I have an interesting (I hope) question for you. On July 1 I'll be taking up the post of Director of the library of VCU School of Design Arts in Qatar. This program, and the library, are about 4 years old; the program has recently received accreditation from SACS and NASAD, with a library collection of 12,000 volumes, 89 periodical titles, 850 videos and CDs, and 20,000 slides. I'm already involved in planning a new facility for this library, which has outgrown its original space. Since the library is so new, I'm having difficulty at the very outset in projecting the amount of stack space we'll need. I'd be very interested in hearing from other librarians, particularly those in very small schools, about collection size. The school is offering undergraduate degrees in three areas: Fashion design and merchandizing, Interior design, and Communication arts and design. Art history, which is now just offered as a support area, is going to be promoted to another major area; classes are also offered in basic arts & sciences subjects to support the BFA degree. Currently, there are 150 students, 26 faculty; I've been told the school does not expect to grow beyond about 200 students. For space planning purposes, how large should a collection be to support this type and size of program? Are there well-established libraries out there serving small schools, and if so, could you share your collection statistics with me? All feedback will be much appreciated. -- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Dana Beth [log in to unmask] Art & Architecture Librarian phone: 1-314-935-5218 Washington University, St Louis fax: 1-314-935-4362 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]