Why Now?

A 21st-Century Library by Design

Research methods and study have changed dramatically since the last expansion of the Emma Waters Summar library in the mid-1980s.

Thanks to the emergence of the internet-based tools and improved technologies, information sharing among sources and scholars around the globe is both immediate and extensive. Students are more apt to study out loud in small groups rather than alone at a table.

At universities across the country, older facilities have been retrofitted for technology and group study rooms. Union University has a rare opportunity to build — from the ground up — a library tailored to 21st-century specifications.

Historic Opportunity

In a community of scholars, there is simply no substitute for an extensive collection of accumulated knowledge in books, essays, periodicals, advanced technological assets and other academic resources.

Those works are carefully maintained and expanded in a library that benefits every discipline and every student.

Since 1975, the Emma Waters Summar Library at Union University has been housed in the Penick Academic Complex, the oldest building on campus. The library staff has a longstanding tradition of acquiring and curating the finest collections, as well as providing first-rate service to the academic community.

But while virtually everything else at the University has grown, the library has had little space to expand.

Union’s growth in enrollment and academic offerings creates a pressing problem—the current library is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of our thriving academic community, and no further expansion on the current site is possible.

This is a moment of great historical significance in the life of an institution that traces its roots to 1823. Now is the time to open the doors to a library that can endure well into the third century of Union University’s service to church and society.