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Hale Library Blog

Home Sweet Hale! First floor now open

Posted on by Sarah McGreer Hoyt

At 8 a.m. on Wednesday, August 28, 2019, Dean Lori Goetsch opened the doors to the Dave and Ellie Everitt Learning Commons on Hale Library’s first floor.

Oh, K-State friends. We wish you could have been there. It was a beautiful thing. After 15 long months, our people finally got to come back to their Home Sweet Hale.

It wouldn’t have been possible without the more than 2,400 individuals who contributed to Help for Hale. We have four more floors to renovate, so please, be a part of creating the rest of our next-generation library. It’s easy to make a gift through the KSU Foundation online.

If you’re on campus, come visit! We’ll be closed Saturday-Monday of Labor Day weekend, but regular hours start Tuesday.

The flow of early morning visitors was slow but steady. Within three hours, though, students swarmed the space.
HOME SWEET HALE! Welcome to the Dave and Ellie Everitt Learning Commons.
Students hooked their laptops up to the large collaboration screens in the reservable study rooms; they curled up in soft chairs; and they put the white boards to good use.
Three women sit on a blue padded bench with a gray wall and a window behind them.
Padded benches now fill the nook in front of the windows to the 1955 stacks addition.
Three students hold up K-State's "WC" hand symbol while standing in front of a wall covered in purple balloons.
Sierra Marstall tweeted this great pic and wrote, “Can I get a HALE YEAH?! But seriously go check Hale out. It’s amazing. We are BIG fans…”
We’re calling this area the “living room” for obvious reasons. Very comfortable!
Two of the first students in the door met for breakfast and a study session. (And they posed for a million photos. Thank you, guys!) Photo courtesy of the K-State Alumni Association. 
Loads of seating options fill the space — note the tall table and chairs in the background.
Smiling man with a beard stands over two computer monitors on a table.
Casey Keller of K-State’s Information Technology Assistance Center was doing some final set up as the doors opened.
A quiet nook with an added screen for privacy.
Home Sweet Hale flags welcome students to the sunflower entrance at the southeast corner of the building.
Every one of these desks was full within hours of the doors opening.
We love the accent lighting in this space.
Tara Coleman and Darchelle Martin were just a few of the library employees in purple “Hale Staff” T-shirts who welcomed everyone who came in the building.
The reservable study rooms filled up fast!
The entire Everitt Learning Commons is filled with enormous whiteboard walls. Employees left welcome notes throughout the space, and then students quickly employed them for more academic uses.
It’s so good to see the crowds of students who stop between classes, who settle in for hours of study and who dearly missed their Home Sweet Hale.
4 thoughts on “Home Sweet Hale! First floor now open”

  1. Awesome! I retired from Hale in 2012 from the perfect job and still miss it. I was heartbroken when our beautiful library was destroyed by fire and water.

    You all have done a wonderful job. Wish I could be there to see it but had to move close to my daughter due to terminal illness.

    My best wishes, love and hugs to all of you…saying a BIG HI TO ALL OF YOU!

    Sharon Van Rysselburghe
    Interlibrary Services-Retired.

  2. Congratulations on getting the first floor opened! It looks amazing, it is bright and cheerful. Lots of study spaces. Students are going to love it. Can not wait to see the other floors open. Well done everyone!

  3. Thank you, Lori! It brings us a lot of joy to see the first space opened back up to students.

  4. Thank you for thinking of us Sharon. Thinking of you as well. If you are ever in town let us know. We’d love to show you the space.

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