and university patrons checked out over 100
percent more. Additionally, public users checked out many academic materials while university
users borrowed a significant number of current, popular materials (Peterson, 2005).
After the collaboration between the city and the university was announced, many
neighborhood communities feared that they would not receive much-needed library branch
renovations; one area had been waiting over 20 years for a new branch. As a result of the city
and university partnership, a bond measure was passed to renovate 14 library branches and build
six new ones (Berry III, 2004). Quoting Breivik, Berry III (2004) writes, “A lot of people don’t
realize that those branches are an integral part of what we’re doing at SJSU and the King
Library. Students and faculty can go to a branch in their neighborhood now and request things
from the university collection” (p. 36). Berry III (2004) continues, saying the partnership is “so
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF THE INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT
successful that it is changing, in a fundamental way, the relationship between the city and the
university” (p. 37).
Unique Systems
The marriage of the SJPL and the SJSU library was not one of convenience but one of
necessity. However, the opportunity presented itself to craft a unique and powerful information
management system and end-user experience for which there was little precedent in America
(Breivik, et al., 2005). Although a detailed discussion of all the innovative features of the King
Library is not feasible in this paper, there are several technological ingenuities that merit closer
inspection.
Many different types of access exist at the physical King Library—e.g. one reference
desk, one circulation desk, one periodicals desk—regardless of whether the patron is seeking
information or materials contained within the holdings of the public or university library
(Peterson, 2005). One of the novel aspects of the King Library’s online presence is that it has
one website serving 23 San José branch libraries. Although the SJPL and the SJSU library have
maintained separate websites that can be accessed through the main King Library website, the
entire merged collection of 1.4 million volumes (Kauppila & Russell, 2003) can be searched,
requested, and reserved in one place (Woods, 2005).
In order for the King Library website to function as it does, both libraries share an
information management system. Migration to this system from two separate systems using
products and services by different vendors was no easy task; both Breivik, et al. (2005) and
Woods (2005) explore in great detail the policy and organizational management decisions, as
well as the political seesawing, involved in the creation of the current system.
6
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Woods (2005) identifies several key aspects of the King Library information
management system that set it apart from typical library systems (punctuation added):

Multi-language support, especially Chinese, Japanese, and Korean;

Online catalog features, notably language interfaces for Spanish and Chinese readers,
a special catalog for children, and embedded customer self-service features;

Enhanced online catalog features that include linking to related materials and
simultaneous broadcast searching of local and Internet resources;

Electronic reserves and Reserve Book Room administration;

Electronic mail notification to customers;

Serials check-in and management;

E-commerce. (p. 208-209)
Underlying the information management system of the King Library is a wealth of
technological collaboration that is the result of years of proposals and negotiations. Since the
King Library is located on the edge of the SJSU campus, powerful and stable Internet service is
provided through the university’s connection to the Corporation for Education Network
Initiatives in California (CENIC) Internet backbone (Breivik, et al., 2005). Much like their
intermingled collections, the SJPL and the SJSU library have integrated their computer networks,
and the result is a network independent from both the city and the university. As a result, a
“highly secure VPN connection” is used for city librarians to connect to the city network, and the
university uses a “secure web-based computing environment” (Woods, 2005, p. 213). The
telephone system is also supported by the university and, according to Breivik, et al. (2005), the
university handled the task with such aplomb during the first year of operation that “the city
library is now engaging the university to support the satellite telephone systems” in the new and
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remodeled branch libraries (p. 407). All of this supports the 4,000 data ports, 27 wire closets
(Woods, 2005), “400 public access computers and 500 laptop ports, four instructional labs, [and]
39 study rooms” (Berry III, 2004, p. 35) situated throughout the library.
Conclusion
In his essay, The Library in the New Age, Robert Darnton (2008) wonders how we can
possibly acclimate to the information landscape that changes almost daily around us.
Information and information resources can be discovered, accessed, and perused from anywhere
in the world with only a computer and an Internet connection. Which begs the question: If it is
no longer necessary to visit a library in person in order to interact with its holdings, how, then, is
a library to remain open?
The answer lies in collaboration. As Carnaby (2009) writes, “the Web 2.0 environment
has transformed libraries as we know them, into creative civic spaces…and authoritative
knowledge systems” (p. 262). Such creativity and authoritative knowledge, though, must be
nurtured and given an appropriate space, such as an “information commons.” Donald Beagle,
former Associate Director of Library Services and Head of the Information Commons at the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, defines an information commons as “an online
environment in which the widest possible variety of digital services can be accessed,” as well as
“a new type of physical facility specifically designed…around the integrated digital
environment” (as cited in Spencer, 2006, p. 246). It stands to reason then, that if approached and
executed correctly, a joint-use library can be a very successful information commons.
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library is not the first joint-use library, but it is the largest
and most successful in America (Eanes, 2010). Through creative collaboration, and innovative
uses of information technology and building design, the King Library not only effectively serves
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the students, staff, and faculty of SJSU and the residents of the city of San José, but also has
dramatically increased visits and usage (Peterson, 2005). Given that state budgets are tightening,
thus reducing city and university library budgets, and that new Internet technologies will
continue to increase user expectations for what types of services a library should provide, it is
likely that joint-use libraries will become increasingly favorable. Thankfully, there exists a
stellar example in the King Library on which we can model our future endeavors.
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