Knight Library Visioning and Master Plan
The Knight Library Visioning and Master Plan is a roadmap that will result in a leading, global exemplar of what a modern, 21st century research library can be.This plan aligns with university priorities and documents the vision for the Knight Library’s collections, services, student experience, partnerships, support for faculty and graduate students, in addition to upgrades of the building’s infrastructure, systems and technology:
Museum-Quality Experience
From original Oregon Trail diaries to the records of Oregon’s Rajneeshpuram commune, to the archives and records from Issac Newton, William Shakespeare, Phil Knight, and Ken Kesey and Ursula K. Leguin, Special Collections and University Archives is home to distinctive collections and historical records of the community that tell the story of UO’s contributions to the world.
Technology Integration
The Knight Library seeks to advance the Library’s and the UO’s missions into the middle of the 21st Century, marrying historic context and legacy with the future of research and innovation to create a ground-breaking model that serves the needs of tomorrow’s Library users.
Fostering Collaboration
The Knight Library provides a neutral space on campus, an asset to students, faculty, and staff. It provides study space, labs, equipment, rotating exhibits, and consulting and educational services–a place to nurture the “whole student”; whether that is digging into an individual research project or creating community around a group project.
The process followed the steps necessary to achieve significant and meaningful development of a 20-year vision for the Knight Library. Each milestone included a workshop and stakeholder engagement meetings and events where the campus was invited to participate in the development of the plan. Engagement, a crucial element to the development of the future vision of the Knight Library, and the inclusion of a diversity of perspectives across campus was critically important to the success of the process. A variety of engagement methods were exercised to solicit input, including focus groups, campus-wide surveys, and workshops over the course of the study engaging students, faculty, staff, administration and campus leadership. The information gathered during these exercises informed and guided the development of consensus-driven decisions by the Advisory Committee.
The UO’s Historic Knight Library, along with the memorial quad it faces, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Library is one of the most iconic buildings on the University of Oregon’s Eugene campus and serves every college, center, and department at the UO, as well as the public and independent scholars from around the world. The original building (80,000 sq ft), designed by Ellis F. Lawrence, was constructed in 1937. Additions to the Knight Library were constructed in 1950(57,000 sq ft), 1966 (100,000 sq ft) and 1993 (135,000 sq ft). The Knight Library now encompasses over 372,000 sq ft.
Besides housing the areas and collections a research library traditionally holds the Knight Library building also provides space for various other campus departments including Cinema Studies, Oregon Folklife, the TAE Center, UO Online, Access Education Center, Information Services, and several General Pool Classrooms.
The Knight Library’s next renovation will be developed out of the new Vision and Master Plan. The new Master Plan, responding to the needs of a contemporary research university, will advance the Library’s and the UO’s mission into the middle of the 21st Century. The goal of the next chapter of the Knight Library is to marry its Historic context and legacy with the future of research and innovation to create a ground-breaking model that serves the needs of tomorrow’s scholars and students. The Library intends to innovate well beyond what has been done at other major research universities to date, and desires to create a model designed around accessing services and information and less around circulating physical collections, a model purpose-built for interdisciplinary exploration rather than strict disciplinary organization.
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