February 15, 2021
Most of renovated Hale Library to open today
Most of Hale Library is open to students, faculty and the community today, including the second through fourth floors. The first floor opened on Jan. 25. Construction is complete on most of the building, including the historic Farrell Library and the Great Room. The Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab will open in phases beginning later this spring.
Following the fire in 2018, the Libraries began a full renovation of the building and in 2019, the Dave and Ellie Everitt Learning Commons on the first floor was opened to the public. The following year, the second floor was opened, giving students and patrons access to 99 computers and additional printing services.
This semester, visitors have a variety of new spaces to explore in the building.
On the second floor of historic Farrell Library, a new reading room with lots of natural light includes study space and will house the current periodicals collection. At the opposite end of the space is the new home for the Dow Center for Multicultural and Community Studies. The Virginia Carlson Family Reading Room will open soon on the first floor of historic Farrell Library. The room will include study space and house the juvenile literature and curriculum materials collections.
On the third floor, visitors and students can marvel at the beautiful, restored Great Room or Harry Potter Room. A meditation space and Wudu wash station are available to all patrons. Additional study spaces on the third floor allow for a quieter atmosphere than the floors below. Graduate study rooms are located just outside the Great Room but are not yet open for use.
The fourth floor, as the quiet floor, provides study space for those who prefer a quiet space to concentrate on their work. Though, some areas of the building, including the fourth floor, may experience some noise as books are reshelved.
More collaboration rooms, computers, printers and scanners are available in the newly opened spaces as well as four additional family and gender-neutral restrooms. New furniture has been delayed for several spaces, but temporary furniture is in place to allow for use of the new areas with proper social distancing.
The Libraries are in the process of returning the collections to the bookshelves. Any items that are shelved can be checked out. However, the availability of these items will not be reflected in Search It until we have finished reshelving all items. Currently, most items from the main collection with call number ranges A to PN 684 and many materials from the music and art collections have been reshelved. For updates about materials that have been returned to Hale Library, follow the Hale Library blog.
The Richard L. D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Special Collections is not yet open to the public. Patrons can still make an appointment to view available materials in Bluemont Hall by contacting libsc@k-state.edu.
As a reminder, masks are required at all times while in Hale Library. To see a current calendar of Hale Library's hours, please visit our website.