Students walking the stairways of the new Wise Library will notice the orange walls with blue hand railings surrounding them. Natural light will stream in from the windows on both sides of the building. Circles seem to dominate throughout the library.

These aspects are ones they are hoping will help students feel more comfortable in the library, according to Ruth Nellis, coordinator of library construction.

Students will enter through the new main University Avenue entrance into the five-story section. According to Nellis, once a student is inside the library, they will pass through security measures similar to those in the original library. Nellis said levels four and six are primarily stack levels with carrels, or study areas, that have fixed computers on them. Wireless access will be available on all floors, Nellis said.

The new section is 124,000 square-feet of new construction and 85,755 square-feet of renovations, according to a Wise Library information sheet. The overall project cost is $36 million, with funding coming from bond sales.

Nellis said the building is joined by an atrium, with a skylight in the ceiling. The front of Wise Library is being preserved for historical purposes and architectural features. According to Nellis, the old section of the library will still have a historical look, as they plan to keep the long tables and decorate with desk lamps.

According to Nellis, the atrium will be more along the lines of a lounge area for students. Frances O’Brien, Dean of West Virginia University Libraries, said they are hoping to have a beverage/snack cart available in the atrium area. They are still working on whether or not this will be possible, and students would only be able to drink or eat in the atrium area.

“You have to remember that it isn’t that we want to hassle people, it is that food and drink spilled on computers or some of our more expensive rare books can be a problem,” O’Brien said.

Students, from the sixth floor can overlook University Avenue and see as far down as the One Waterfront Place on the Monongahela River, according to Nellis.

“The architects put a lot of the student seating and student work areas along the window space,” Nellis added. She said this utilizes the natural light very well.

Nellis said there would be three elevators in the new section of the building. More stairwells have also been added. The green space in front of the Wise Library is also being preserved as much as possible, and the Scholars Walk would be integrated from its original location, Nellis added.

More group rooms and larger carrels have been added to provide different types of study areas for students. Nellis added there would be a variety of study styles integrated into the building to accommodate students’ needs better.

Technology will also be renewed in Wise Library. According Dennis Newborn, coordinator of library systems and automation, there will be 180 computers available for student use. He said the computers would be dispersed throughout the floors of the new section, so it doesn’t seem like a computer lab. Students, according to Nellis, will also be able to use equipment such as scanning and CD burning without additional charges. The computers have zip drives available to help accommodate the students’ needs, she added.

“The PCs are going to be spread around so it doesn’t look like this great big huge machine shop,” Newborn said.

The new computers, according to Newborn, are all extremely high-powered machines. There will be viewing rooms with previously unavailable technology for Wise Library, such as 42-inch high-definition television plasma monitor screens, wireless keyboards and a wireless mouse. These new innovations, Newborn said, would allow students to work on group projects that involve power points.

Newborn said the White Hall multimedia lab would be replaced with the multimedia rooms in the new section of the library. He added that students, who have Multi-Disciplinary Studies 103, or Library Research, would attend the class in the multimedia room instead of White Hall.

“It’s a quantum leap from anything we’ve ever done before,” Newborn said, in a statement released Nov. 28.

MORGANTOWN — Packing up the contents of a library and moving them to another location is not like moving the contents of your home.

Do your spoons have to be numbered and placed in order? And if you don’t unpack a box or two as long as you own your home, will anyone care?

But when officials at West Virginia University start transferring thousands of books and periodicals to the new campus library next month, you can be sure the movers will possess expertise in moving heavy objects and in keeping them in order.

“This is like throwing the contents of 20 to 50 households all together and having everything end up in the right order,” said project coordinator Ruth Nellis. “If everything gets out of order, it’s a major problem. We’d prefer to be able to find everything.”

Photo: Craig Cunningham

Ironworkers Bob Birurakis, left, and Jim Wright install window frames in a new library set to open at West Virginia University. When construction is completed, students will be able to sit and study by the windows, which offer a panoramic view of the campus and Morgantown.

Photo: Craig Cunningham

A new library at West Virginia University is set to open in time for the spring semester. The five-story, 124,000-square-foot brick building will integrate four branch libraries under one roof. The original Charles C. Wise Jr. Library is set for renovation, and the cost of both projects is $36 million.

University officials are promoting the new building as the library of the future. It is a five-story, 124,000-square-foot building that will integrate four branch libraries under one roof. More importantly, it will meet modern technological needs.

