Library construction creates inconvenience for employees

By Ian Clift
Summer Reporter

Library employees will be retrieving books from the second and third floor of the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library while renovations continue on the facility.

"For the moment a lot of the construction involves the ceiling duct work," said Nancy Hewison, professor of library sciences and director of library services. "If you need a book, one of the library staff actually dawns a hard hat and retrieves it for you."

The $5.2 million construction to the library located on the first, second and third floors of Stewart Center began Jan. 1 of this year and will be completed by Jan. 1, 2003.

The staff will page books for the public from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. until the ceiling work is completed on Aug. 19, just in time for fall classes. From 3 p.m. until the library closes at 9 p.m. the floors will be open to the public.

The library patrons will find that bookshelves have been covered in plastic to protect them from falling debris and other damage.

Ankit Mandholia, a junior in the School of Science and a library employee, said of the book paging, "The work load is less right now so it's not so bad."

Library patrons tend to check out fewer books from library because of the inconvenience. "They just look at the very certain books that they need," said Mandholia.

Hewison said the reconstruction is going very well. "Walls have been built for a number of offices, work rooms and study rooms," she said. The renovations will include an intra-library loan shipping room and a microfilm library, as well as wider aisles and bathrooms accessible to the handicapped.

"We will be moving into the second and third floor and out of the first floor by Dec. 1, 2001," said Hewison. Contractors are expected to begin construction on the first floor of the library in Jan. 2002.

The reconstructed library will hold a grand opening during the spring semester of 2003.

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