Posted on April 7, 2008
This fall students will have a new place to gain knowledge.
After a year and a half of work by the Nielson Construction Company of Harrisonburg, work has been completed on the East Campus Library on Carrier Drive next to Festival.
The new library is scheduled to be ready by next semester and it will open with a grand ceremony in September to coincide with the Board of Visitors’ fall visit to campus.
“The East Campus Library will be very different from Carrier Library, not just because it is new, but because it was designed to accommodate the latest in technology for libraries and to have features that today’s students need,” said Reba Leiding, assistant to the Dean of Libraries.
The new library boasts many features to help students with their academic pursuits. The ECL will feature five floors of book stacks, two classrooms, more than 200 public computers, 45 group study rooms, 52 study carrels and a Java City.
The library was funded by the 2002 bond referendum for capital improvements. Groundbreaking at the site began in September 2006.
Although the library will have lots of amenities to help students further their studies, JMU’s faculty isn’t being left in the cold either. On the fifth floor of the library will be a Center for Faculty Innovation offices and services, a faculty computer lab and a 42-seat faculty seminar room.
“Even on the fifth floor there are study rooms for students,” Leiding said, “so there is a mix of space and uses for students and faculty throughout where faculty and students can interact.”
The library will focus on housing the school’s science and technology collections. A quarter of the university’s catalog will be moved to the new library, mostly composed of science books, journals and media collections.
“I’m glad that there’s a new place on campus to study,” said freshman Vincent J. McMurray. “I find that the Carrier library is sometimes overcrowded, especially during peak study hours. The new library sounds really nice.”
“Carrier is a good library but I think I’ll definitely be using the new East Campus Library a lot more, especially next year since we’ll have our cars,” said freshman Devin Langan.
Carrier Library will still hold 75 percent of the university’s catalog. Leiding said there may also be a renovation in store for the library.
“We look forward to updating Carrier in the near future to make it more useful to students and today’s technology, while at the same time emphasizing the beautiful spaces in the older part of the building.”
