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Hale Library Blog

Month: March 2021

The perfect study spot

Posted on by Cailin Riley

Now that floors 1 through 4 of Hale Library have officially been open to the public for more than a month, students and community members are getting more familiar with the new spaces and finding their perfect study spots.

A picture of Zixuan Wang.
Zixuan Wang, a vet student in her second year, said that she loves the collaboration rooms and technology. “My favorite is this big monitor and the study room,” she said. “And I like that it’s quiet, it’s spacious, it’s bright…it’s perfect, I think.”
A picture of Josh Morgan in one of the study rooms.
Josh Morgan, a senior studying kinesiology, said he appreciates the variety of different study spaces. “You have the study rooms, you can have sessions by the whiteboards, you have the other side where there are walls and comfy chairs…basically whatever you think is best for your studying is here.”
A picture of Brooke Crawford studying the the second floor living room area.
Brooke Crawford a sophomore studying kinesiology, prepares for an upcoming exam in the bright living room area on the second floor.
A picture of Kinde Ketema.
Kinde Ketema, a graduate student studying agronomy, said that the renovation far exceeded his expectations. “I love the Libraries…I love these study rooms. With the renovation, the library looks pretty nice. And everything is like, completely different now. It’s amazing.”

We’re especially excited about the opening of the Virginia Carlson Family Reading Room on the first floor of Historic Farrell Library. This space features the juvenile literature and curriculum materials collections and offers plenty of seating for study purposes.

A picture of full shelves in the Family Reading Room.
The Virginia Carlson Family Reading Room on the first floor of Historic Farrell Library offers visitors a naturally bright and open space to browse children’s literature and curriculum materials.

Current periodicals are also now available for browsing on the second floor of Historic Farrell Library in room 240. Items from the juvenile literature and curriculum materials collections can be checked out, but current periodicals may only be browsed.

In other exciting news, the media studio and equipment checkout are scheduled to open to the public the first week of April in the Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab. This is just the first phase of several installments of advanced technology including makerspaces, video production studio, virtual reality room and more. The Innovation Lab is scheduled to be fully open next fall.

A picture of the current periodicals space.
Current periodicals, including scholarly journals and trade publications, are available for patrons to browse on the second floor of Historic Farrell Library. The room can be accessed from the west side of the building.

We also want to invite fans of the K-State Libraries to join us on April 15 at 6:30 p.m. for the Tale of Hale, a virtual ribbon cutting and official re-opening celebration of Hale Library. This storytelling event will feature narration by proud K-Staters, including Dean of Libraries Lori Goetsch and K-State President Richard Myers.

A graphic promoting the Tale of Hale event.

You can RSVP online for this event at ksufoundation.org/rsvp/libraries/ or by calling (785)775-2040. The viewing link and details will be sent following your registration.

Even better, as a special thank you for attending the Tale of Hale, you will receive a commemorative bookmark! (Everybody needs more bookmarks.)

We can’t wait to celebrate our new, 21st century, next-generation library with you!

Gallons and semi-trucks: Fun stats from Hale Library’s renovation

Posted on by Cailin Riley

Now that floors 1-4 of Hale Library are open to the public and more and more books are returning to the building, we wanted to take a look back at the enormous project of renovating K-State’s most beloved five-story behemoth.

K-State Libraries worked with Hutton construction company for more than 24 months to renovate Hale Library from top to bottom. The first floor was completed and opened to the public in 2019, with the second floor following in summer of 2020 after the pandemic hit. But even with that challenge, construction on the library continued diligently, and it has been a wonder to see how much has changed in the past two years.

BELFOR staff work on moving juvenile materials onto shelves in Hale Library room 140.
This week, our friends at BELFOR started moving juvenile literature and the curriculum materials collection into room 140, the future Virginia Carlson Family Reading Room. Staff have also started moving the current periodicals from the Math/Physics Library to Hale Library’s second floor reading room.

The entire Hale Library renovation required more than 60 different types of trades, from painting and lighting, to plumbing and wood restoration, and even architecture design and inspection services. It is estimated that an average of 60 crew members over the 24 months it took to complete the project worked more than 250,000 hours. Imagine spending that much time on a single project! (Whew!)

A picture of the entrance to the Virginia Carlson Family Reading Room.
The entrance to the Virginia Carlson Family Reading Room on the first floor of Historic Farrell Library, as it looked earlier last month.

It took 6 full semi-trucks to deliver the carpet tile from Georgia to Manhattan. More than 226,000 square feet of carpet was installed and more than 664 gallons of adhesive was used to adhere the carpet to the floors!

Three different painters worked on the library and they estimate that they used somewhere between 5,000 and 5,500 gallons of paint to complete the building. That’s a lot of royal purple paint!

A picture of the second floor entrance to the Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab.
The second floor entrance to the Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab has a glass entrance, and late last month, film was applied for the sign. The Innovation Lab is not yet open to the public as it is still undergoing construction.

The construction crew also had some help from former and current K-State students. Six K-State interior design graduates helped work on the Hale Library project. Many thanks to Jennifer Talley, Lara Rassette, Amy Pile, Andrea Brundis, Natalie Kemp and Kaitlyn Guerreiro for using their skills to help out their alma mater! In addition, a K-State intern on the project was hired full-time as a field engineer during the project. Way to go, ‘Cats!

A picture of the third floor event gallery space with new soft seating.
The new gallery space on the third floor, located just outside of the Great Room, now has soft seating for visitors and those studying.

If you have yet to explore the new Hale Library, we invite you to come visit, view the beautiful Great Room and browse the books back on the shelves. Any books currently on the shelves are available to be checked out and there are multiple study spaces for students and visitors spread out throughout the first four floors of the building. In addition, visitors can view the historic architecture of Historic Farrell Library or grab a cup of coffee and a snack at Joyce and Joe’s Cornerstone Café.

We hope to see you soon!