The Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte/Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of Universiteit Gent/Ghent University held 50 different library collections, containing 670,000 books, which were scattered over 222 different locations in the city of Ghent. The dispersed collections were a legacy of the former seminar instruction method favoured by many professors in the past and no longer met the needs of academic research and education in the 21st century. A masterplan was developed to bring the collections together. Central to the plan was the renovation of the historic neoclassical building known as the Institut des Sciences/Institute for the Sciences dating from 1892. The project included both the renovation of the building and the amalgamation of all 50 collections under one roof. A primary concern during the renovation process was finding the appropriate balance between the requirements of historic building conservation and the needs of a modern library. After more than ten years of preparation, planning, ...