LAXART receives a $1-million donation, its largest ever, for new Melrose Hill building and expansion of its campus library.
JEDEDIAH HEARNE | The State Journal
Published in The State Journal – The Capital on Wednesday, November 22, 2018
Tucked in a quiet part of the University of Maryland’s College Park campus, there’s a building that’s rarely been open to the public and even less likely to receive a public tour.
Its entrance is unmarked and there’s no sign of the building’s occupants.
The structure is the first new library to open on the University of Maryland’s Melrose Hill campus since the College Park campus’ library was built in the mid-1970s.
The new building, which is expected to replace the one now used by the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Services, was built by the private investment group TriMet with public money and with the help of a $1-million grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. It’s the largest private gift ever to the University of Maryland, according to a press release.
The two-story, 40,000-square-foot facility has a library, special collections, a quiet study lab, a cafe, a commons area and a staff office. The library has 13,000 volumes and about 2,400 computer terminals, a press that publishes research papers in the fields of natural resources, environmental services, and public policy and law, among other subjects, and two book-binding and display rooms.
The renovation cost $3.5 million.
A library board member who requested anonymity said the library needed another space to accommodate the growing number of students, faculty and staff and the more complex nature of the collections in the current space.
The Melrose Hill library could host more than 50,000 volumes and 3,000 computer terminals