Like much of the construction around UT, the renovations occurring on the second floor Commons area of Hodges Library continue as a new semester begins.
It was originally hoped that the renovations would be completed by early August. However, Dean of Libraries Steve Smith said that “a variety of understandable factors” have caused the renovation completion to be pushed back to hopefully no later than the end of September.
Smith said that the many construction projects around UT’s campus were a big part of the delay.
“Both in terms of the university facilities folks as well as the construction crews, there’s only so many people to go around,” said Smith. “The same guys who are hanging dry wall out in Sorority Village are often the same folks who are working (in Hodges).”
Smith also said that the current national economy for manufacturing also had an effect on the library’s renovations.
“Normally, orders that two or three years ago or a year or two ago would have only taken three or four weeks (to complete) are now taking six to eight weeks,” Smith said.
And while the renovations may not be 100 percent complete until the end of September, Smith said that all of the library’s services, such as the OIT HelpDesk and the Studio, are still operational, and various new resources and features will gradually become available in the meantime.
Additional spaces and improvements that will be coming with the renovations will include 12 new group study rooms, a more open feel brought on by taking down the walls separating old areas such as the Studio and South Commons, relocated library resources such as the Circulation Desk and the OIT HelpDesk, and new or re-upholstered floors throughout the entire Commons.
Smith also says that some renovations will begin on the third through sixth floors of Hodges, commonly known as the Stacks.
The central corridors through the stacks in front of the elevators will be renovated to make them more spacious and to create a better line of sight. There will also be more electric outlets and tables to allow more students to study in the central area of each of the stacks.
Smith said that a big focus of the upper floor renovations is to make things more spacious and safe for students.
“The idea of these improvements is to give students and users more of a chance to study in the central corridor of the building where other students are,” said Smith, “rather than, say at 4 a.m., having to go off to a distant corner by yourself to find a seat or a plug.”
Smith added that there has already been improvement to the speaker system so that announcements made throughout Hodges will be easier to hear.
“I’m certain that the week after next the new circulation area will be ready,” Smith said. “Then other spaces will begin to roll out through September and into October.”
Caitlin O’Connell, a senior student library assistant, is one of several faculty members at Hodges who are looking forward to the renovations.
“It already looks good,” O’Connell said. She, like many of her coworkers, had to adjust when the renovations began. O’Connell works in Circulations and had to deal with the difficulty of moving all of the circulation resources from one spot to the next.
“It was a little difficult,” O’Connell said. “We had to get (a) room for the resources, and some people had a little trouble adjusting to the new space. But everything went pretty smooth.”
