{"id":138964,"date":"2018-06-25T07:28:35","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T11:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=138964"},"modified":"2018-06-25T09:28:23","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T13:28:23","slug":"hartford-library-within-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/06\/hartford-library-within-library\/","title":{"rendered":"In Hartford, a Library Within a Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.\u201d
\n\u2015\u00a0John Lubbock, banker, politician, philanthropist, scientist.<\/p>\n

In downtown Hartford, there is now a collection of works that addresses the needs of University of Connecticut students while also expanding upon offerings for the public.<\/p>\n

When it moved to its new location a year ago, the Hartford Campus began working with the Hartford Public Library to occupy a portion of the facility. The two entities enjoy a seamless relationship, says Michael Howser, outgoing library director who oversaw the transition of the facility, in both a physical and a philosophical sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost immediately after the announcement of UConn moving to downtown Hartford, [officials of the Hartford Public Library] reached out to UConn about a library within a library,\u201d says Howser.<\/p>\n

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A video display at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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A video display at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Students<\/a>
Students use computers at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library on June 19, 2018. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Students use computers at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Aubryana<\/a>
Aubryana Lynch '18 (CLAS), an MSW student, uses a computer at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library on June 19, 2018. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Aubryana Lynch '18 (CLAS), an MSW student, uses a computer at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Michael<\/a>
Michael Norell '18 (CLAS) studies at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library on June 19, 2018. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Michael Norell '18 (CLAS) studies at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Students<\/a>
Students study at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library on June 19, 2018. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Students study at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"A<\/a>
A view of the UConn Hartford Library at inside Hartford Public Library on June 19, 2018. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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A view of the UConn Hartford Library at inside Hartford Public Library. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Michael<\/a>
Michael Howser, right, director, speaks with librarian Marisol Ramos in the Digital Scholarship Studio at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library on June 19, 2018. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Michael Howser, right, director, speaks with librarian Marisol Ramos in the Digital Scholarship Studio at the UConn Hartford Library inside the Hartford Public Library. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

The first challenge was the physical moving of 60,000 items from the existing Trecker Library at the former UConn campus in West Hartford to the new downtown location.<\/p>\n

The collection had been developed from the merging of multiple libraries previously on campus. Over a period of two years, library staff conducted a systematic review of the collections with an eye towards the current and future research and curriculum areas, while also ensuring minimal overlap with the collections at Hartford Public Library.<\/p>\n

The collections had three main destinations, with some making the move downtown, others coming to the Homer Babbidge Library on the Storrs campus, and still others donated to Better World Books Inc., which distributed them to libraries in need around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what you discover in a library when you are preparing for a move,\u201d says Howser.<\/p>\n