“We’ll have a librarian’s dream of new technology,” said WVU library dean Frances O’Brien. “Students are going to love it.”

The new library is being constructed right next to the old Charles C. Wise Jr. Library, which was built in 1931. A glass-encased atrium with a skylight is all that separates the two libraries. The atrium is symbolic of the transition from the old to the new.

Construction of the new library should be complete next month. Students should be able to use the new facility next semester while the old Wise Library goes through a one-year renovation. The cost of building a new library and renovating the old one is $36 million.

The new library will feature a primary service floor with a circulation desk and reference materials; one floor for periodicals; two floors of stacks that will hold 348,000 books; and a multimedia floor to house government documents, electronic classrooms and rooms for viewing videos or holding teleconferences.

Technology available to library users will include 180 computers, 35 media- equipped workstations and 32 wireless laptops.

The top two floors will feature reading tables with outlets for laptop computers, carrels with desktop computers, group study rooms and lounge seating. The two floors also offer a view of the downtown campus and Morgantown’s waterfront for studying students.

“When you see this view,” O’Brien said, “you might want to take your laptop and sit right there.”

The multimedia floor will include group study rooms with a 42-inch high-definition television screen, keyboard and Internet connections to allow users to participate in e-conferences, view films and prepare presentations.

Internet and cable connections on the floor will allow the library to deliver live video, network news and digitized video archives through its Web site.

“It’s a quantum leap from anything we’ve ever done before,” said Dennis Newborn, WVU’s head of library systems.

It’s a contrast to Wise Library, which was not built for modern technology. Actually, Wise’s stacks were not even built for comfortable browsing. The stacks originally were meant to be closed, so they’re confining, stuffy and hot.

Next semester, though, the university will embark on a renovation project meant to turn Wise back into an architectural beauty.

Wise will be restored as a facility that university officials are calling a “quasi-cultural center.” The old library will have space set aside for the West Virginia and Regional History Collection and WVU’s art collections.

The facility — which will retain its original limestone facade — will also house general book collections, “wired” reading rooms and offices.

“Wise Library is going to be restored to its former glory,” O’Brien said.

“The library system is going to be the best of both worlds.”

Writer Brad McElhinny can be reached at 348-1244.

CONTACT: Frances O’Brien, Dean, WVU Libraries, 304-293-4040

A student takes a break from reading to gaze out a picturesque, curved glass facade at a busy University Avenue, shade trees swaying in the breeze and the Morgantown skyline beyond.

Nearby, another student types quietly on a laptop computer.

A few feet away yet another student searches for a book among the many shelves while a fourth studies in a computer-equipped carrel.

Welcome to the library of the future under construction at West Virginia University: a five-story, 124,000-square-foot brick building that will integrate four branch libraries under one roof and meet the technological needs of the 21st century.

The new library sits in front of the Charles C. Wise Jr. Library on WVU’s Downtown Campus; a glass-encased atrium with a skylight joins the two buildings.

Plans call for completing the structure late this semester. Wise Library employees will then begin moving into the new facility, and workers will commence with a one-year renovation of Wise. The cost of both the new construction and renovations is $36 million.

“Libraries across the country are reinventing themselves,” said Dean Frances O’Brien. “Our primary role remains that of a cultural repository for knowledge in books, journals and reference materials, but our means of making these materials available is changing thanks to the Internet. The new facility at WVU is at the forefront of this transformation – the library as both a quiet place to read and study and an on-line resource.

“Wise Library, WVU’s main library, was built in 1931 when we had 3,500 students and a collection of 300,000 volumes,” O’Brien added. “Today, 10 libraries around campus provide 22,000 students with access to more than 1.4 million volumes. Wise has served WVU well, but providing for the needs of a new generation of students raised on technology demands that we upgrade our facilities.”

The new library will feature a primary service floor, complete with a circulation desk and reference materials; one floor for periodicals; two floors of stacks that will hold 348,000 books; and a multimedia floor that will house government documents, electronic classrooms, and rooms for viewing videos or holding teleconferences. Technology available to library users will include 180 computers, 35 media-equipped workstations and 32 wireless laptops.

The top two floors with the stacks exemplify the project=s overall goal of combining the traditional use of a library with technological changes. The bookshelves will occupy the center of the floors. About them will be reading tables with outlets for laptop computers, carrels with desktop computers, group study rooms and lounge seating. The two floors will also offer a spacious view of the Downtown Campus and Morgantown’s waterfront.

