Li­brary Of­fers New Study Rooms

MISHAWAKA—Many stu­dents have quickly dis­cov­ered the new study rooms in the li­brary and put them to use. The new rooms are lo­cated in the north east cor­ner of the base­ment of the li­brary. There is a to­tal of seven new study rooms each equipped with a white board and a hand­ful of TVs.

Mark Root, Di­rec­tor of Li­brary Ser­vices, had the idea and headed up this pro­ject. “I re­ally hope the new rooms are an added ser­vice for stu­dents and that they will find them use­ful.” The rooms are slightly dif­fer­ent than the older study rooms in the li­brary be­cause they are de­signed for slightly smaller groups. The new study rooms have taken the place of the Lan­guage and Lit­er­a­ture of­fices, which have been scat­tered around cam­pus with some be­ing re­lo­cated to the fourth floor of the Aca­d­e­mic Cen­ter and oth­ers in the Stu­dent Me­dia Cen­ter. The for­mer of­fice spaces were the per­fect size and fit for new study rooms with few ad­just­ments needed, so the pro­fes­sors will­ingly re­lin­quished their of­fices. The tran­si­tion has been tak­ing place since the be­gin­ning of the fall se­mes­ter and was com­pleted over break. The rooms were re­painted and re­fur­bished.  

A lot of think­ing and plan­ning went into this pro­ject, and there was clearly a need for them as the old study rooms were al­most al­ways full. Pre­vi­ously, there were only four group study rooms. The 11 rooms pro­vide more study op­tions for stu­dents and have a co­zier feel as they are seem­ingly tucked away in a cor­ner.   

 Root said, “I am re­ally pleased the li­brary can of­fer the ad­di­tional ser­vice and rooms to stu­dents and I think the rooms will get a lot of use.”  

So far, the ren­o­va­tions are pay­ing off, the study rooms are al­ready fre­quented by a mul­ti­tude of stu­dents.