Most of Wichita State’s Ablah Library is closed Monday, March 17 due to flooding on the lower level, according to the library.
The website for Ablah Library displayed a red banner on Monday morning which read, “Ablah Library will be closed until further notice. The 24-Hour Study Room is open, but bathroom is off line due to flooding on the lower level.”
As of 10:50 a.m., this was replaced with a new notice, stating that the library will reopen Tuesday, March 18.
The notice said the 24-hour study area and music library will remain open on Monday. “All electronic resources,” as well as the elevators, are operating, according to the notice.
“The Library’s Reference & Instruction Services Team will be providing online chat service (as usual) to assist faculty and students with curricular and research support on Monday,” it said.
“Despite the volume of water on the Library’s Lower Level, the vaults of the Library’s Special Collections were not compromised significantly!”
Dean of Libraries Brent Mai was not available for comment Monday morning. Eason Bryer, executive director of Facilities Services, was not available either.
Stem • Mar 20, 2025 at 8:42 am
What caused it? Did they remember to disable the vault’s new fire suppression system prior to doing the sprinkler tests? They forgot to do that last year when the cleaners came. They’re lucky the system didn’t dump. They put two custodial workers at risk. That was almost exactly a year ago. Also if it dumps, it dumps $750,000 worth of gas. Tax-payer funded gas. Would be curious to know the details of what went wrong and who was responsible. Thank you.