Innis library to be replaced by the McLean Centre for Collaborative Discovery
After 46 years, McMaster University’s Innis Library closed its doors on March 19, 2020. As the primary library for the Degroote School of Business, Innis Library in Kenneth Taylor Hall was one of McMaster’s smaller libraries.
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The decision to close Innis Library came after a gift from the McLean family to spearhead a new project of more than $50 million. In place of Innis Library, a new building known as the McLean Centre for Collaborative Discovery will be built as an addition to the DeGroote School of Business.
Aside from the new building, the gift will also be combined with other private, public and university funding sources.
Three generations of the McLean family studied various subjects at McMaster and on behalf of the family, Paul McLean expressed that the gift came from the positive impact education at McMaster has had on the family’s lives.
“We looked at what was most important to us, and we’re focusing our efforts on the priorities we identified. Education is certainly one of our highest priorities because it touches everything,” said McLean.
In July of 2019, McMaster announced that the Toronto-based architecture company Sweeny&Co was selected to design the new building.
“According to the firm, modern postsecondary buildings like the McLean Centre are moving beyond chair-and-podium configurations to more closely resemble the collaborative spaces found at today’s leading companies,” the University wrote within its announcement.
“According to the firm, modern postsecondary buildings like the McLean Centre are moving beyond chair-and-podium configurations to more closely resemble the collaborative spaces found at today’s leading companies,” the University wrote within its announcement.
McMaster states that the McLean Centre for Collaborative Discovery is more than just a new building. It will also begin a new teaching model for business students at the university.
The university will transform the Bachelor of Commerce program by allowing students to connect with working business leaders, instructors and students from all disciplines. McMaster stated that emphasis will be placed on problem-based discovery, interdisciplinary study and interaction with business leaders.
“Under the new model we’re creating, a lab manager, an engineer and an ethicist could all be joining business students to work on the same business problem, for example. This new space will be a home for our undergraduate students, where they can develop the soft and hard skills that will prepare them to thrive in a market that is constantly bombarded by such changes as artificial intelligence and blockchain,” said Len Wavermen, dean of the Degroote School of Business.
The new building is designed to be nine-stories high and a library will be reopened on the third floor. Currently, the building is slated to open in 2023-2024.
Although the building is an addition to the Degroote School of Business, the university also stated that students from all faculties will be able to use the space.
By Natalie Clark, Contributor
The end of summer marks the end of warm weather in the city, meaning that cool fall winds are approaching. And where there is fall, there is coffee. Its warm, cozy and inviting aroma tests your limits as to just how many cups you can have without going completely off the walls. Get ready to channel your inner Rory Gilmore this fall with a visit to these amazing coffee hotspots around Hamilton.
The Holy Cup on James
Saint James, located on James Street North in downtown Hamilton, is home to one of the greatest vanilla lattes in the city. Saint James doubles as a restaurant and a cafe, so you can drop in for a quick coffee or have a seat and enjoy their pancakes topped with warm honey, powdered sugar and fresh fruit. With both indoor and outdoor seating, you can cozy up inside and watch the leaves fall or enjoy the crisp autumn breeze on their roadside patio.
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The Not So Salty Espresso
Salty Espresso has been on my recommendations list for a while now. Located on the corner of Augusta Street and John Street, you can visit this quaint coffee shop for a reminder of warmer vibes. Modelled after the “surf life” mentality, Salty Espresso is the place to escape from the cold breeze of fall and remember the warmer days that were. Make sure to try their sweet and colourful Froot Loop Latte!
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The Cannon on Cannon
The Cannon has quickly become one of my favourite coffee spots in the city. Although rather small with only a few tables to sit at, the space is full of character and always bustling with people, not to mention they take their coffee seriously! Boasting a wide array of freshly-brewed coffee flavours, espresso-beverages and light brunch items, The Cannon is great for a sit-down to catch up with some friends or to study for midterms. If you tried some coffee and fell in love with it, the shop actually allows you to purchase the beans in bulk, allowing coffee connoisseurs to take a taste of the Cannon home with them.
