





































338  ATL A 2018 PROCEEDINGS

Rethinking the  
Library Space
Interdepartmental Collaboration for 
Student-Centered Services
By Wesley Custer, Asbury Theological Seminary

ABSTR ACT The Florida Dunnam Campus of Asbury Theological Semi-
nary underwent some major changes in the area of library services over 
the past few years. This presentation contains the ways in which these 
changes were influenced and accomplished through interdepartmental 
cooperation and collaboration. The redesign of the library space became 
a means by which we could provide a better academic community in a 
designated space with staff, resources, and comfortable seating. 

INTRODUCTION

In 2013, I became the manager of the library for the Florida Dunnam 
Campus of Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. I had 
been working there since 2006 in various capacities, and now I had 
some influence over how the physical space was arranged and how the 
departments collaborated on campus. I began to talk to people, saying 
that I wanted the library to be able to be open whenever the campus 
was open. What prevented this was simply our budget. I could not 
pay for workers to keep the library open. The best answer that I could 
think of was partnering with other departments to keep the library 
open. Now the library is a room in the middle of the first floor of the 
building in Orlando, and that made it possible to make the library 
central to the campus. 

PHASE ONE

I spoke with our facilities foreman and talked to him about the possi-
bility of cross-training the security personnel to check books in and 



Posters  339

out. The goal was not truly library services, but rather to simply keep 
the doors open and the lights on. This was to provide the students with 
a place and keep the books, printing, and scanning available. These 
efforts largely failed because the location of the evening security team 
was too far removed from the library services area. During this time, 
I and my team rotated evening hours to ensure full library services. 

PHASE TWO

I started casting a vision for the library space: a place for commut-
ing students and their families to work, study, and relax whenever 
the building was open. When the facility was originally built, it was a 
classic library. Books occupied most of the space in the library with 
a few desks and a couple of study rooms. Times have changed, and 
it was obvious by the end of 2015 that the library needed a facelift. 
A large part of this change was motivated by the changing face of 
our student body. They are all commuting students on the Florida 
Dunnam Campus, and as such, they need good spaces to rest, study, 
and simply be while they are on campus. 

We managed to make some significant but relatively minor 
changes to the arrangement of the space over the next two years. We 
would make a change, gather information, and iterate based on feed-
back. All the while, we kept looking for and asking for funds to do a 
bigger facelift. Conversations with enrollment management and the 
vice president of the campus were beginning to be fruitful. 

PHASE THREE

Finally, in the spring of 2017, a conversation and vision meeting with 
the VP of enrollment management and operations for the Florida 
Dunnam Campus had a breakthrough. I was finally able to cast the 
vision in such a way that he saw the potential for student retention and 
EMT events in the library space. This opened up some funding, and 
when I gave him a budget for replacing flooring, replacing the services 
desk, and purchasing new technology/furniture, he managed to get 
buy-in from others and got us the funding. 

That meant that we needed to shift the whole collection in order 
to open the floor space that we wanted. We managed to open up a 
30’x60’ space in the library that allows for collaborative work, coffee/



340  ATL A 2018 PROCEEDINGS

snack space, community events, staff meetings, EMT events, and study 
space. We replaced the flooring from dingy carpet to new LVP (luxury 
vinyl plank) flooring, painted the whole library, and demolished an 
oversized circulation desk, replacing it with smaller, very efficient 
services desk. 

Functionally, they have moved the reception area into the library 
space and removed the doors. Now, the library is available when-
ever the campus is open. Students are able to access library physical 
resources whenever they are on campus, and there is always a person 
available to help them. These changes were quite opportune in that 
there were major budget cuts coming, and ultimately the basic library 
services had to be delegated to EMT staff because we had to reduce all 
the staff from the library on that campus. 

The challenges we face now are completely expected. We need to 
work hard to keep library services moving for those not on the main 
campus in Wilmore, Kentucky. Meeting and communicating with the 
EMT team on the Florida Dunnam Campus to keep things going and 
giving them information as we make small changes will be key. 


