Alkek renovations expected to reach completion by next spring

The Albert B. Alkek Library renovations are scheduled to be complete by the end of this year with a grand opening expected at the beginning of spring 2020. Renovations include all seven floors, either a complete remodel of the layouts or simply replacing furniture.

Debbie Pitts, marketing and communications coordinator for the library, is in charge of overseeing the renovations and notifying staff members about construction that may displace them temporarily from their usual work space.

“We’re renovating the library to make it a little bit more of a space that people can come and do research, not only through the traditional methods, but through innovation and through hands-on experience and opportunities,” Pitts said.

One area of the library being significantly changed is the second floor. According to John Brunson, circulation reserve assistant at Alkek, the location of the circulation desk will be moving to the third floor at the end of this semester.

“For the students, the benefit is going to be that everything that gets checked out of the library is going to be in one place — including laptops,” said Brunson.

In place of the current circulation desk will be a new Starbucks location, open the same hours as the library, including finals week.

Another area having major remodeling is the Witliff Collection on the seventh floor. Although the collection has new additions almost every year, director and curator David Coleman said there would be three new galleries added by the end of the year after remodeling is complete.

The collection itself, started by Bill and Sally Witliff, has been around for 32 years. At first, it only included writing from the cultural legacy of the southwest. In 1997, 10 years after its creation, the Witliff Collection introduced photography. In 2016, it expanded even more, adding music from the southwest.

The primary goal of the expansion is to create more space for the exhibition and staff offices. In the remodeling process, some of which have already begun for certain areas on the seventh floor, students will lose a significant amount of study space.

“All those little individual study rooms, those will go away,” said Coleman. “Starting in April (2019), when the construction starts, students will lose this space.”

Unfortunately, this means students will not be able to utilize the seventh-floor study rooms and the desks surrounding that area for finals this semester and potentially next semester as well. However, Coleman also said the study area with the large window overlooking the quad will be permanent for student use, as well as the group study rooms.

Sarah Naper, director of research and learning services, said the staff that report to her invited everyone to submit ideas for innovative spaces during the summer of 2018 through email for the new technology space on the first floor of the library. With over 50 responses from students and alumni alike, the team in charge of the project categorized the ideas by similar features. Within those categories were virtual reality (VR), audio production and design software ideas.

“It’s an opportunity to respond to what we hear from our users — our patrons — and try to make the library a place that is helpful to them,” said Naper.

The library is planning to create an immersion studio for students to be able to create and experiment with VR software. In addition, there is also plans to include a production studio, soundboard and silent piano for people who are interested in audio engineering.

“A lot of people work in libraries that are very traditional, and to be able to see this type of change, it really is an exciting place to be,” said Naper. “I think our campus community is very fortunate.”

Although Alkek Library is scheduled to be finished with renovations by the end of this year, the grand opening will likely not be until mid-spring of 2020.