Campus spaces
A new look for the largest library on campus
December 3, 2025
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The newly renovated main floor of Stauffer library, which now greets visitors with a streamlined information desk.
The Joseph S. Stauffer Library is the largest library at Queen鈥檚 and provides invaluable resources to the campus community, including vital tools for research and inspiring spaces for study, collaboration, and learning. This fall, it has been greeting students, faculty, staff, and community members with its rejuvenated first floor. The new space was designed to foreground accessibility and inclusion.
鈥淲e have been very excited to be welcoming people to the library after an extensive renovation that took place over most of the last academic year,鈥 says Vice-Provost and University Librarian Mark Asberg. 鈥淭he library is a platform for people to achieve the potentials they most want to achieve, so we want to make sure that the library is a place where everyone can thrive on their research and learning journey. That鈥檚 about more than the information that you can access in the library, but the positive and inspiring learning experiences you have when you come into the library.鈥
The changes are noticeable as soon you walk in. Visitors are now greeted by a streamlined information desk designed to seem less intimidating and more approachable for those new to the library. It brings together many of the resources people are looking for when they come in, such as course reserves and printing, and it allows for immediate connection with helpful and informative library team members.
Accessible and inclusive spaces and educational resources
The newly renovated main floor also features a significantly expanded Adaptive Technology Centre (ATC) where expert staff are available to offer support for students registered with Queen鈥檚 Student Accessibility Services. The ATC is equipped with three study rooms, computer docking stations, computer stations with assistive software, and a variety of accessible lounge seating, all designed to meet a broad array of student needs.
The renovation incorporates inclusion and accessibility into many other features of the space as well. There is now a bookable area for students with children, complete with a playpen and beanbag chair. Wheelchair-accessible seating is found throughout the first floor. There are also new single-occupancy, gender-neutral washrooms and two universal bathrooms.
The main floor of the library was redesigned to be more welcoming, accessible, and inclusive.
Research consultation services are now centrally located on the renovated floor. Visitors will find a new consultation space for specialist librarians dedicated to working with student and faculty in the humanities, business, and social sciences disciplines in particular, including support in finding and using a complex array of library resources, and developing research skills and vital digital and information literacies. Nearby, a new fifty-seat classroom creates opportunities for library-led or 鈥損artnered teaching and events.
Indigenous sculpture
Indigenous heritage and culture is more highly profiled in the space than before. The library was honored to work with David R. Maracle, a world-renowned artist, multi-instrumentalist, and Indigenous Knowledge keeper from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, to install a new stone sculpture as a permanent feature as part of growing representation of Indigenous art in the library. The work is entitled Sundance, and Maracle says one of the things the piece represents is strength and resilience.
Sundance by David R. Maracle in the newly renovated library. (David L. Vaughan)
鈥淭his multimedia work embodies strength in numerous dimensions,鈥 says Maracle. 鈥淚t begins with the use of recycled materials sourced from the ancestral homelands of Indigenous peoples across various regions.鈥
Maracle uses elements found in nature to create sculptures such as Sundance.
鈥淭he fur adorning the skull is derived from a ceremonial buffalo robe,鈥 says Maracle. 鈥淭he deer hide and horse tail incorporated into the piece also originate from animals that had made sacred sacrifices. Feathers carved from buffalo rib bones and small pouches containing tobacco symbolize our prayers to Creator鈥攆or the natural world, the elemental forces, and the families who sustain our way of life. This vision, brought forth on the land and birthplace of the Peacemaker in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Kentehke Kanienkehake Haudenosaunne Lands stands as a testament to the enduring spirit of our people and the sacred connection we maintain with the Earth. Powerful Medicine.鈥
Visitors to the library will find Sundance in one of the alcoves just past the spiral staircase on the first floor.
Daniel R. Woolf Gallery
The first floor of Stauffer Library was named the Daniel R. Woolf Gallery in 2023 in honour of Queen鈥檚 20th principal and vice-chancellor, who served in the role from 2009 to 2019. The renovated first floor keeps this name in recognition of Principal Emeritus Woolf, who is currently a professor in the Queen鈥檚 Department of History.
鈥淚t鈥檚 often the case that residences are named after former principals, but I actually prefer this,鈥 says Principal Emeritus Woolf. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much more reflective of my own identity as a humanities scholar who has spent countless hours in Queen鈥檚 libraries as both student and faculty member, and it recognizes my other relationship with the library system as a rare book donor.鈥
Learn more about the renovations to Stauffer on the , and watch the virtual grand opening of the space on .
