UB’s Music Library, a 50-plus-year-old collection of scores, LPs and more, is set to be moved to Lockwood Library, according to UB.
The library, according to UB spokesperson Marcene Robinson on Thursday, will transition to a “distinctly branded, state-of-the-art space” on the fifth floor of Lockwood. The library’s current location in Baird Hall would be “converted into flexible classrooms,” according to Robinson. There is no schedule for the move just yet, Robinson wrote in an email, but the Libraries will inform UB community members when a date is set in stone.
The news comes just eight months after The Spectrum’s coverage of music department members’ concerns over the library’s future, with some faculty who believed the Libraries were whittling away at resources and staff.
Robinson wrote that the UB Libraries have informed music department faculty and staff of the change and the department’s students will receive a message in the coming days.
“It was important that we communicated with those in the department first regarding the transition,” Robinson wrote in an email.
Robinson wrote that the Music Library will move to a roughly 7,000-square-foot space in Lockwood and “some music materials may be housed in the Libraries Annex.”
The announcement comes alongside the Libraries’ “master plan,” which UB announced on its website on Thursday.
The plans call for a new atrium in the center of Lockwood Library for “easily accessible” services and exhibits as well as Special Collections displays on the first floor. The plan also proposes Special Collections based in Abbott Hall, new entrances in Capen Hall and a new entrance, reading room and “civic space” in the Law Library.
Benjamin Blanchet is the engagement editor and can be reached @BenCBlanchet on Twitter and benjamin.blanchet@ubspectrum.com.
Benjamin Blanchet is the senior engagement editor for The Spectrum. His words have been seen in The Buffalo News (Gusto) and The Sun newspapers of Western New York. Loves cryptoquip and double-doubles.
