A digital innovation suite with 3D printers. A conversation pit where students can share books and ideas and collaborate on projects. A threefold increase in the number of private study rooms, including some with updated podcast recording technology and others where students can play video games.
These are some of the new features of the newly renovated Stockton University Richard E. Bjork Library and Learning Commons, which opened this week on the Galloway campus.
The $24 million project took two years to complete, and those who attended Thursday’s grand opening said it was money well spent.
“Students were really craving somewhere to be and to exist,” said sophomore Kay Polus of Maple Shade. “The fact that this will be open 24 hours gives our students who stay here on campus a place to study outside of their dorms and be able to meet people. But it’s also extremely beneficial to our commuting students. They can stay on campus a little longer now if they want. They don’t have to just drive home.”
Polus is president of the Library Student Advisory Board, which was instrumental in discussing with library staff what Stockton students need in a 21st-century library. That includes more places to charge phones and computers, more private places to study and an expanded learning commons area where students can collaborate without being as concerned about staying quiet. The learning commons is open 24 hours and has tripled in size to 26,000 square feet.
“The technology is just great, especially as someone who came from an environment where technology was really hard to come by, especially high-quality technology,” said Polus, a literature major. “Knowing that there will be students who come from a similar background as me who can come to Stockton and have access to that tech now at the library makes me extremely happy.”
Stockton Provost Michael Palladino said the project was not just about renovating a library, but thinking differently about how it could serve students now and in the future.
“That meant asking important questions about how students use a library today, what kinds of support they need, where collaboration happens, and how we can bring people, services and resources together in ways that are more accessible and more useful,” he said.
Stockton President Joe Bertolino agreed that the library wasn’t “just a construction project. It’s really a labor of love and a labor of community building.”
“When I look around this space, what excites me most is not simply what has changed physically. It is what will happen here,” he told an audience of about 200 students, faculty, staff and alumni in the library’s expanded Learning Commons. “I’m sure it will not take long before students discover their favorite places. A quiet corner to work. A table that becomes the meeting place for a group of friends. A room where a conversation with a professor or staff member leads to a new idea or a new possibility. Those moments matter. And years from now, students will walk through these doors and make this place part of their own Stockton story.”
A major part of the renovation was the decision to centralize some student and faculty services in the library, said Dean of the Library Patricia Thatcher. That included moving the Writing, Chemistry, Math and Tutoring centers, creating a new space for the Learning Access Program for students with learning differences and the Center for Teaching and Learning Design as a faculty resource space.
She said the library renovation is about improving access and collaboration.
“This state-financed renovation provides the Stockton academic community with a 21st-century library that assures all students access to emerging technologies in the use of podcasting, gamification of information, creativity in the tech innovation suite, and above all flexible collaborative spaces in which to learn and create knowledge together,” she said.
Other features include an expanded presence for historical documents in Special Collections and a new TV studio where communication studies students can get hands-on production experience.
The library will continue to be home to the Constantelos Hellenic Collection and Reading Room and the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center. The center will remain in its temporary space in L-wing until January because of other renovations to its library space.
“As a faculty member for nearly three decades, I have seen firsthand how important these spaces can be,” said Sonia Gonsalves, a member of Stockton’s Board of Trustees. “They create opportunities for faculty and staff to connect with students, for curiosity to be encouraged, and for thoughtful questions and new ideas to take shape. This is a space designed to evolve with the needs of our students and strengthen Stockton for the future.”
The themes of access and collaboration resonated with Tracy Thompson, daughter of Richard E. Bjork, Stockton’s first president, who served from 1969 to 1978. She flew from her home in California for the ribbon-cutting.
“I loved that one of the words was access because as a human being and president of the school he was always accessible. Education was everything to him. When he was here as president, he still taught political science classes,” she said. “For him, just being with the students and being around young people and their ideas was always huge. This is the culmination of that. It’s just a beautiful representation of what mattered to him.”