The Hamiltonian Hotspot
If you live in Hamilton, then chances are that you’ve heard of Mulberry Coffee House. Their warm and inviting atmosphere makes for the perfect spot to take out your books and get some much-needed studying done. Within its art-covered walls, Mulberry features occasional live performances by local and upcoming artists. Located on James Street North, the epicentre of Hamilton arts and culture, Mulberry Coffee House allows for anyone and everyone to enjoy the complete Hamilton experience.
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The New Cup in Town
If you’re looking for a new coffee hangout close to campus, then try Phin Coffee Bar (804 King Street West), just across from the Food Basics. The owner, Andrew Meas, is a coffee connoisseur and will make sure you get that perfect taste in every sip. Meas aims to attract mainly students, professors and other campus wanderers, creating a quintessential campus hotspot. The Golden Latte will have you feeling like you are drinking in fall itself. Grab a quick coffee at Phin Coffee Bar and take a fall stroll on campus to experience the beautiful changing leaves and all that fall has to offer!
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McMaster students may see changes in the Health Sciences Library study space and operational hours as soon as this year. Student Representative Assembly health sciences representatives Devin Roshan and Tushar Tejpal are working closely with HSL director Jennifer McKinnell to redistribute Sunday hours to Saturday and replace bookshelves with more cubicles and desks.
The initiative is part of the SRA health sciences year-plan and aims to address concerns about limited study space and hours in HSL.
“When I was elected, I had a lot of conversations with students who were saying that it was very difficult to find cubicles, particularly during midterms and exams,” Roshan said.
Roshan and Tejpal have been meeting regularly with McKinnell over the summer and into the school year. While short-term changes were difficult to implement, the plans for a summer 2019 renovation have recently been approved.
The renovations will involve removing some bookshelves downstairs and replacing them with cubicles or desks. In addition, new study rooms may be constructed under the main stairway, and some computers may be removed in favour of desk space. The project is not related to the current closure of the reading pavilion room downstairs.
Limited library hours have long been a concern of students and a priority of the SRA reps. In the past, SRA representatives have been able to successfully lobby for extended hours as the exam period approaches. For example, thanks to student advocacy, Thode library now stays open until 3 a.m. during the second half of the semester.
The health sciences representatives have been working to implement longer hours dating back to the 2016-2017 year. However, extending HSL past the typical 10:45 p.m. closing time is not possible, largely because the library is located in the same building as the Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, which has jurisdiction over the closing time of the library.
[spacer height="20px"]“In the past, representatives have advocated for extended hours, like in Thode, but that is actually not possible due to security reasons,” Roshan said.
This year’s representatives have taken a different approach, looking to redistribute hours rather than simply extending them.
“My plan is essentially to look at what hours are not being utilized and how we can better use those hours for students,” Roshan said.
Specifically, Roshan and Tujpal are advocating for a redistribution of two or three hours from Sunday to Saturday, so the library will open later on Sundays, but stay open longer on Saturdays. Right now, the library closes at 5:45 p.m. on Saturdays, and opens at 10 a.m. on Sundays.
According to the health sciences representatives, statistics show that there are relatively few students coming into HSL on Sunday mornings.
This plan is also more feasible than previous ones in terms of staff costs, which have been another factor that complicates extending hours.
“It is essentially a more cost-effective plan for us. Instead of asking for more funding, we are just redistributing hours so that we’re still at a balance for the cost,” Roshan said.
The next steps for the health sciences caucus for the extended Saturday hours project is to organize a health sciences faculty petition to get support for redistributing hours.
“Once we get a compiled list of over 80 to 100 individuals, we are going to present that information to Jennifer McKinnell and from there, she can go above to her superiors and present that and then hopefully that will lead to change,” Roshan said.
The renovations to the library are planned to begin in the summer of 2019 and finish before the fall. Roshan and Tejpal are optimistic that a pilot project for extended Saturday hours will begin this year.
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By Alex Bak
McMaster University has been steadily increasing its ranking in the world for the last decade with the Shanghai Ranking. Placing 66th in the world last year behind only two other Canadian universities, McMaster is now a top institution for higher education.
