Building for
the future
As Fresno
State prepares Henry Madden Library for a massive reconstruction project,
the university has plans for new student housing on the other side of
campus
Joseph
Vasquez / The Collegian
Shelves once stuffed with script now stand stripped. Junior
English major A.J. Jones studies among the barren shelves of Henry
Madden Library. |
Students
will follow new procedures to borrow books as preparation for the construction
of new library continues
By
Elizabeth Leffall
The Collegian
This semester the Henry Madden Library
will operate with one wing.
Preparing for demolition of the north building in March, library staff
has spent the summer break moving more than 900,000 books and rearranging
departments on its south side to prepare for the fall semester.
In a few weeks the north wing entrance, built in 1959, will close completely
and the library’s south doors will open to accommodate heavy student
traffic, reference librarian Dave Tyckoson said.
“The south entrance would have opened sooner,” he said, “if
the disabled-friendly doors were installed earlier. The university has
told us that the job should be done in the next two weeks.”
Book catalogue updated
Among other changes, the library’s
online catalogue of books, ALIS, has been updated with several new features
in order to make checking out books easier.
“There is no more paperwork
when it comes to checking out your book,” Tyckoson said. “When
a book order is placed on ALIS it is sent directly to an off-campus warehouse
for processing. We don’t even see it.”
ALIS will still allow students
to sort searches by title, author and date, but now the most recent publishing
of the book will be listed first.
Other improvements to the system include the placement of each book’s
call number on the top of the order page, so there will be no more writing
it down off the search list.
Hold request forms for books are now available online and students will
be notified when books are in via e-mail.
“We’ve made enough changes to ALIS so that all a student needs
to do is get on a computer, find their book, type in their student ID
number and barcode number from the back of their card and the first four
letters of their last name,” Tyckoson said. “We’ll do
the rest.”
Books will be delivered
With so many books being housed off-campus, Tyckoson said the library
had to think of a way to cut down the time it would take to get books
into the hands of students.
Joseph Vasquez /
The Collegian
Once home to the bulk
of Henry Madden Library's catalog, the yellow shelves have lost
their books to a south Fresno warehouse. |
As a result the library purchased
a delivery van and will make book deliveries to and from the warehouse
three times a day. Proposed delivery times to the library are 9 a.m.,
noon and 4 p.m.
Students will receive e-mails for each book that is in and will need to
check them out at the new circulation desk located in front of the library
elevators. Ordered books will be held for one week before being returned
to the warehouse.
Items delivered will include textbooks, bound journals and periodicals.
Tyckoson said the library is advertising next day delivery so students
should plan earlier when they need to check out a book.
Students can still check out bound periodicals and videos for up to three
days and music, including CDs, for up to one week.
Junior English major AJ Jones said moving the books off-campus is a bad
idea.
“I lived here last semester because I loved looking through the
stacks,” Jones said. “If you’ve got to use computers
and ask the people in the library what you need, it’s not going
to work.”
Library setup changed
Library guides will be available at the reference desk starting today
to help students navigate through three floors of library departments.
The first floor of the south wing will house the circulation desk, study
space, microfilm and reference materials. Students can also check out
books, laptops and journals on the first floor.
The north side of the second floor will be sealed off by fire doors, but
the south side will house maps, additional study space, the curriculum
juvenile collection, and an electronic classroom. Government documents
will move to the second floor in a few weeks.
The books on the yellow bookshelves, referred to as stacks, used to be
located on the second floor and have been moved to the off-campus warehouse.
Students can order them through ALIS.
Senior psychology major Jennifer Mindt said she’s sorry to see the
yellow stacks of books go.
“I’m going to miss going to that section of the library upstairs
and being able to go through the books myself,” Mindt said.
Although she’ll miss the stacks, Mindt said a large advantage of
the library moving its books is the addition of more study space.
“It will increase the number of study areas and it won’t be
as hard to find a quiet place to sit and study,” she said.
On the third floor students will find the music and media sections and
the offices of library staff.
The library’s fourth floor will not be open to the public but will
be used to store special collections.
Reference desk computers will be available on the first and third floors.
More laptops available
Students will have 75 laptops available for use today and 130 by September,
due to a $100,000 expenditure by Associated Students.
“This money will allow the library to purchase 55 new Dell laptops
and 5 Macintosh ibooks,” Tyckoson said.
Each laptop will come with a Microsoft Office package, capabilities for
wireless Internet, a power cord, and can be checked out for up to four
hours on a first come, first serve basis.
Unlike previous semesters, students can take and use the computers anywhere,
even home, Tyckoson said.
“All students need is a wireless zone and they can use the Internet
wherever they are,” he said.
Laptops used on campus will print on wireless ports located in one of
three print stations in the library. Students can pick up prints using
their student ID card for the cost of ten cents a page.
The library plans to increase the number of student laptops to 230 by
January.
An additional $25,000 was donated by AS to provide computers for students
to use in the Student Union.
Tyckoson said only students would be able to check out laptops.
Jones, the junior English major, said she’s looking forward to there
being more laptops.
“Laptops are a wonderful resource anyways,” Jones said. “I
think the library will really cut down on student wait times for computers
by offering more of them.”
Services for Students with Disabilities still in the library
Although the office of Services for Students with Disabilities was scheduled
to move over the summer, it will remain in the north wing of the library
until the university completes remodeling the building that once housed
the Carl’s Jr. restaurant.
Carol Snee, director of the program, said when the library’s north
wing closes, the office will open its side doors to students.
“Instead of students coming through the library to get to us, they’ll
simply walk around to our doors next to the Peace Garden,” she said.
Although the entrance to the office will change, Snee said, no services
would be interrupted.
Snee and her staff are still expecting to move into their new office by
the end of the fall semester.
New library hours
Library hours are changing as well. With the exception of holidays and
Saturdays, the library will be open Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m.
to 8 p.m., Fridays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to
8 p.m.
“We know students will need help locating certain books, finding
the circulation desk and checking out laptops,” Tyckoson said. “We’ll
have extra people on hand throughout the library to help and point students
in the right direction.”
The library is in the first stage of a two-year plan to build a state-of-the-art
library by Fall 2008.
AC Martin-Hilliard, the contracting firm selected for the project, has
slated two years to complete the north side demolition and will being
remodeling the south wing of the library shortly after.
“We’re dong what we can to make this transition smooth for
everyone,” Tyckoson said.
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