Nowhere will the library’s technology capabilities be more apparent than on the multimedia floor. There will be group study rooms with a 42-inch high-definition television screen, keyboard and Internet connections to allow users to participate in e-conferences, view films and prepare presentations. Internet and cable connections on this floor will enable the library to deliver live video, network news and digitized video archives through its web site.

“It’s a quantum leap from anything we’ve ever done before,” said Dennis Newborn, head of library systems.

Structurally, the new building will have a lot of glass on the facade and back, a restored Scholar’s Wall outside the main entrance and a lobby made possible by a $250,000 gift from the WVU Alumni Association. A wheelchair ramp and three elevators will make the facility accessible to the handicapped.

Wise Library, meanwhile, will be restored as a quasi-cultural center, with space set aside for the West Virginia and Regional History Collection and WVU’s art collections. The facility — which will retain its original limestone facade — will also house general book collections, “wired” reading rooms and offices.

The downtown library complex made possible by the new construction and renovations will consolidate library services now available in Wise, the Chemistry Research Building, and Colson and White halls.

In conjunction with the ongoing construction, the library is embarking on a campaign to raise funds to furnish the new and renovated facilities. Donors to the WVU Library Special Initiative will have their name linked to the furniture their gifts enable the library to purchase. Naming opportunities range from $150 for reader chairs to $5,000 for study carrels and information kiosks.

Several rooms and galleries will bear the names of people who have already made substantial gifts to the campaign. They include the James V. and Ann Pozega Milano Reading Room, named for couple who met while attending WVU more than 60 years ago; and the James A. Robinson Reading Room, named for the former president of the WVU Foundation.

The new library is one of four construction projects included in the first phase of WVU’s facilities master plan, a 10-year campus renewal program totaling more than $250 million. Other projects include a $26 million office complex the University has been leasing from the WVU Foundation since June, a $34 million Student Recreation Center that opened in July and a $43 million Life Sciences Building scheduled to open in May 2002.

jd/10/19/01

The new addition to the Wise Library is nearing its completion. Penny Pugh, head of reference and government information services, said the addition should be completed by the first day of the Spring 2002 semester. She also added that this date depends on the construction and any delays that might occur.

Photo by Ian Benson

The addition to Wise Library is nearing completion. The new section to the library is expected to open at the beginning of the spring semester.

“Any kind of major construction issue could push that date back,” Pugh said.

Pugh added that as of right now, the construction should be able to meet the target date.

“It is as close as they have been able to keep it,” Pugh said.

Carroll Wilkinson, head of access services and depository for Wise Library, said she thinks the deadline should be able to be met if things continue to go the way they are. She added that it also depends on if the furniture arrives when scheduled.

Once the new addition is opened, everything in the Wise library will be transferred into the new part.

“Everything that is in this building now, so all the books and journals, microfilms and government documents, everything, is moving into the new building,” Pugh said.

“The Physical Science Building is being closed and moved into our quarters,” Wilkinson added.

Wilkinson said that Colson Hall would also be integrated into the Wise Library. She added that students who are looking for films would come to the same place where they would come for books and journals. She said that this will be a big difference for students, and it will hopefully make things easier.

According to Pugh and Wilkinson, the new addition to the library will have lounge furniture, nice lighting and carpet. The view from the new addition extends to the river so students can enjoy the scenic view. Pugh added that there would also be lots of comfortable furniture.

According to Wilkinson, some of the staff from Colson Hall and Physical Science will be working in the new library addition once the move takes place, but there are no plans for additional staff.
She added that the stacks will only be on two floors once the new addition is completed.

She said that she isn’t worried about students having problems with it and thinks they will take to it. She also added that students who need to get to a floor that is not accessible through the new addition could take the walkway into the old building.

According to Pugh and Wilkinson, the new addition will have many features available to allow students to go off alone and not be disturbed. Wilkinson said there would be between 30 and 50 wireless laptops for checkout by students. Pugh added that there will also be more wired computers available for students to use.

Further, currently obstructed paths will be opening up soon. According to Pugh, once the new addition is completed, students won’t have to walk all the way down to University Avenue to enter White Hall.

“There will be one entrance and exit in the front of the library,” Pugh said.

