By SUSAN JONES
For Kornelia Tancheva, the massive renovation of Hillman Library is about much more than creating brighter, more welcoming spaces. It’s about building spaces where students can learn not just by studying, but also by doing.
The director of the University Library System proudly showed off many of those spaces on the redone first through fourth floors during a recent tour, just before she went to a meeting about what kind of disruptions and changes the final phase of the project will bring.
Important conversations
Tancheva said one of her favorite axioms is: “A library is a place where important conversations happen.”
One of the ways Pitt is driving those conversations is through its special collections. Tancheva said the collections of research libraries throughout the country probably overlap by about 80 percent. But it’s the 20 percent that is unique to each library system that makes it noteworthy and attracts researchers throughout the world.
Last month, a group of people from the international Horror Writers Association convention — Stokercon, which met June 15 to 19 in Pittsburgh — came to Hillman Library to view parts of the George Romero and Horror Studies collections, which include documents from the association. Tancheva said three Black women writers, whose works are included in the archive, were positively giddy that the horror collection exists and they are a part of it. She said they wore buttons that read: “You cannot erase me. I’m in the archive now.”
The August Wilson archive, which the University Library System acquired in 2020, is another collection that is bringing in researchers and the community. During the archive’s grand opening in March, the event space on the first floor (the area near Saxby’s cafe) was filled with people. Several large copies of portraits and self-portraits that the playwright did are still on the walls in the cafe area.
Next week, the library will host Die-Cast, an artist’s collective dedicated to creating site-specific immersive performances and installations that explore the intersection of history, science and art. The group’s latest project is “A Study of August” — a solo performance piece delving into the life and legacy of August Wilson. Die-Cast co-founder Brenna Geffers and performer Steven Wright will share a sample of the developing work as well as how they have used research as performance in the past at 4 p.m. July 25 on the third floor of Hillman. Find details here.
Parts of several other collections can be found on display on Hillman’s third floor. The interactive digital wall highlights six collections at a time. Two are curated by library staff and four by students, student groups and classes.
Tancheva said the use of the classroom next to the special collections display space is up 300 percent since the area was redone and reopened in 2020. Faculty can request to bring a class to the space and library staff also reach out to faculty when they think there is something in the special collections that would be of interest for a particular class.
Another place conversations were happening this summer is around the “Pressed: Images from the Jewish Daily Forward” exhibit, which came to Pitt from New York City. It has attracted visitors from Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and beyond.
Making and doing
The maker spaces in the library “need to have some connection to the library,” Tancheva said.
This is particular true with the Text & conText Lab, a Center for Creativity/University Library System partnership on the third floor of Hillman. The space has two printing presses — one from the 18th century and one from the 1960s — and equipment for bookbinding. Tancheva said faculty bring students to the lab, but many students also come on their own.
The Open Lab on the first floor, a collaboration with the University Center for Teaching and Learning, provides faculty, staff and students hands-on learning with new technology that can be used in the classroom and beyond. The lab is currently equipped with virtual reality workstations, filament and resin 3D printers, a vinyl cutter, 360 degree video cameras, 2D and 3D scanners, and a laser cutter/engraver.
Tancheva said once the ground floor is completed, the Open Lab will expand into the space now used for the video and audio equipment lending library. The ground floor will have equipment for digital media creation, audio editing and data visualization.
Final phase
The last phase of the Hillman Library Reinvention will likely be the loudest one, library officials say. Disposable foam earplugs are already available at the library entrance and in other locations.
Besides redoing the ground floor, the project will include a new entrance at the corner of Forbes Avenue and Schenley Drive and work on the bathrooms and elevators in the core of the building. Tancheva said the new entryway will have a green roof accessible from the third floor, and there will be a new opening off the first floor Thornburgh Room to the terrace.
Temporary walls and barriers are already up in multiple spots in the library, including on the second and third floor corners closest to the Cathedral. The main stairwell and the front half of the center hallway are closed. The elevators are still operating and can be accessed from the other half of the center hallway. The west stairwell, on the side of the building closest to Lawrence Hall, is open, as are the bathrooms.
The barriers and areas closed will change as the project progresses. Library officials urged people to pay attention to signage throughout the library.
Fencing also will be placed around the whole building, making the Forbes Avenue entrance harder to see, but it will remain open.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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