To meet the high demand for interactive video conferencing spaces on campus the College has decided to fast track a renovation and expansion of the LIB105 classroom. LIB105 will go off-line after this semester and the renovated space will go back online for the Summer Language School session. The room will be enlarged to the east, increasing its size by about 1/3. The finished room will be dividable into two spaces, each with its own entry door. The space will have high end, state of the art video conferencing equipment.

Changes to shelving and seating

The six study carrels on the east wall of 105 will be removed. We will reuse the lockers from these study carrels in carrels located elsewhere in the library.

To open up additional floor space, seven static ranges of shelves will be converted to compact shelving, compressing the collection against the existing compact shelving in the SE corner of the floor. To make the shelving conversion possible, right after exams end in December, the books (specifically, PS 214 – PS 3569 E5) and shelves will be temporarily moved to the Harman Periodicals Reading Area. The temporary shelves will stay in place during January and into February while the new exterior wall of 105 is built and the compact shelving units are installed, then the books will be moved from Harman back onto the new compact shelving. A few of the big blue easy chairs from Harman will be placed between the showcases and book stacks, and the rest will be staged on the upper level of Davis Library. The newspapers and magazines will continue to be accessible. All the books will continue to be available for use except for the short time they’re actually moving from one spot to the other and back. The new compact shelving and the static book stacks on the north side of LIB105 will be accessible throughout the spring semester while the renovation of 105 continues.

Facilities Services will do what it can to minimize noise and dust. This project is quite similar to the expansion of LIB140 a few years ago, which was, overall, quite painless and had little impact on people in the building.

Changes to room scheduling

The LIB105 classroom is currently used as an instruction and computer lab space. In January 2015, when the renovation begins, this will change. Scheduling and events staff are working on policies for the new videoconferencing room and for the LIB140 classroom, which has just been opened to use outside of the Economics Department. The library has given feedback on these proposed policies.

For now, we know:

• LIB105 will be closed for renovation from January 2015 through the spring term.
• When LIB105 reopens as a videoconferencing and meeting space, in time for Language Schools, it will be quite different. For one thing, it will no longer have computers! And in terms of scheduling, videoconferencing events will receive priority.
• Beginning in January, students looking for a computer lab in the Library will need to use other rooms, including LIB140 and LIB220, the Wilson Media Lab. There are computer labs outside the library too, of course.
• From January through the end of the spring term, classes that would have been scheduled in LIB105 will need to be scheduled elsewhere.
• Even after LIB105 reopens in the summer, videoconferencing needs will get higher priority than instruction.

Questions? Post here, or contact your liaison.

We’ll post updates here as often as we can.