University of South Florida Tampa Library

In 1958, the foundations were poured for the original four buildings that would become the core of the USF master plan. These included the maintenance facility, administrative-classroom building, union-classroom-cafeteria, and the library.

When John S. Allen was named the first USF president in 1957, his first academic appointment to the staff was Elliott Hardaway, at the time the assistant librarian at the University of Florida. As USF librarian, Hardaway was charged with building a university library collection from scratch.[2]

For the first year of classes, the library was temporarily located in the University Center ballroom until the completed five-story facility opened in 1961. The campus was planned so that the library was the tallest, most conspicuous building, to symbolize what John Allen considered to be the heart of the university. The library was designed accommodate 250,000 books but also housed reading rooms, a permanent art gallery, a faculty lounge and conference rooms.[3]

Over the following decade, the USF population grew and a larger library was soon in high-demand. In 1975, the current seven-story, 154,000 square foot building opened with the capacity of up to one million volumes.[4]

Opened in 2012, the Science, Math and Research Technology (SMART) Lab, provides a hands-on learning space which includes more than 300 computer work stations.

In addition to wide-ranging electronic and print resources the library provides other primary research materials through Special Collections. These include Florida history and politics, American literature, medieval manuscripts, Latin American Science Fiction, LBGT literature, Holocaust & genocide literature, juvenile literature, rare books, and sheet music. The Library's Florida Studies Center draws on Special Collections materials and technological services to promote arts and humanities education on Florida and its people to students, teachers and the public.

The DHHC documents heritage sites, landscapes and objects. The DHHC creates digital learning tools to promote heritage tourism. The technologies being used include 3D laser scanners, Nikon DSLR cameras, DJI Phantom and DJI Mavic unmanned aerial vehicles, Agisoft Photoscan Professional, FLIR thermal infrared cameras for imaging. For geo-spatial analysis uses ArcGIS and sends someone to the ESRI conference to make sure the program remains up to date. Some projects include: a 3D survey and imaging of Haghpat Monastery, a terrestrial laser scanning survey of Russell Cave National Monument and a digital tour of Cowpens National Battlefield.

Recently, Florida law has required academic institutions to comply with new textbook selection and reporting requirements in order to combat high costs to students. In 2009, the textbook affordability initiative began at USF with a committee survey about awareness of textbook costs. From here, the Textbook Affordability Project (TAP) was created to disperse information to both faculty and students about textbook costs. Currently, the USF Tampa Library facilitates three main activities in order to promote textbook affordability: recommendations to faculty, Course Reserves, and the E-books for the Classroom database.[5] During the early years of TAP, staff was limited to two persons. As of 2018, over 6 full-time staff are dedicated to the Textbook Affordability project. TAP strives to provide affordable textbook options to students, and encourages professors to seek out more affordable options for their courses.[6]

• Ebooks for the Classroom+ - As part of its efforts to promote textbook affordability, TAP uses Ebooks for the Classroom to encourage the use of library-licensed resources in courses. This database was created in 2017, and serves the entire USF system. Within the database, professors can adopt Ebooks that the library has purchased rights to, so that students can access these books for free. This collection has contributed greatly to the efforts of the TAP initiative.[7]

An inside view of the USF Tampa Library

The library is located in a seven-story facility[8] on the main campus at 4101 USF Apple Drive, Tampa, FL 33620-5400.

• Basement - Quiet zone comprising federal and state government documents, print collections, maps, and the Reference Annex. In 2012 physical print periodicals were moved to this level as electronic access of periodicals became more common. A technical services department takes up a large section of the basement.
• First Floor - Group study area including the learning common study areas, computer work stations, Digital Media Commons, the library services desk, the IT help desk, computer repair shop, the Inter library Loan department, and a Starbucks.
• Second Floor - Group study area housing the learning commons study areas, the writing studio, the office for undergraduate research, tutoring services and the SMART Lab.
• Third Floor - Group study area with circulating areas A through K.
• Fourth Floor - Quiet zone, housing circulating areas L through N, special collections, Juvenile Collection, Classics Collection and the USF Florida Studies Center. The Grace Allen (1908-2007) room, named after the wife of the first president of the university John Allen, is available to recognized USF departments or agencies and contains a retractable screen, ceiling mounted LCD projector, podium, microphone & amplification system.[9]
• Fifth Floor -Quiet Zone, Individual study area including circulating areas P though Z, two large reading rooms and a graduate reading room. LEED Silver Certified Floor.
• Sixth Floor - ATLE, Innovative Education, library administration offices, digital collections and the community engagement offices.

• USF Tampa Library homepage