“It’s such a wonderful and abundant space that it is enabling us to move into the 21st century and meet the needs of 21st century learners, such as collaboration and gathering spaces,” said Director of Library Services and Instructional Technology Suzanne Bartels.
In Sept. 2015, The Guilfordian published an article on the renovations to Hege Library. Much has changed since then, including a partial redesign of the second floor, new compact shelves in the basement, new study areas in the lower level and spatial repurposing in the Carnegie Room.
To begin with, two major alterations occurred on the upper floor: the addition of study pods and the complete remodeling of a large part of the level.
New study carrels, located behind the elevator, have a modern look and contain many features that aim to be useful to students.
“There is power to plug in your laptop and use the (built-in) lamp,” said Access & Information Services Librarian Elizabeth Wade. “They form great study places.”
The area on the opposite end of this space is currently under construction, but library officials expect it to serve many purposes.
“This space is going to be divided into two spaces: one part (as an) experimental classroom and another part (as a) collaboration, meeting and research area,” said Bartels.
“It (will be) called the Teaching, Learning and Research Collaboratory. The furnishings, including the technology, are going to be totally flexible. Inside, there are going to be mobile mediascapes similar to the TV panels in the Hub. The floor is going to be (fitted) with thread technology. That’s going to allow an electrical hook-up wherever.”
The bookshelves that were originally in that room were moved down to the basement level, currently inaccessible to students.
“The idea is to store underutilized, less frequently needed resources on this level for retrieval upon demand,” said Bartels. “Currently, we need to go back and analyze the books that would fall under this category.”
Library officials will eventually transfer these books to highly compact, rolling bookshelves.
The floor above the basement level is called the “Info Village,” and it aims at providing quiet space for learning. Noise resistant rooms, specifically designed for cooperative learning, aim to complement this quiet space.
“We recognize that there’s a need for both quiet study and collaborative study,” said Bartlels. “As a result, we transformed the whole floor into a quiet study place. There are also enclosed spaces where people can work quietly in groups. The walls now have whiteboard paint so you will be able to write on them.”
On the first floor, librarians converted the Carnegie room from a study space to a place used for gatherings, events and musical performances.
When not busy with renovations, the library offers numerous projects and awards, such as the Idea Incubator and the Hege Library Research Award.
“The idea for the Idea Incubator is to allow people from all around campus to come together and submit an idea for an ongoing project or issue that would benefit from community discussion,” said Bartels.
As for awards, the Hege Library “celebrates excellence in student research” with two $1000 rewards, annually.
According to Bartels, the Hege family and the Guilford College Friends of the Library make these renovations and awards possible.
Students generally seem to enjoy the new changes and praise the new study options available to them.
“It’s about time we got new and better things for our library,” said first-year Fahad Walizai. “Most students, like myself, go there to work and seeing the changes that have already been made make me really happy. I especially love the new study pods. I believe (the renovations) are the best use of Guilford’s money.”