Wilkinson added that there is a significant amount of yard space in front of the library and walkways will be added.

Pugh said that once the new addition is open and they begin the move into the building, the library would not close again. She said that there is a professional moving company coming in to move all of the books. Wilkinson added that she spoke with someone who worked with the company before and the person she spoke with said that they did a good job.

“The original projection for getting the collection moved was eight weeks,” Wilkinson said.

Students who want to know exactly what to expect with the Wise Library move can go to the Web site for the library and read available updates.

An “Open Letter to the WVU Community” can be read from the Web site. The letter describes the phases of the construction.

According to the letter, phase one will end with all of the materials from Wise being moved into the new building. Phase two starts with the renovation of the old Wise Library and phase three is when Wise Library renovations are completed and the entire complex is open. According to the letter, the entire complex is estimated to be completed in late fall of 2002. The construction project has a frequently asked question page about upcoming events with Wise Library.

For more information on the Wise Library and the construction, go to www.libraries.wvu.edu.

John Cuthbert, curator of the West Virginia and Regional History Collection, joined the ranks of Sen. Robert C. Byrd, writer Denise Giardina and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gate Jr. during an Oct. 12 ceremony in Charleston.

The distinction came when the West Virginia Humanities Council presented him with the Charles H. Daughtery Award in the Humanities, the council’s highest honor. Cuthbert is the 15th West Virginian to receive the prestigious award.

Executive Director Ken Sullivan said the selection was based on Cuthbert’s contributions to the state through his duties at WVU to preserve West Virginia’s past.

“John is a one of a kind resource,” Sullivan said. “I don’t know of anyone more knowledgeable about West Virginia’s art history.”

While the Daughtery Award recognizes lifetime achievements, Sullivan credits a recent accomplishment for catching the attention of the council. He said Cuthbert earned their admiration with “Early Art and Artists in West Virginia: An Introduction and Biographical Directory,” a book penned by Cuthbert and published last fall by WVU Press.

Sullivan applauds Cuthbert for introducing West Virginians and others to a bountiful heritage few know about.

”I think he’s surprised us with the depth of West Virginia art history,” Sullivan said. “West Virginia has a rich history of folk art, but it also has a rich history in the fine arts.”

Cuthbert came to WVU in 1979 as a musicologist tasked with the responsibility of cataloging and transcribing the rich folk music collection at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection.
Over the past two decades, the job has changed and his commitment to the mission has continued to strengthen.

Cuthbert maintains a high level of enthusiasm as he works to enhance the University Libraries’ West Virginia and Regional History Collection and research the history of items added to the collection. He said he’s grateful for the opportunities he’s had to study uplifting subjects and people that belie the cultural stereotypes that have so long plagued the state.

“I look forward to playing a continuing role in bringing about a reconsideration of what West Virginia culture really is,” Cuthbert said. “To me, this award represents not only a recognition of progress made to this date but also a hearty dose of inspiration with which to forge ahead.”

Cuthbert, the author and editor of the critically acclaimed book “Early Art and Artists in West Virginia,” received the Charles H. Daugherty Award in the Humanities in Charleston.

A frequent contributor to national publications like American Music and American Art Review, Cuthbert’s other books are “David Hunter Stroher: One of the Best Draughtsmen the Country Possesses,” and “The Edden Hammons Collection.”

The Glenwood Series starts its second year at 4 p.m. Sunday at Glenwood, the historic estate on Charleston’s West Side, when John Cuthbert, author of the book “Early Art and Artists in West Virginia,” gives a lecture related to his book.

The Marshall University Graduate College Foundation sponsors the lecture. In 1978, Lucy Quarrier, the house’s last resident, gave Glenwood to the West Virginia Graduate College Foundation, which is opening the estate to the public through these programs.

Tickets to the lecture are $10, and reservations are required. Call 746-2072.

John Cuthbert, curator of the West Virginia Historical Art Collection at West Virginia University and author of “Early Art and Artists in West Virginia,” will speak at Glenwood on Sunday.

Cuthbert, curator of the West Virginia Historical Art Collection at West Virginia University, worked off and on researching his book for 17 years.

Beginning in 1983, he poked around in the records of state newspapers, stored on microfilm at WVU. He looked through census records, also available at WVU on microfilm, to find nearly forgotten people who had called themselves artists in a 19th-century census.

