A New Look for the Library

Not quite three years ago, the Library Associates celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the Joseph Mark Lauinger Library. Now, at the appropriate age of 23, the building is undergoing a major deferred maintenance and renovation project, designed to bring the heating and ventilating system up-to-date, to optimize the space available for users and staff, and to prepare the building for the requirements that will be imposed on it during the coming years.

The Lauinger Library is, we believe, the most heavily used building on campus. During the latter weeks of each semester, it is not unusual for seven to nine thousand people to come into the building each day-the equivalent of filling the Cap Center twice a week. Lauinger is also extremely flexible and well-constructed. Despite moans about areas that are too warm or too cool, the building serves the University very well.

However, over the two decades since it was built, some problems have arisen. The size of the collection and staff have both doubled since 1970; the impact of increased staff especially has caused most departments of the library to be overcrowded. Even more importantly, the heating and ventilating system has developed serious flaws, not the least of which is lack of humidity control. In a research library, which should be kept within fairly narrow ranges of temperature and humidity, this situation is potentially disastrous for the collection, which is of course one of the university's most significant assets.

This summer, these major problems are being addressed with steps that will change the face of the library. The air handling units are being repaired and brought to full efficiency; the entire third (main) floor is being renovated to accommodate computers, users, and staff within a comfortable environment; the fifth floor Murray Conference Room will be renovated to become a full-purpose multi-function meeting area; and most of the ceilings in the building are being replaced.

The architect's rendering shows a view of the public area as it will look when the project is complete. There will be no more card catalog (everything in the card catalog is already in the computer), and many more computers. The Forsgren Reference Department, made possible by the generous gift of John Forsgren, C'67, will meet the information needs of library users for the coming decades, incorporating the Blommer Information Center (our CD-ROM network), the traditional reference collection, a new-book area, and new and comfortable study spaces.

Summer is the best time of year to perform a construction project in a university, because a smaller number of students and faculty are on hand to be inconvenienced by the ongoing work. The library closed for four days at the end of the spring exam period; during that time, the 58 staff members whose desks are on the third floor moved to temporary quarters, and the reference and circulation departments-complete with reference collection-moved to the Pierce Reading Room (Pierce is 4,100 square feet in size, twice as large as an average house).

As I write, the main floor has undergone demolition. Walls and doors have been removed; the ceiling tiles and grid have been taken down; lights are hanging from temporary wiring. The cement floor, sticky from the mastic used to secure the carpet tiles that have been removed, takes shoes off the unsuspecting visitor. This is a hard-hat area, with only the construction team allowed in. Each Friday morning, library staff are given a tour to see the current status of the construction.

Because the library is a critical resource for the university, work must be completed by the beginning of the fall semester. Three months used to sound like a long period of time; it no longer does! Thus far, there have been two shifts of construction workers each day; we may need to bring in shifts around the clock in order to meet the required schedule.

Users and staff are tolerating the disturbances of their space with equanimity. We are all learning more about the construction of large public buildings than we had ever thought we would, and find it fascinating. If you have the opportunity to visit us this summer, take a look at the exhibit case in the lobby, or the temporary "rooms" for acquisitions and cataloging on the second floor. And if you visit after the summer is over, we hope that you will be as pleased as we will with the changes in the library's looks.