Welcome Back Students
It's been a hectic summer at the library - in spite of the fact we've had no students around! However, we think you'll see some of the reasons our summer flew by. There are major changes and these are only a small portion of what we hope you'll see when you come back in 2009!
For returning students - you may remember the big plastic "bubble" that surrounded the old control room and office near the children's literature collection. These had long outlasted their usefulness and we had been planning for that area to come down for several years - and finally it happened. In spite of all the noise, dust, and general disruption the result was what we had hoped - we've gained a great deal more room.
However, the plans we had for filling that space up aren't quite ready to be implemented, so rather than have a big empty area the university was kind enough to fill it up with some of the most comfortable furniture you'll come across - so the west side of the main part of the library is now filled with comfy chairs, loveseats, couches - even chaise lounges!! Although they haven't arrived yet, we also expect about four high café style tables with accompanying chairs that will sit under the windows in that area. You'll be able to study and even look out the high windows with little trouble. We fully expect this area to be one of the most popular ones in the library - and we wouldn't be surprised to find students sleeping now and again!
As a pilot we will be opening the library at 7:30 AM, Monday-Friday, during the Fall semester. During this time all computers and printers will be available, but there will be no library services until 8:00 AM - this will include checking books out, selling copy cards, sending faxes, reference, and so on. This was the compromise we made since our small staff makes it difficult to do more at this time. Whether we keep the opening at 7:30 or not will depend on you the student and whether or not we have enough usage to warrant continuing. So, if you were one of the many who voted yes in our blog poll last Spring, be sure and make it in during that time so we can keep a count of how many are there between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m.
As a side note, as usual our evening hours will be limited during the first week of school. Although we will open at 7:30 a.m. we will close at 9:00 p.m. August 25-28. The library will also be closed to the public on the first Saturday (August 30) as been our routine for several years. This is the time we will be training the library student assistants and this gives us the only uninterrupted time we can gather them all together. However, on Sunday August 31st the library will resume its regular hours - these will be posted on the library web site, along with the dates the library will be open and closed during breaks, holidays and interim periods.
For those of you who may be wondering - yes, we're going to hold "Open All Night" again during the exam week period. For new students, we expand our evening hours to midnight the last week of classes, expand the Friday hours to 10 PM, extend the Saturday hours to 5 PM, and then on Sunday we open at the regular 4 PM time but we don't close again until 4:30 PM the following Thursday. Last year was a great success, with over 10% of the student body in the library at some point between 10 PM and 6 AM during the Sunday evening/Monday morning time period - and the rest of the evenings weren't very slow either!
Another major change was a complete overhaul of the library web pages, which began in June. Although not complete finished yet we hope you'll find the changes beneficial and the site easier to get around. Most of the major links are now right on the library home page, so you'll rarely if ever need to use the old navigation links that led you deeper and deeper into the library site (you'll still be going deep - hopefully you just won't notice!!)
During the 2004 election the library held a "watch party" in the Heritage Court for those who wanted to watch the Presidential returns come in. Snacks were available, and we had a map where we kept tabs on whether a state went red or blue! We're planning on repeating that activity for the 2008 election so if you're a political junkie join us in the library that evening.
Keep watching the blog and other news sources on campus. We have some other plans up our sleeves for some interesting activities this year.
Welcome back and we'll see you in the Library!
For returning students - you may remember the big plastic "bubble" that surrounded the old control room and office near the children's literature collection. These had long outlasted their usefulness and we had been planning for that area to come down for several years - and finally it happened. In spite of all the noise, dust, and general disruption the result was what we had hoped - we've gained a great deal more room.
However, the plans we had for filling that space up aren't quite ready to be implemented, so rather than have a big empty area the university was kind enough to fill it up with some of the most comfortable furniture you'll come across - so the west side of the main part of the library is now filled with comfy chairs, loveseats, couches - even chaise lounges!! Although they haven't arrived yet, we also expect about four high café style tables with accompanying chairs that will sit under the windows in that area. You'll be able to study and even look out the high windows with little trouble. We fully expect this area to be one of the most popular ones in the library - and we wouldn't be surprised to find students sleeping now and again!
As a pilot we will be opening the library at 7:30 AM, Monday-Friday, during the Fall semester. During this time all computers and printers will be available, but there will be no library services until 8:00 AM - this will include checking books out, selling copy cards, sending faxes, reference, and so on. This was the compromise we made since our small staff makes it difficult to do more at this time. Whether we keep the opening at 7:30 or not will depend on you the student and whether or not we have enough usage to warrant continuing. So, if you were one of the many who voted yes in our blog poll last Spring, be sure and make it in during that time so we can keep a count of how many are there between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m.
As a side note, as usual our evening hours will be limited during the first week of school. Although we will open at 7:30 a.m. we will close at 9:00 p.m. August 25-28. The library will also be closed to the public on the first Saturday (August 30) as been our routine for several years. This is the time we will be training the library student assistants and this gives us the only uninterrupted time we can gather them all together. However, on Sunday August 31st the library will resume its regular hours - these will be posted on the library web site, along with the dates the library will be open and closed during breaks, holidays and interim periods.
For those of you who may be wondering - yes, we're going to hold "Open All Night" again during the exam week period. For new students, we expand our evening hours to midnight the last week of classes, expand the Friday hours to 10 PM, extend the Saturday hours to 5 PM, and then on Sunday we open at the regular 4 PM time but we don't close again until 4:30 PM the following Thursday. Last year was a great success, with over 10% of the student body in the library at some point between 10 PM and 6 AM during the Sunday evening/Monday morning time period - and the rest of the evenings weren't very slow either!
Another major change was a complete overhaul of the library web pages, which began in June. Although not complete finished yet we hope you'll find the changes beneficial and the site easier to get around. Most of the major links are now right on the library home page, so you'll rarely if ever need to use the old navigation links that led you deeper and deeper into the library site (you'll still be going deep - hopefully you just won't notice!!)
During the 2004 election the library held a "watch party" in the Heritage Court for those who wanted to watch the Presidential returns come in. Snacks were available, and we had a map where we kept tabs on whether a state went red or blue! We're planning on repeating that activity for the 2008 election so if you're a political junkie join us in the library that evening.
Keep watching the blog and other news sources on campus. We have some other plans up our sleeves for some interesting activities this year.
Welcome back and we'll see you in the Library!
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