Library Renovations from MWSU Campus Watch on Vimeo.

The library is going through some renovations that started in the summer.

“New lighting in the lobby, new lighting in front entry way on the first floor of the library,” Cortny Bates, associate librarian for technical services and special collection, says. “New carpets on the first floor, most of the first floor, had to avoid the library stacks so we didn’t have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for them to raise the shelves with the books on them.”

Not only was new carpet and lighting put in, but some painting was done for the first time in about a decade.

“They’ve been painting everywhere, probably been 10 to 15 years since a lot of offices and the walls and stuff had been painted,” Bates said. “Once the lighting was in, you could really tell how dirty the carpet was and how long it been since the paint had been done.”

The price of these renovations comes at a price, but is cheaper than what you might think.

“The price of the carpet was about $60 thousand,” Bates says. “Since it has been so long for the paint, it was considered normal maintenance so the library is not paying for it. The university has to pay for the paint and the painters however.”

Some students have been able to see some of the changes to the library and they seem to like what they see.

“I usually go to the student center to get on the computers, but there are times when I come to the library to study, and the new carpet is nice,” Chance Boulware, senior in pre-pharmacy, says. “The old carpet was an ugly green color; at least the new carpet has a little bit of pattern to it.”

With the library being an older building, technology doesn’t always work very well, so the staff is trying to help with those concerns.

“The big study rooms, we use to text people when their rooms were ready, but as you know, students don’t always get good service here,” Bates said. “So were going to get those pagers that the restaurants have and when there room is ready then it will notify them that way. These devices should be in the next few weeks.”

With the library getting many students coming in and out of their doors, the staff felt as though they must do something.

“We get the second most traffic next to the student center, so we had to do something to make it look nicer in here,” Bates said.

So if you were hesitant to come into the library before, come check out what the library has to offer now.