However, the access that McMaster students have to study areas on campus is limited, specifically during high-traffic periods such as during midterms or exam season.
The libraries that are often found vacant become packed with space so scarce that some are forced to study in between bookshelves or trudge back home reluctantly or fight for chairs in Thode.
Compared to the University of British Columbia, ranked 31st in the Shanghai Ranking, McMaster’s four libraries pale in comparison to UBC’s 11.
At McMaster, though there are areas that one can study at in each building, it is important to consider that even in these location, it can still be a challenge to find study space.
Have you ever tried to study in the third floor of the student centre at common lunch hour? With an hour break in between classes for both lunch and study time, students shouldn’t have to worry about wasting time looking for a space to study as well.
The upcoming Student Activity Building could be the opportunity McMaster needs to join the other institutions of similar calibre in providing its students with the means to productively study on campus.
Having garnered 857 votes (0.04 per cent of the total student body) in the in-person survey for study space designs, although it was the most requested (26 per cent), it is hard to discern whether study space is something that a majority of students want.
Compared to the University of British Columbia, ranked 31st in the Shanghai Ranking, McMaster’s four libraries pale in comparison to UBC’s 11.
However, the 40,000 square feet of possibility could aid in alleviating the sparsity of space.
One other way that McMaster could respond the study space problem is through lengthening its hours of operations. A joint initiative between multiple student groups launched a pilot program for extended hours at the H.G. Thode Library this past year.
The 3 a.m. extended hours were pivotal, especially for the time-crunch periods before midterms as well as completing the assignments that were due at midnight.
If these extended hours became a part of the university policy instead of a brief student-led program, it could be stable and a solidified function for future students to enjoy and utilise.
Conjoining both extended hours and a large part of the Student Activity Building being allocated for study space could potentially bring about seemingly inconspicuous but monumental changes for the academic life of the McMaster student body.
With McMaster Students Union presidential elections wrapping up, this may be an opportune moment for this issue to be addressed and create dialogue.
A few of the MSU presidential candidates have already addressed this issue on their platforms and are creating conversation about this issue among students.
However, some of the suggestions on the candidates’ platforms don’t seem financially or time-feasible and should be readdressed accordingly.
It’s time now that we start implementing our options and solving the issue of limited study space on campus
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McMaster has several places on campus for students and McMaster organizations to meet and collaborate. The resources for discussion and study are available for students to use.
There are a number of buildings with study rooms available for booking, including the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery, the McMaster University Students Centre, the Health Sciences library, Thode Library, Innis Library and Mills Library.
With a Mac ID, McMaster students have access to these rooms. Should these resources be open to groups outside of McMaster as well?
On Sept. 13, a misunderstanding occurred that leads me to advocate against public access to study rooms. When McMaster University’s police removed a group of the Socialist Fightback Hamilton group organizers from Mills Library room, study room booking policies became clearer. The organizers of this group booked a room in Mills Library for a talk on an Introduction to Marxism, but campus police did not allow them to access the room due to a post that they saw on Reddit.
The post they saw on Reddit was written by someone who claimed to be a part of Proud Boys, a far-right leaning men’s organization that claim to be western chauvinists who actively display patriotism.
The post claimed that the Proud Boys were planning on coming to the library at the same time as the Socialist Fightback Group. After that, someone dropped a tip phone call to the university, and campus police took action.
When McMaster University's police removed a group of The Socialist Fightback Hamilton group organizers from Mills Library room, study room booking policies became clearer.
Maximiliano Guerrero, one of the two members of The Socialist Fightback group, was asked for ID to make sure the organizer was a McMaster student. According to the Hamilton Spectator, when asked if he was being carded, McMaster police told Guerrero that he was allowed to decline to show ID. When Guerrero denied his request, “...one of the officer’s responded that [he] had to leave or be arrested.”
The Socialist Fightback Hamilton group is not an officially recognized club at McMaster, though they claim to have organized themselves around the university about 18 months ago with both student and non-student members who take part.
