Build It and S/He Will Come: A Reflection on Five Years in a Purpose-Built Special Collections Space

Abstract

The Special Collections of the Robert B . Haas Family Arts Library at Yale University have existed in their current state only since the fall of 2008, when the physically separate components of the Arts Library moved into a renovated space that bridges two conjoined buildings, Paul Rudolph Hall¹ and the new Loria Center, both projects by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates. The Arts Library itself was only ten years old at that point, formed from the Art+Architecture Library, the Drama Library, the Classics Library, the Arts of the Book Collection, and the Visual Resources Collection. These smaller units banded together . . .