Cuthbert’s 301-page book, which includes more than 200 color illustrations, mingles three categories of artists: those born here, but who worked elsewhere; those born here who spent at least some of their working years here; and those who passed through, some for a decade or two, some so briefly they painted perhaps just a single canvas here.

Berkeley County native William Robinson Leigh won enduring fame as a painter of the American West and American Indian scenes, but he also painted “Potomac River, West Virginia” and “West Virginia Wood Chopper.” Leigh’s 1896 oil portrait “Sophie H. Colston” belongs to the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Blanche Lazzell, who spent most of her creative years in Provincetown, and her younger cousin Grace Martin Taylor, both of whom earned reputations for their white-line woodcuts, are represented in the book, which also takes capsule looks, with tiny illustrations, at many lesser artists.

“To me, this would be equally at home on a coffee table or a library shelf,” Cuthbert told a reporter when the book first came out last year. “You can’t find another book with this information in it.”

Remaining Glenwood Series lectures will take place Nov. 4, March 3, April 7 and May 5.

© Copyright 2001 The Charleston Gazette

Although their group was small and their time was limited, their coordinator, Pineville United Methodist Church’s the Reverend Gerald Roberts, matched skills-to-task, and the three scraped 17 water-damaged window sills and then repainted them at one resident’s house.

The three also met work teams from Keyser, WV, Winston-Salem and Spruce Pine, NC at a church gymnasium where they boarded. Rebuilding the neighborhood where Jo., Sue and Judi worked will take time. They said they would like to see the house some day after all the improvements have been completed.

Judi applying wood puty

The flood waters picked up this trailer and rammed it into the house. The house is off its foundation.

Same trailer and house, different view

We wore masks because of the particles floating around from the paint chips and gloves to protect our hands from the paint remover (it stings!).

We had to re-glaze some windows to hold the glass in place. Jo.’s reflection is in the glass. Jo. knew all the how-tos — he’s a home-improvement guy!

Scraping paint, wearing a bandana; Sue is in the background. We tried to work in the shade as the sun moved around the house!

This bridge was completely moved to land by the flood.

After a hot day

JoAnn Calzonetti, director of the Evansdale Library, has received the first Distinguished Service Award from the WVU Libraries.

Read the rest of the story (PDF).

“The Research Corporation is interested in supporting research at the University, so we are very pleased that we could invest the money into the library,” said John Weete, director of Research Corp.

The Research Corp. agreed to match two dollars for every dollar contributed by the WVU community to support collection development through library endowments.

The WVU faculty and staff met this challenge in less than three years by creating over 168 library endowments worth $1.5 million.

“To reach our goal two and a half years ahead of schedule is an indication of how strongly our faculty and staff believe in West Virginia University and the need to have a strong ‘library system’,” said Greg McCracken, director of annual giving at the WVU Foundation, Inc.

According to University Libraries Dean Frances O’Brien, gifts to the University Libraries from WVU faculty and staff have centered around the acquisition of library materials such as books, manuscripts, microforms, journals and electronic resources.

Faculty and staff library book endowments made $27,000 available to the library acquisition budget this year to buy new books. With contributions from the faculty and staff, the library was able to acquire more new books representative of the academic disciplines in the WVU curriculum.

“My husband and I created a library endowment, because we have worked at WVU for 26 years and recognize the importance the library collection plays in the future success of students,” said Virginia Petersen, special assistant to the President and the Provost.

These types of commitments emphasize the importance of the West Virginia University Library System.

“A strong library system is the cornerstone of a strong and dynamic university,” said David C. Hardesty Jr., WVU president and chairman of the corporation’s board of directors.

Donations from WVU faculty and staff are important in maintaining the quality of the WVU Libraries as an academic research library. The expense of building and maintaining a collection that meets the needs of the students, faculty, and researchers, however, is outpacing available funds.

“Journal subscription prices will inflate at 12 percent for 2002, and have been increasing at double-digit rates annually for the past decade,” said O’Brien.

Because of gifts and commitments such as the one completed by Research Corp. and the faculty and staff, WVU Libraries are able to seek the resources to be competitive with the nation’s other leading research and teaching institutions and to build collections that complement the University’s academic strengths.

“We are extremely grateful for these gifts which allow us to update and enhance our collections for today’s students and scholars as well as library users in the future. A gift to the Libraries provides a lasting legacy,” O’Brien said.

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