The Saint Vincent College library, which contains a 540-year-old copy of the classic “Canterbury Tales,” plans a $22 million renovation and expansion to give students and faculty the amenities needed for a 21st century learning facility and technology hub.

For the Benedictine monks whose order founded the college near Latrobe in 1846, libraries have always been a place where “knowledge was transmitted,” whether it was by hand in the Middle Ages or in today's world where “books are on phones,” the college's president, Brother Norman W. Hipps, told an audience of about 100 students, faculty, college officials and supporters Wednesday at groundbreaking ceremonies in front of the Latimer Family Library.

“Technology is a tool for educating students,” Hipps said.

Construction on the two-story, 13,000-square-foot expansion is expected to begin once the semester ends next month and is scheduled to be completed by the fall 2020. The college is conducting a fundraising campaign to pay for the library project, as well as other buildings on campus.

The expanded library, which will have three floors within the two stories, will be built in front of the existing building and have a new entrance, said Alan Hohlfelder, a principal of MacLachan, Cornelius & Filoni. The challenge was fitting the addition in the space between the building and the road separating it from the Robert S. Carey Student Center, Hohfelder said.

The expanded library will have four new classrooms, a computer laboratory, distance-learning space and areas where students can work in collaboration with their professors, said Bibiana Boerio, co-chair of the library project steering committee and a member of the college's board.

Space has been set aside for a writing and tutoring center, instructional technology offices, video production suite and study rooms. The top level will offer solitary study spaces, group study rooms, three primary art galleries, a gallery video exhibit room and a rare book exhibit and storage area.

The libraries are changing from a quiet space for solo study to one for students who value social interaction, said Brother David Kelly, the library director since 2001. Officials want the library to be a place where students want to go to study, meet classmates or work together on a project, Kelly said.

“It's doing more things here, locally and internationally, because they will have the internet,” Kelly said.

The college surveyed students and faculty to determine what features and facilities they wanted in the transformation, Boerio said. One amenity was a barista cafe, Boerio said, standing across from the student center where there's a dining facility on the first floor.

Kelly said students who want to take a break and have a soda, coffee or a snack “don't want to pack up and leave (the library).”

Boerio joked that the only aspect of the project that did not accommodate student requests was “moving the library closer to the dorms.”

The renovation will fill what Boerio called an “urgent need” to improve the college's ability to preserve and display art and rare book collections there and at the archabbey. Saint Vincent has more than 100 rare books that are at least 1,500 years old, officials said.

The library will be “refining” its collection by removing older copies of duplicate books so “we have an up-to-date collection,” Kelly said.

Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.

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