Flooring Update — June 24

The past two weeks have been a bit frustrating on the flooring project as we found some items outside the scope of the project that needed to be fixed before the project could continue. But things are looking up now. The bathrooms should see a team of plumbers on site Monday (today) fixing the old floor drains. They should be finished with level 3 and 4 by Weds. Which means the tile installers will be able to finish the water proofing and the tiling.

The carpet guys had hit something that turned out to be a major hurtle for them. The carpet is very difficult to pull up, making the preparation for the carpet installation much longer than anyone anticipated. The good news is they started laying carpet on Friday and they worked all day yesterday (Saturday); so they have made great progress in the past two days. The third floor still remains closed to patrons but open to library staff to retrieve items for our patrons.

As of today, the level 4 lobby will be closed for about 2 weeks. To access level 4 please use the corner emergency stairwells (except the SW stairwell as that is alarmed). To access MAGIC (the Map Library), contact the staff of MAGIC, and they will meet you on the plaza level and then take you up via the staff elevator. Please contact them at: 860-486-4589. http://magic.lib.uconn.edu/

We are watching the schedule very closely and I will update you more often now that we are seeing the progress in the different parts of this installation.

Thank you for your patience.

Start of the Spring Semester

Well, we are into our first full week of classes, the students are back, the weather outside is frightful, and we are working hard at updating the building as fast and as our budgets allow us. We are currently updating our circa 1978 Gunlocke Square Chairs. We have been sending out 20 to 25 of these chairs to the Dept. of Corrections to be reupholstered and the wood refinished. They have been doing a wonderful job. We have done around 70 of these chairs so far and about 120 left to go. As we continue to send out the square chairs we are turning our attention to our study chairs, where about 10% of our 3,097 study chairs need to be be refurbished. We are also starting another round of installing electrical Power Poles through out the library; mainly focusing on level 3. Its always a challenge keeping up with a building of this size and making sure the needs of our patrons are met.

Homer is ready for Finals

With a new seating capacity of 3,091, the Homer Babbidge Library stands ready to welcome the hordes of students looking to hunker down and make that last ditch effort to study. Starting Friday, 12/7, Homer will be open 24 hours until the following Sunday, 12/16, when we close our doors at 6:00 PM. I think the students will be pleased with the choices they have for their study environments. They have two floors of Quiet Study Space, level 4 and level A. Students also have a wide array of furniture to choose from as well; everything from traditional library tables and study carrels to 6 person diner booths and tall cafe tables. Most of which have been fitted with power.

So good luck UConn, may the Finals Gods be kind to you and remember if you need anything or have a question while you are in the Homer, please ask a library staff member.

Happy Holidays!

Check out the New Furniture on Level 3

So we ripped down the old stacks that once held the current journals and we installed some new furniture in its place. Now this isn’t your run of the mill, tired old furniture. We installed furniture that features cutting edge design and up to date technology to support today’s students. So the next time you are on level 3 on the North East side, check out the serpentine tables, the diner booths and the cafe tables. All of which hold multiple power outlets to power today’s student’s devices.

Post Script: If you are looking for the current journal titles they are in with the bound journals, shelved alphabetically by journal title.