That being said, according to McMaster Study Room Booking policies, since there were student members with a valid Mac ID to book the room, the activists should have had access to the study rooms without interference.
However, the confusion that the post and the phone tip brought seemed to be a justified reason for McMaster police to ask the members to leave.
Even though the post could have just been an attempt to sabotage the Socialist Fightback meeting, campus police did the right thing in attempting to maintain security from the possibility of the interference of Proud Boys.
In addition, refusing to show ID did not work in favour of the organizer in this case, though he had the right to do so.
This is an example of the concerns that could arise with allowing public groups to access McMaster resources such as study rooms.
Though the rooms are available not only as a space for study, but also club meetings, group discussion and interview areas, McMaster is still in a position where students should have access to the campus resources without the chance of being faced by social groups that could raise concerns of student access, security and potential wellbeing.
Since the inception of e-books and other online resources McMaster’s library has been working to keep up.
One of the most practical modernization techniques, said University Librarian Vivian Lewis, is simply adding more electrical outlets.
“Outlets are huge for us. It is one of our main demands in study spaces. It is very different from when I started here 20 years ago,” she said. “We have to come up with all kinds of ways to get power to different study areas. We run power strips across tables…more and more this is what students are looking for.”
With the Library—Mills, Thode and Innis (The Health Science Library is run separately)—as the largest Wi-Fi center on campus, spaces within the actual buildings are forced to adapt to demand. That means, in some cases, allocating square footage once given to book stacks to study space instead.
In recent years, Mills has transformed much of the sixth floor into quiet study space and added the Lyons New Media Centre, allowing student to use resources like video editing software and green screen. Thode has also added more open study spaces.
The most significant player in the modernization of academic libraries is the move from print to electronic resources.
“The journals that we get have gone almost completely electronic because that is where the users are…where they can get the article they want at 2 o’clock in the morning, even if they’re on the other side of the country,” said Wade Wycoff, Associate University Librarian, Collections.
In 2001, the Library had around 11,000 journal subscriptions that were available to students and faculty only print. Because of the move to electronic publication, e-journals can be purchased in bundles and are more affordable than a decade ago. McMaster students can now access 80,000 different journal titles.
“It levels the playing field in a lot of ways. Now suddenly we’re getting subscriptions of volumes and journals available to our users, that rival U of T and Western,” said Wycoff.
The rise in overall journals does come at a cost, especially for researchers who seek a true print copy.
Wycoff said, “We still have about 2,000 print subscriptions, and those are mostly smaller publishers who just haven’t moved on to electronic versions of their journal yet.”
The same transformation is happening with books. In 2001, the Library purchased more than 40,000 books in print. In 2012, only 6,610 print books were purchased, in addition to 22,000 e-book titles. The combined total of 28,810 still falls more than 10,000 titles short 2001’s book purchases.
Wycoff says that this reflects a focus on serials that many libraries are making.
“More academic libraries are spending more on their journal collection. We have had to shift some resources around,” he said. “We are also seeing things, like in the sciences, how they are using those electronic resources, they are using journals more. So their usage pattern is changing, so the money changes to support what they actually want.”
Wycoff believes that the trend will continue.
“Ten years from now, we’ll still have a physical collection, but its footprint will be much smaller,” he said. “The longer-term trend in academic libraries is toward a collection that is almost fully electronic. In the near term, we expect that the Library’s collection will continue to be a blend of print and electronic materials.”
University Librarian Vivian Lewis sees a general move to a more service-based library on the horizon.
“It is also changing how we’re providing services in general. It’s not really just the collections—the libraries are places for service and so it is changing the way that we answer questions,” she said. “If students aren’t physically coming to the library to use the library, we need to support them where they are.”
She continued, “We have to be all about serving students now, even if they aren’t in the physical library.”
“Sometimes we hear someone say ‘I never use the library.’ Reality is that they are using the library all the time, even when they are just accessing Google Scholar,” she said. “Our students and faculty researchers use the library constantly, probably way more than they did a decade ago, when they physically had to put their hat and coat on and walk over.”
Photo credit: Yoseif / Photo Editor
