|
|
Main Story
New Downtown Library Welcomes Students
Stephen Beckwith, an accounting graduate
student, has found a perfect place to study.
Between classes, he claims a spot at a study carrel on the sixth floor
of the new Downtown Campus Library. Almost daily he stacks his books next
to a Dell computer with a flat-screen monitor, checks sports scores from
the previous night and then begins working.
The new facility is a pleasant change from
what was available to him in the Charles C. Wise Jr. Library during his
four years as an undergraduate.
"It's great," Beckwith said.
"It's a nice modern place to study. I like the colors, and the layout
is nice. The atmosphere makes it enjoyable to come here."
The new Downtown Campus Library, constructed
directly in front of Wise Library, welcomed students back to Morgantown
Jan. 14, the start of the Spring semester.
After years of planning and construction, seeing the facility in use has
been a fulfilling reward for WVU Libraries Associate Dean Myra N. Lowe.
"It feels even better than I had hoped,"
Lowe said. "The building is so spacious and full of light, and then
there is all the beautiful new furniture and the up-to-date technology.
It is very exciting to be able to offer all of this to the students and
faculty."
 |
Service and technology serve as cornerstones
of the new library. Before this year, services were spread between
Wise, Colson Hall, Clark Hall, and White Hall. The circulation desk
was located in the lobby of Wise and the reference desk was one
flight up. Students needing specific materials set aside by a professor
had to cross University Avenue to reach the Reserve Collection in
Colson Hall.
Now, materials from the Physical
Sciences Library, which was located in Clark Hall, are integrated
into the circulating, reference, reserve, and periodicals collections.
The maps housed in White Hall have a home on the lower level of
the new library.
The most noticeable improvement is
the centralized service desks at the main entrance. A staffed reference
desk greets users as they walk through the Alumni Lobby into the
library. To the left, Access Services staff assist in checking out
books and retrieving material from the Reserve Collection.
Seeing someone there when he walks
in the door is a relief for senior John Oliver.
He admits to spending many afternoons
wandering around Wise Library in search of the books he needed.
His first stop now is the reference desk.
|
| One of the many interesting architectural features
of the library is the main staircase that ties the lower level with
the second floor. |
"If you just run around with your
head cut off you can't find anything. I get frustrated after a few minutes,"
Oliver said. "The librarians know where everything is. They can direct
you to the right place."
On the technological front, users can search
the Internet or write a paper on 180 Dell desktop computers located throughout
the five-story building. People can also go to the lower level to check
out one of 22 computers that access the Internet via a wireless network.
Another option is for someone to bring his own computer and connect it
to one of the many drops available on each floor.
Freshman Casie Coughlan appreciates the
increase in technology from what was available in Wise. She likes not
having to wait in line to work on a computer.
|
Ryan McCracken, a sophomore, agreed.
He transferred from Marshall University, where a new library opened
recently. He was worried at first that he'd have to settle for less
once arriving on WVU's campus. He was pleasantly surprised.
"It's a great set up. It's designed
very nicely, and it's easy to get around," he said. "And
I've never had to wait to use a computer."
Beckwith likes that the large study
carrels provide users adequate space to read through notebooks and
books and take notes while searching the Internet.
|
 |
| With a spectacular view over her shoulder, a student
tackles her homework at a table on the top floor of the new Downtown
Campus Library. Studying space is plentiful in the new facility. |
"For a lot of classes, I combine my
studying with Internet use," Beckwith said. "It helps a lot
when I'm studying to have the Internet right next to me."
Study space is plentiful in the Downtown
Campus Library.
While Wise Library lacked study rooms,
the new library has 15 group study rooms. On the lower floor, there are
four additional rooms containing computer and 42-inch HDTV monitors to
enable students to work on multimedia projects in groups. Additional seating
also enhances the new building. Each floor has rows of tables and study
carrels, and lounge furniture is placed on the second, fourth and sixth
floors.
"If you need a quite place to study,
you should not have any trouble finding it now on the downtown campus,"
Lowe said.
When doors opened in January, the sixth
floor quickly became a popular study spot for students. A window-lined
front wall bathes the area in light and provides a panoramic view of downtown
Morgantown, Westover and Evansdale.
 |
Senior Ben Costante often heads to
the sixth floor between classes and relaxes in one of the mission-style
chairs in the corner of the Davis Reading Room.
"When you're sitting there reading,
it doesn't even seem like you're inside a building," Costante
said. "You can tell they put a lot of time and thought in designing
the library."
The view captured Cheryl Torsney,
a member of the English faculty. Fifteen years on campus, she tried
to avoid frequent trips to Wise Library. But in January, she strolled
through the new library, stood on the sixth floor and soaked in
the view and the sunlight.
"Libraries are supposed to open
minds to the world, and that's what that library does," Tornsey
said. "It makes me proud to be affiliated with this university.
It's everything a library should be."
Kristen Gaydos, a junior, also has
labeled the top floor her favorite place to work on a computer.
She expects to spend more time in the new library than she did in
Wise.
"The environment is nicer. It's
modern," she said. "It inspires me to want to study."
Senior Jen Eichenmiller found a table to spread out her books and
concentrate on her assignments. She prefers the new library to the
Wise Library she visited for the past 3½ years.
|
| An atrium connects the new library with Wise Library.
The space integrates the original facade of Wise Library. |
"I always went up to the stacks. It
was dark. It feels more open here," Eichenmiller said. "I think
it makes it easier to study."
Those feelings are not unique. Students
immediately took ownership of their new library at the start of the semester.
As soon as a worker installed a new piece of furniture or computer, a
student followed eager to put it to use.
In slightly more than a month of operations,
more than 43,000 users passed through the doors.
"I try to walk through the library
each day, and I find students on every floor using computers, using the
study space or enjoying the lounge furniture," Lowe said. "Just
as we predicted, our usage has increased."
 |
Connecting the new with the old
An atrium, reached on the second
floor, connects the new library with Wise Library. The bright space,
enclosed by a glass roof, rises to above the sixth floor of both
buildings.
The atrium is especially popular
because architects were able to preserve the facade of Wise Library
and integrate it into the design of the new space. Windows on the
fourth and sixth floors of the new library offer a unique view of
the architectural features of Wise's stone facade.
|
| A student works on one of the 180 desktop computers in the library. |
Many regular users of Wise Library have
commented that for the first time they can actually look at the State
Seal above the entrance to Wise that they missed over the years.
Four round tables and two clusters of mission-style
chairs allow students and others to take advantage of the sun-drenched
room.
|
Wise Library closed in late January
to allow workers to begin a massive renovation project. It will
reopen at the start of the Spring 2003 semester.
Restoration is the emphasis of the
renovation effort. Among the projects, workers will preserve the
attractive marble prominent in Wise's lobby and return the reference
and government document rooms to the way they looked when Wise opened
in 1931. In their new lives, the rooms will serve as reading rooms.
"One of the nicest aspects of
this whole construction project of the Downtown Library Complex
is we are able to combine a brand new modern library with a restored
historic library," Lowe said. "We will have the best of
both worlds."
|
 |
| The human element is still key at the new library. A reference librarian
assists a patron with a research need. |
|
