Gallery: Students study in newly restored Buley Library

Derek Torrellas – Photo Editor 

The wooden ramp that temporarily served as the entrance to Buley Library for over three and a half years finally gave way to the front doors last week. Students walked up the broad stone and brick terrace and through the reopened doors for the first time, after being separated behind a construction fence for so long.

Combined with the library’s addition, completed in 2008, the total cost of the two-phase Buley improvement was around $72 million, according to Bob Sheeley, associate vice president for capital budgeting and facilities operations.

While open and operating, the work inside isn’t completely finished. Several rooms are locked as workers continue to build, install, or fix. Sheeley said the work is mainly focused on corrections noted during an inspection.

“We walk through and we create a list of things that need improvent,” he said, “not done the way we wanted. They’re minor things, it’s all minor stuff.”

All remaining work should be finished in a few weeks’ time, Sheeley added.

Since the original section of the library has been wholly updated and redone, this has changed the way people think of the addition to Buley, only seven years old. It was the new part of the library, but now it’s being called the old.

Alba Morris said as much when mentioning that the stacks – the shelves of books – will remain in the “older part.”

Morris, the social sciences reference librarian, has been working at the library for 13 years. She was around when the renovated section was the only part of the old library.

“For one thing we didn’t have as many computers as we do right now,” Morris said. “We didn’t have discussion rooms.”

The biggest improvement, she said, is that the study lounge on the first floor will be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Morris also mentioned the café that will open up, but which a vendor still has to be chosen for.

With ample seating and tables that have power connections, Morris agrees that the newer section of the library will probably draw more students from nearby Adanti.

“And because of the café, I think more people will come here anyway. You won’t have to wait in that long Dunkin Donuts line,” Morris said with a laugh.

Photo Credit: Derek Torrellas