Refurbished Main Library re-opens!
On Monday, 26 September 2011, the Main Library reopened its doors after being closed for refurbishment over the summer. This summer’s work (documented on the Library’s redevelopment blog) was the first of a two-phase refurbishment project that will be completed next summer. This year’s improvements were focused on fitting a new HVAC system as well as completely renovating levels 1 and 2. Level 2 (the main floor) features a new entrance, additional study spaces, smart self-service, new late night opening hours (2 am!), a café and new furniture chosen by students themselves.
- The new entrance to the Main Library.
- New SAULCat terminals and multimedia section of the Main Library.
- The new help desk for library and IT help.
- New study and lounge areas on floor 2 of the Main Library.
- The new exhibition space on floor 2 of the Main library, with two cases for Special Collections material and a monitor for the latest information on Special Collections.
- The new cases will feature rotating items from the Special Collections Department.
Amongst the new features on level 2 is a dedicated exhibition space for the Special Collections Department. This set of two cases and a monitor can be found along the main traffic area between the entrance and the help desk, across from the new SAULCat terminals. These cases will feature small, dedicated exhibitions that will rotate throughout the year. The monitor will be used to display images from the collections as well as information about where we are located and how to get in touch.
Currently on display are some of the most important new acquisitions from this year, including: Esther Inglis’s Octonaires, first editions of Kew Gardens and Two Stories from Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press, a late medieval Italian Offices of the Dead manuscript and Hartmann Schedel’s (author of the Nuremberg Chronicle) copy of a 1487 Venetian printing of Antonio de Roselli’s Monarchia, sive Tractatus de Potestate Imperatoris Ac Papae.
These items will be on display for a limited amount of time, so get into the library and see them while you can!
–DG
I love the idea of the new cases featuring rotating items from the Special Collections Department. Will we have turntables installed???