Georgia Library Spotlight

Zach S. Henderson Library at Georgia Southern University

                                               
For more than thirty years, the Zach S. Henderson Library has been the hub of academic life at Georgia Southern University. For almost twenty years it has provided at least 143 service hours per week during regular terms. It serves a student body of more than 18,000, faculty and staff of almost 2,000, and the regional community. Library collections include 607,542 volumes of books and periodicals, 748,706 government documents, 2,389 print serial subscriptions, 46,711 electronic journals and related resources, and 347 electronic databases.

In August 2008, a $22.75 million expansion/renovation project was completed. The expansion added 101,000 square feet to the 1976 building, which originally contained 135,000 square feet. The main feature of the expanded/renovated building is an automated retrieval system that was the first of its kind to be installed in a library in the southeast. The completed capacity for that system is 1.2 million items. Most of the library’s collections remain on open stacks, but the current seating capacity is approximately 1900 with a projected capacity of approximately 3400 seats

Other highlights of the building include a three story glass atrium at the front entrance, a two story atrium on the third and fourth floors on the western side, floor to ceiling windows throughout with seating at all the outer edges and the collections nearer the center, twenty-nine group study rooms, two computer classrooms, a fifty seat multipurpose room, and a coffee shop. The library collaborates with other campus units by housing the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Information Technology (IT) Services Help Desk personnel.

One of the favorite service points for users is the Learning Commons, which offers bright, flexible seating for group collaboration, areas for faculty – student collaboration and research, and multimedia creation and projection areas. It’s in use during most library service hours. Its services are enhanced by the availability of IT Services Help Desk personnel at the Learning Commons desk during week days. Document delivery to off campus students and faculty offices is a popular service provided by the Access Services Department.

Students have nicknamed the expanded/renovated building the Henderson Hilton and Club Henderson. Check our web site at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/ for more information.