Thomas 1

William Brody Thomas

UWRT 1101
October 11, 2014
UNC Charlotte History Project
The J. Murrey Atkins Library
Atkins Library, as it is known by the students of The University of North Carolina at
Charlotte, was named after J. Murrey Atkins, the first chairman of the Board of Trustees of
Charlotte College. The library has thirty librarians and an overall staff of seventy members that
work full-time. These staff members work throughout the ten floors of Atkins doing their various
jobs.
Each floor of Atkins has a different purpose. On the first floor, the Central Information
commons is located. This floor consists of the Information Desk, Reference Services,
Presentation Support Services, Research Data Services, and Instructional Services. Along with
these services; there are many chairs, tables, computers, and study rooms for students to gather to
complete assignments. On the second and third floors, technology and library services are also
held, relating to the first floor (McMullen).1 On floors five through eight is where most of the
books are kept and only half of students knew this (Thomas).3 Those floors are also considered a
quiet study zone as a whole, similar to some of the quiet rooms on other floors (McMullen).1 The
tenth floor is also a quiet zone. This floor is only open on the weekdays between nine a.m. and
five p.m. since this is the location of the Special Collection. The tenth floor consists of old maps,
manuscripts, architectural drawings, rare books, university archives, and oral histories. It is
called the Special Collection (Special Collections).2 When given a survey, only a small selection
of students had ever visited the tenth floor before (Thomas).3

Thomas 2
The J. Murrey Atkins Library was renovated in 1990s. The completion of the Atkins
Library renovation was done from 1996 to 1999. This renovation combined three present
buildings into the large one that stands today (McMullen).1 The survey results showed that a very
small amount of students ever knew about this (Thomas).3 All renovations were done with the
existing library fund, money given by the legislature, and a bond for the task. The library opened
in 1999 newly renovated. With these renovations came more technology for Charlotte students.
Students have access to fifty laptops that can be rented out along with camcorders, projectors,
video monitors, headphones, and other equipment. Along with the technology, Atkins has just
over a million books (McMullen),1 which very few students knew according to the survey
(Thomas).3
Looking back at the survey, it was found that the majority of the selection of students
surveyed guessed wrong the number of books in the library. The survey also showed that only a
small percent had been to the tenth floor and none of the survey participants knew that Atkins
used to be three buildings. About half guessed that books were located on floors five through
eight. All of this information is helpful to know about the J. Murrey Atkins Library.

Thomas 3

Works Cited
McMullen, Susan. "J. Murrey Atkins Library Information Commons -- University of
North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina." Learning Commons Model. 18 Apr. 2007. Web. 28
Sept. 2014. http://faculty.rwu.edu/smcmullen/UNCC.html.
"Special Collections J. Murrey Atkins Library UNC Charlotte." Special Collections J.
Murrey Atkins Library UNC Charlotte. 11 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2014.
http://specialcollections.uncc.edu/specialcollections/collections.
Thomas, William. J. Murrey Atkins Library Survey of UNC Charlotte students. 9 Oct.
2014.

Works Cited
1. Susan McMullen, "J. Murrey Atkins Library Information Commons -- University of
North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina." Learning Commons Model, 18 Apr. 2007.
http://faculty.rwu.edu/smcmullen/UNCC.html.
2. "Special Collections J. Murrey Atkins Library UNC Charlotte." Atkins Library UNC
Charlotte, 11 Oct. 2014, http://specialcollections.uncc.edu/specialcollections/collections.
3. William Thomas, J. Murrey Atkins Library Survey of UNC Charlotte students. 9
Oct. 2014