The Renovation of Butler
 

Overall the plan relieves the deteriorating
physical plant through replacement and
redesign of all mechanical systems. The
infrastructure to support new plumbing,
ventilation, heating, air-conditioning, power,
lighting, and telecommunications is being
installed in the first phase of the project,
July 1995 through December 1997. As each
floor is renovated, modernized systems will
become operational. Old systems will continue
to function in parallel with the new systems
until the final floor is renovated. Elevators,
fire safety systems, and windows will also
be replaced.

Sufficient additional space for expanded
services was recovered by relocating non-
library activides outside Butler. Seating in the
renovated library will be approximately
double the current capacity Technical
processing and cataloging operations will be
relocated to the renovated first floor at the
conclusion of Phase 1, allowing several large,
decorative rooms to be reclaimed for users.
Additional coiufortable seats will be added to
these restored reading rooms. More appealing
and efficient configurations for both indi¬
vidual and group study will be incorporated in
the design. An effort is being made to provide
a variety of types of seafing to suit different
study needs from individtial, quiet concentra¬
tion, to collaboration in groups and relaxed
living room lounging. Furnishings, along with
revised and improved lighting, will be of high
quality and consistent with the architecture. A
 

lounge near the main library entrance will
allow library users to eat and drink while
continuing study, working on a laptop,
checking email, or unwinding with friends.

Although all reading rooms on all levels
will be open to all readers, the redesigned
Butler Library will focus undergraduate
services on the second, third, and fourth
floors. Reading rooms on these floors will
contain the undergraduate book collecdon.
The College Reserves collection service desk
will remain on the second floor, augmented by
a media room where students at about twenty
specially designed stations can view VCR tapes
and other media presentations soon to be
available as part of the reserve collection.
Reference and Circulation will remain on the
third floor, where they will be Joined in a
central information hub by the Electronic
Text Service and Interlibrary Loan. The peri¬
odical and microform collections will be
consolidated on the fourth floor.

Floors five through nine will be dedicated
to stipporting graduate research in research
reading rooms and assignable carrels with
lockable storage. The Oral History collecdon
will remain on the eighth floor. Research
reading rooms on the fifth and sixth floors
represent a collaboration between librarians
and teaching faculty to bring scholars together
with frequently consulted, non-circulating
books and journals and workstations for access
to related databases in each subject domain.
Seminar spaces for group discussion, in addi-