User-Centered Design and Services at The Knowlege Center

“The Knowledge Center will encompass all facets of the digital age in a single, synergistic complex.” This sounds like a pretty tall order for any one library or information center to take on, but the Knowledge Center seems to have a solid grasp on the information and usage needs of university students and faculty, and offers many new features that the old library did not. The planners and designers of the library clearly had the needs and desires of the future library/knowledge center patrons in mind as they created the plan for the new Knowledge Center. First, the building itself is considerably larger (more than twice the size) than the old library, and includes a 163-seat auditorium (for lectures, readings, programs, film festivals, etc.), faculty and graduate student reading rooms, a “Dynamic Media Lab” for filmmakers, expanded and modernized computer labs, and aesthetic features such as an art gallery and sculpture garden. All of these features combine to make the Knowledge Center more than “just a library” – it makes the Knowledge Center a comfortable and welcoming home for learning.

I found the informational website about the Knowledge Center to be quite helpful, and full of great features, such as a virtual fly-though of the library, an audio tour with floor plans, as well as a blog published by staff of the Knowledge Center. http://www.knowledgecenter.unr.edu/about/features.html


While I have not visited the Knowledge Center in person, I think it is safe to say that it meets the needs of a wide variety of users, and qualifies as having a user-centered design. The Knowledge Center was designed to be both professional and welcoming, and offers access to the latest computer technologies (including many software programs and different types of hardware for filmmaking and geospatial mapping, as examples). In addition, it just looks like a beautiful building. I think the Knowledge Center probably serves as a great recruitment tool for students – everything looks modern, and all the technology is pretty impressive. I do think that the Knowledge Center is quite the amazing campus resource, and is very much a user-centered library, information and technology center.

About the Knowlege Center at the University of Nevada, Reno

The Knowledge Center at the University of Nevada Reno is a good example of a library which has been designed with the needs of all of its users in mind. The Knowledge Center was designed to be a library of the 21st century, a center which “will encompass all facets of the digital age in a single, synergistic complex.” Technology, computing and related information technology is combined with the resources of the traditional library to “maximize learning, nurture the production and distribution of new knowledge, and stimulate and sustain innovation.” The Knowledge Center is a five-floor multi-million dollar library/knowledge center/technological resource center at the University of Nevada’s Reno campus. The center was designed to provide traditional library services along with providing many other technology related services to its students and patrons, going far beyond the traditional library services of storing and providing information. The Knowledge Center was created to merge learning, information and technology in one location, providing users with traditional library services and access to computers and other technologies.

Introduction

This blog will be for the user-centered services project for SLIS 5630. The library I have selected is the Knowlege Center at the University of Nevada, Reno.