Viki Muench | Staff Reporter
From Print [Sep. 30, 2014] | Legacy
It was officially announced this week that LU will be getting a new library, expected completion in May 2016. Dean of University Library Services, Elizabeth MacDonald, presented official information to the student government and talked about details regarding the new facility.
The new library will be located in the grass area in front of the Welcome Center and will mark the entrance to the campus. “The building will be a 100 thousand square feet and will have four floors in total. It will provide 16 new classrooms, a 24-hour coffee shop, as well as a 24-hour study space, indoor as well as outdoor community areas with vending machines and kiosks, a walk out area on the third floor, a mothers’ room, seminar and group spaces, as well as a full service media lab which will be attached to a theatre that will seat about 75 people.”
MacDonald said that it was their goal to create a space for students where they have access to comprehensive resources and an environment for students that struggle with school. The International Office, ESL, the Writing Center, Freshmen Experience, Online programs and tutors will be moving to the new library as well. “This way, all the departments can work together a lot better and students, especially internationals, can make use of these services as they will then be all in one place,” said MacDonald. “Butler library, as beautiful as it is, has just become to small for our needs. Our concerns were also issues that we were having with Wi-Fi, printing, study areas, lack of resources and simply, we were running out of space to put stuff,” explained MacDonald.
The current collection space of hardcovers and research will only increase by about 20 percent in the new library. MacDonald said, “Our plan is to change to mainly electronic books in the future, so the collection will not be much bigger, but we will have more space available which will make accessing books a lot easier.” The new library plans were approved by the administration in May of this year. “We are always open for more suggestions about the provided services and plans and we are happy to receive as much feedback from students as possible.”
For more information or suggestions, contact Elizabeth MacDonald at [email protected] or call (636) 949 4396.
