Close your eyes and think about the R.P. Bell Library. What memories come to mind? The colours of the carpet? The smell of the books? Settling into a study carrel late into the night? Every Mount A alumni since 1970 is also an alumni of the R.P. Bell Library. There are few single locations on a university campus capable of the kind of alchemy that happens there. The Library is at once a launchpad for discovery and research, a forum for ideas and debate, a nook for quiet study, a community gathering place, a repository of knowledge, and a home away from home. This is library magic.

It is not with a wave of a wand, however, that this library magic comes to pass. Maintaining “that library feeling,” as well as ensuring access to the expertise of librarians and staff, is intentionally and strategically at the forefront of our plans to renovate the facility. Untouched since 1970, it is past time to re-imagine library services and spaces for the next generation of students and faculty. In thoughtfully re-examining the ways that students and faculty teach and learn, we can design responsive services and spaces that will foster curiosity, discovery, creativity, and growth now and into the future.

Academic libraries are complex and managing that complexity has broadly felt implications. The team and resources will continue to play a role in the global community of institutions dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of knowledge as well as in the regional information ecosystem of Atlantic Canada. We will remain passionate about developing the information literacy and research skills of students, storing and making available the research and data outputs of our brilliant faculty, and ensuring the retention of our local history through the Archives.

We will also have comfortable chairs and a coffee shop.

We suspect that, if you are reading this, you have fond memories of the R.P. Bell Library. We hope that you are as excited as we are for the renovation inside of the octagon and we can’t wait for the next generation of alumni to love their library, too.