MSUM library goes mod with fresh new look
By: Meredith Holt, INFORUM
MOORHEAD – Minnesota State University Moorhead’s recent $19 million library renovation addressed a host of deferred maintenance issues – heating, ventilation and air conditioning, the electrical, plumbing and fire detection systems and overall efficiency – but it also gave the space a modern, funky look.
A dramatic arrangement of tubular lights dangles from the ceiling, highlighting the curved stairway from the first floor to the second. Students study and visit in bright blue and red chairs, some with high backs that look like they grew from the ocean floor.
“There are lots of different kinds of libraries you could create. You could create more of the homey, wood, fireplace kind of feel, or you could go ultra-modern like Ikea. And I think we’re something in between, but we definitely went with the bold colors,” says Brittney Goodman, executive director of library services.
Everywhere you look, there are details that add to the “coolness” factor: red flecks in the Italian terrazzo floors, shredded strips of magazine lacquered onto the front of the information desk, textured paint in upstairs study rooms.
The new Faculty Development Center on the first floor, which opened in spring 2013, has the same style and color scheme. The third and fourth floors only got HVAC upgrades, new lighting, paint and carpet, but Goodman hopes a full remodel will come for them later.
The brick archways from the building’s original 1960 construction remain intact but are accentuated with frosted-glass panels and highlighted by a more open floor plan.
“The sightlines are incredible. We noticed that right away,” says Pam Werre, curriculum materials librarian.
The square footage didn’t change, but it feels like it did, Werre says.
“There’s no change in the footprint, but it’s just that open feel, and the improvement in the lighting, that make it feel so much more spacious and open,” Werre says.
The library also received upgraded technology infrastructure, new circulation desks, a new IT help desk area and a new reference desk. The 24-hour computer lab (referred to as “Library 100”) was expected to be open by early this week, and the 24-hour lounge, featuring a fireplace, by the end of the semester.
The library team worked with architect BKV Group, project manager CPMI and general contractor T F Powers Construction Co. to alter plans as progress was made to fit the growing and changing needs of faculty, staff and students.
“Throughout the whole process, we just keep tweaking and asking for changes as we saw that things could be better or maybe weren’t quite right,” Werre says.
Some organizing, arranging and finishing touches remain, including adding art to the walls and an art installation, but Goodman and Werre are relieved to see the “light at the end of the tunnel.”
The years-in-the-making project appears to have paid off with almost immediate increased student use since the “soft opening” April 4 (a grand opening and celebration are in the works for the fall). Both Werre and Goodman say more students are spending time within the walls of the Livingston Lord Library in the heart of the campus.
“The worst thing that could have happened, and it didn’t, would be if people came in to the library after a two-year project and didn’t feel like it was really, really different,” Goodman says.
Jessica McCarlson, a 24-year-old English major who works at the circulation desk and does inter-library loans, worked at the library during its opening weekend.
“People were like, ‘Whoa, look at that! That’s so cool!’ ” as they walked in, she says.
The versatile study areas – ledges with laptop plug-ins, armchairs with swiveling desks attached, inset study rooms with seating that feels like an oversized booth a diner – allow students to use the library for individual and group study in a variety of ways.
“There’s just so much more seating now,” says Amber Dale, a 19-year-old elementary inclusive education major.
Goodman says the second-floor study rooms are almost always occupied and the reaction from students on Twitter has been glowing.
“I think this is the place where students are going to come, not just to do research and study, but just to hang out and be with their friends,” Werre says.
The library’s student workers have noticed the change in how the library’s used, too.
“During an average shift, which is an hour or two, I’d see maybe 20 people come and go. Now I’m seeing more than 50,” says Mikaela Scullen, a 20-year-old early education major who works at the circulation desk.
Words like “ ’70s,” “cool,” “bright” and “coffee shop” pop up in a discussion about the renovation with Scullen and a few of her peers.
“It makes the library a happy place,” she says.