Upgrade of Barr Smith South building at Adelaide University divides students, alumni
An Adelaide Uni building now has book-themed wallpaper – right next to the library, where hundreds of thousands of real books used to be. Students are divided on the move.
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Adelaide University has countless new “books”, but you can’t borrow any of them.
Students and others are puzzling over bookshelf-themed wallpaper used in a makeover of study and teaching areas adjoining the Barr Smith Library. It comes after 300,000 real, but “low-use”, library books were shifted into storage in 2017.
The uni’s upgrade of part of the Barr Smith South building, which connects to the library, has attracted hundreds of online comments, with the carpet and wallpaper under particular scrutiny.
Students, alumni and others have described the makeover – some with tongue-in-cheek – as vomit, migraine and anxiety-inducing, a fever dream, putrid, confusing, overstimulating, distracting, like a nightclub, and “anti-conducive to learning”.
“We asked for more study spaces, not seizure spaces,” one person said of the design choices, which another said were “blatantly ignoring everyone with sensory issues”.
“The 1970s called, they want their carpet back,” was another reaction to the upgrade, which was also labelled “Escher meets 1998 Le Cornu”.
Among several similar comments were: “Ugly wallpaper and books drawn on the walls of what was once part of a well-known library? Urge!”
And: “Book wallpaper? I bet that hurts the librarians given all the actual books that have been shunted into joint storage.”
But some defended the changes as “cool” and “very chic”.
One said: “Great to see Adelaide University always taking risks with upgrades to make a piece of art. It looks great, well done!”
“I agree! Isn’t it fantastic!” said another.
A university spokeswoman did not disclose the cost but said it was part of an ongoing refurbishment program to make the campus “as student-friendly as possible”.
She said the Barr Smith South building “primarily” housed teaching rooms and a dental simulation centre, as well as study areas.
Student reaction to the changes had been “very favourable”so far, including on social media, she said.
Despite the many negative comments, the uni’s Facebook post has 1300 “likes”.
The spokeswoman said a separate refurbishment of part of the library “has an emphasis on quiet, reflective study spaces”.
“The response from students to this refurbishment has been overwhelmingly positive, as supported in the results of a survey of library services and spaces that was run last year.”
The 300,000 “low-use” books that went into storage were “still available on same-day recall”.
In 2016, The Advertiser reported that the uni planned to remove more than half a million books, journals and other items from the Barr Smith Library, reducing the collection by up to 70 per cent, as part of a major modernisation.
The majority of the 800,000 items in its main collection had not been borrowed in more than five years, as overall borrowing rates declined by 10 per cent a year. At the time, online journals already accounted for 87.5 per cent of the uni’s annual library acquisition spending.
The university spokeswoman said on Tuesday the Barr Smith South building upgrade was “not connected to or in any way associated with” the book cull in the neighbouring library.
