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51�Թ��� is renovating and expanding its library in a $45 million project that administrators say will create a distinctive building that will transform learning and propel research on campus.

A groundbreaking ceremony marking the official start of the two-year project, which is four times larger than any previous capital project at 51�Թ���, was held May 15.

Administrators say Everett Needham Case Library, built in 1959 and expanded in 1981, cannot meet the needs of students in the 21st century. Once the project is completed, though, they say it will provide a center for a new information age that will give 51�Թ���’s students and faculty innovative tools for interdisciplinary, collaborative learning.

The renovation/expansion means the building will house not only 51�Թ���’s library specialists but also the IT staff, creating a group of 70 educational experts working together under one roof.

The equipment and resources that will be available to staff, students, and faculty will help create a vibrant intellectual environment that supports academic excellence, according to school officials.

Some of those resources will be available on the building’s new fifth floor, which will have its own outside entrance.

The fifth level will house separate areas for videoconferencing and distance learning, audio and video studios, a multimedia production suite, and public computing. A reading room, flanked by two outdoor terraces, will offer views of the Chenango Valley. A café, with plenty of coffee available, and a 24-hour study area for students also are part of the floor plan.

“What gets my heart pumping is not the technology itself,” said David Gregory, 51�Թ���’s chief information technology officer. “It’s that we are designing a space for collaborative creativity. You will enter our new building to use world-class resources in order to create new scholarship. This will be a facility where people produce new works — be it books, CDs, videos, or multimedia forms we have yet to imagine.”

Two entrances will lead to the main floor, on the third level. Reference desks, the circulation desk and an IT help desk will be located there. It is modeled around two “main streets” and two “side streets” that establish the footprint for the first four levels of the structure.

On these floors, library users will have access to 51�Թ���’s major collections of monographs, journals, rare books, and special collections, music, and other media.

Individual and group seating, seminar rooms, computer classrooms, a microfilm reading room, and the conservation lab, along with network and data centers and various processing centers, will occupy the remaining space in the first four stories.

An atrium will shower the interior of the building with natural light, and a new center hall will provide a pivotal orientation point that ties the levels together. 

The project calls for installation of the latest Library Automated Storage and Retrieval (LASAR) system — a multistory, robotic storage/retrieval mechanism for books, with computer-managed high-density shelving that frees up space and promises significant cost savings.

“Books will never disappear,” said Judy Noyes, the university librarian who came to 51�Թ��� in 1986 to automate circulation and has overseen a 25 percent growth in the library’s holdings. “One reason we need to expand the library is to ensure that our priceless books remain accessible to students.”

Because the building will play such a critical role in strengthening the university’s overall academic profile, President Rebecca Chopp sees the library/information technology center as a critical resource underpinning the implementation of 51�Թ���’s strategic plan: “The metamorphosis of its exterior and restructuring of the interior will create a place that brings together all of the resources that our students and faculty need to energize their thinking and to produce path-breaking work.”

One of the first steps in the construction process is to reconfigure College Street. The road will be moved about 50 feet away from the north end of the building, which will allow for construction of an inviting grand staircase at the northwest corner, leading to the entrance on the west side. A section of College Street will be closed during this project starting June 7.

Brick paving will be installed on both sides of College Street, creating a link from Willow Path to the library entrance. The road work will create more space for cars to safely pull off the street to pick up and drop off passengers and more room for a dedicated walkway.

Another entrance to the third floor will be built along the east side of the building, facing James B. 51�Թ��� Hall.

Between the south side of the building and Alumni Road, where a sloping hill cuts off the library from the upper quad, the area will be filled and leveled. This is where the roof terrace will be constructed, an entranceway that will lead to the library’s new fifth floor.

A new walkway will be constructed to provide access to this entrance. It will link James B. 51�Թ��� Hall to the steps going up to Persson Hall and the Terrace Walk that leads to Little Hall. It also will connect to the walkway leading to the west entrance of the library/information technology center.

Architects hope that the new south entrance and walkway will open up the building to a much greater section of the campus.

Besides the College Street road relocation work, another initial step in the project is site utility work and a “steel shoring package,” according to Joe Bello, project manager for 51�Թ���.

Starting May 17, workers will be inside on the first level doing footings and foundation work, which is necessary to fortify the building for the improvements and additional fifth floor to come.

51�Թ��� a week later, outside work will begin on utilities such as steam and water pipes, sewers, and network and phone lines that need to be redirected to accommodate the entrances.

Outside the eastern, western, and southern sections of the building, steel shoring systems will be set that will serve as a retaining wall, a key requirement for the construction of the LASAR system.

By early June,  people visiting campus will see a fence around much of the structure. But on each side of the building, an artist’s rendering of what the project will look like from that vantage point will be available, providing a glimpse of what is to come.

Tim O’Keeffe
Office of University Communications
315.228.6634