Columns mark the new entrance to Pattee Library across from
Eisenhower Chapel on the University Park campus. To get the latest information
on the library construction, point your Web browser to http://www.libraries.psu.edu/pubinfo/construction/.
A list of service and office changes and relocations due to the library
construction can be found at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/pubinfo/construction/progress.html.
Photo: Greg Grieco
The new Paterno addition is scheduled to be turned over by the contractor next month, and renovation work will begin on East Pattee.
"We hope to begin moving into the new building by Nov. 18 or shortly thereafter," said John H. Sulzer, associate dean for Campus College Libraries. "We expect to be able to move staff by Dec. 7 and plan to begin moving reference services and collections on Dec. 21."
Sulzer said that all library collections will be accessible throughout the temporary time period required for the move. Sulzer is coordinating the relocation and the efforts of three planning groups in the University Libraries to move the staff and collections in East Pattee into the new Paterno addition. Involved in the planning are Leonard S. Fiore, general contractor for the new addition; American Library Services, a library moving firm retained by University Libraries; and the Office of Physical Plant.
Some of the move is dependent on when shelving is put in place. Sulzer said the plan is to move the collections on Dec. 21, after final exam week. No collections or reference services will be moved during finals.
"American Library Services has agreed to provide updates on what's being moved and to where," Sulzer said. "We will be updating the LIAS information daily so that patrons will know exactly where something is located at any given time."
When the move is completed, the East Pattee Library and the addition under construction will become the Paterno Library. Library faculty and staff, and collections currently in East Pattee, will be moved to the new section as it is completed. The section of the library now known as East Pattee will then be closed for renovation until sometime next spring.
During the coming months of December through May 1999, the interim arrangement will look like this:
THE NEW ADDITION
* First floor -- receiving room, library faculty and staff offices, with storage there and on the ground floor;
* Second floor -- Life Sciences Library service desk, reference and current periodical collections;
* Third floor -- Life Sciences Library collections;
* Fourth floor -- Arts & Humanities Library collections;
* Fifth floor -- Arts & Humanities Library offices, service desk, reference and current periodical collections. The fifth floor also will house Interlibrary Loan and the Administrative Suite, including the dean's offices, human resources and public information.
NEW CONNECTOR BUILDING
Provides passage from Central Pattee to the new addition and will house library faculty and staff offices; lobby and new entrance from Curtin Road.
CENTRAL PATTEE
* Ground floor -- Preservation, staff offices, student lounge.
* First floor -- Lending Services, Gateway reference, Penn State Room, lobby to mall;
* Second floor -- Social Science reference and collections;
* Third floor -- offices for business librarians, PENNTAP;
* Fourth floor -- classrooms.
WEST PATTEE
Will remain as is for interim period.
To keep everyone abreast of the construction project and the upcoming moves, University Libraries has established a Building Coordination Council, which works with the facilities manager and has direct contact with the contractor and the Office of Physical Plant. Updates on the construction project overviews and schedules of moves are provided regularly on the Libraries' Web page.
"We're looking at coordinating the move so that it will fit together with the different elements of construction. The planning aspect is more complex because of the impact of the moves that will take place in 1999 when the renovation of East Pattee is complete."
According to Sulzer, East Pattee, which was completed in 1972, no longer meets building code standards. The renovation project will bring it up to standards and also allow for provision of group study space and classrooms.
"We've tried to incorporate that kind of space, as well as more space for library instruction, in each of our subject libraries," Sulzer said. "Because the library has a central location on campus, and is centrally 'located' within the University's scholarship and research, it is a common ground on which students and faculty of all disciplines can meet."