Ablah Library is undergoing some aesthetic updates. Expansions to services and remodeling may be next.
Over the years, Ablah has had building additions. The newest addition is nearly 30 years old.
“Some of it is basic facilities upgrades; it’s time for those,” William Weare, an associate dean for Ablah, said.
The reference desk, where students can ask questions about library materials in person, has been removed and will be replaced with a desk on wheels that can be raised or lowered for accessibility.
“If we had someone that came in a wheelchair, we could lower it and get the right level for them,” Brent Mai, dean of University Libraries, said.
Mai said he hopes to make the library more accessible in other ways, such as expanding an entrance through the Media Resources Center. The new entrance would be closer to Woolsey Hall, which would allow students to walk through the library and the Shocker Success Center, all the way to the Rhatigan Student Center.
The library is removing and replacing the carpet on its first floor to one cohesive pattern and removing the green carpeted walls in some of the front offices, replacing them with drywall.
Mai and other library staff are also working on consolidating some of Ablah’s collections of journals and publications, which Mai hopes will clear space that could be used as study areas for students.
“(Library staff) have been pulling in my three categories of areas,” Mai said. “I want hard and soft spaces (tables and couches); I want loud and quiet spaces (and) … I want group and individual spaces. (I want) the different combination(s) of those six things throughout the building to fit whatever your learning style is.”
Weare discussed the idea of “alone together,” which is when people are working on a project by themselves, but are surrounded by the people they know. Weare said these new spaces would allow for this.
“How many of us like to work alone, but be with our folks?” Weare said. “People like to be near each other.”
Mai also mentioned some theoretical changes he would like to see at the library once space is cleared up.
One possibility is moving the anthropology museum from its current location in Neff Hall to Ablah’s second floor. Neff Hall is slated to be demolished in the university’s 10-year master plan.
“We would try to create a gallery space that’s appropriate for the kind of thing that they do, to display the kinds of artifacts that they have,” Mai said.
Mai and Weare said that the primary focus for the future of the library is to make it more welcoming for students.
“We want to create a more inviting space,” Weare said. “That’s what we’re here for; we want more people coming in.”
*This story has been updated to correct information about the circulation and reference desk in Ablah.
