This blog details the three-year journey to renovate Hale Library after the May 22, 2018, fire.
This blog has allowed us to share our journey of recovery with the K-State and library communities both near and far. We will never forget the generosity and outpouring of support as we worked to rebuild and create a next-generation library.
It’s exciting to have people back in Hale Library! With the opening of the second floor, we are working to adjust to a new sort of normal on campus and at the Libraries, while keeping visitors safe.
Visitors to the second floor of Hale Library enter through the loggia entrance, where there are signs to help inform them about safety guidelines.
Our staff have many safety features in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, including required use of masks, extra cleaning supplies available to patrons and limited seating areas and computer stations. It has been very exciting to see people come into the space to walk around and explore the new floor.
The IT and Library Help Desks on the second floor have floor signs to help encourage social distancing.On July 1, students came by the library to check out the new space and take some time to study. It’s great to see students back in Hale Library!Kim Bugbee, user services specialist, helped greet visitors to the library in the loggia entrance. The entire library user services team helped make sure that visitors knew where to go and how to follow safety precautions.Our Libraries IT staff have also been working hard to make sure our technology is up and running.
In the Great Room, crew members are primarily focused on stripping and varnishing the bookshelves in the alcoves, as well as sanding the windowsills and completing any outstanding plaster work.
Bryan Hauck, a Riley Construction crew member, works on varnishing wood in the Great Room. Hawk was excited to work in the space and told us that his mother used to work in the basement of Hale Library. What a neat connection!Before being varnished, the bookshelves are repaired and stripped.The varnished pieces of the bookshelves are laid out along the length of the Great Room to dry.Even under construction, there is so much beauty in the Great Room.
We are particularly excited about Joyce and Joe’s Cornerstone Café located in the Dave and Ellie Everitt Learning Commons on the first floor. The café is close to completion and the temporary walls separating the café from the rest of the floor have been taken down. The first floor will be open during the fall semester, but plans are still being finalized for the opening of the café, which will be run by K-State Housing and Dining Services.
We can’t wait for students and the community to have a cozy place to study and grab a cup of coffee!
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2 thoughts on “Building update: A new normal”
Dear K-State Library Staff and Project Workers: So proud of what you have accomplished since “the Fire”. You are dong an exceptional job in communicating the rebuilding, the conservation, and the beauty of completed work to date. THANK YOU.
Very nice initiative and fabulous makeover of the area.
Dear K-State Library Staff and Project Workers: So proud of what you have accomplished since “the Fire”. You are dong an exceptional job in communicating the rebuilding, the conservation, and the beauty of completed work to date. THANK YOU.
Very nice initiative and fabulous makeover of the area.