Although UVA’s main library was already scheduled to close in May 2020, little did we know that all Library buildings would be forced to shut down abruptly in March. However, although the buildings closed, the Library didn’t. Staff immediately went to work to adjust to the move away from in-person instruction, scanning more than 125,000 pages of materials, purchasing hundreds of licenses for e-books, and supporting faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate research virtually. Over the summer, the Library has been working on new policies and procedures to cope with the changing environment and prepare for the fall semester. A status dashboard of Library services has been created at www.library.virginia.edu/status, and an FAQ page outlining available tools and services, including new Library resources, can be found at https://www.library.virginia.edu/news/covid-19.

When the University of Virginia's Library opened in 1938 it was thoroughly modern, the million-dollar library the University needed for its expanding student body and burgeoning collections, both of which had outgrown the room available in the Rotunda. Public spaces in the new building, such as the reading rooms in the east wing and the spacious entrance hall, were largely open and light-filled. Technology was state-of-the-art—the Snead Book Distributor allowed the front desk to communicate with the ten-story book tower (which later became known as Old Stacks). Staff in the stacks would pick requested volumes from the shelves and place them on a conveyor to be delivered directly to waiting patrons.

However, although study carrels for faculty, graduate students, and visiting scholars lined the northern side of the tower, the stacks were not meant as public spaces, and their design reflected this. Windows on the north face allowed light into the carrels, but the interior was lit with fluorescent bulbs. But with the addition of New Stacks in the 1960s, Old Stacks were closed off, and the new façade featured narrow slit windows which minimized the amount of natural light able to filter in. To maximize density for collections, floors in the book towers were half-height and aisles between shelves were narrow, and apart from the carrels there was very little space for users to peruse materials. In addition, the half-height floors hindered the adaptability of the space, and the book towers were notoriously labyrinthine—generations of students can attest to the familiar feeling of being lost in the stacks. And with the passage of time, the stacks no longer conformed to modern building codes.