Library project continues on schedule

The renovation and addition to the Southwest Missouri State University Duane G. Meyer Library is proceeding on time, according to Dean of Services Karen Horny.

The addition to the existing facility will double the size of the library, now 120,000 square feet on four stories, including the lower level, which is partially underground.

The new construction will provide space for additions to the 860,000-volume book collection, as well as for computer services, university archives and other data storage, Horny said.

Several of the university's archives are spread among various other campus buildings due to lack of space at the library. Once the new addition is completed, the documents can be brought together under one roof, Horny said.

Aside from the books housed at the library, there are nearly 1 million units of microfilm, primarily historic documents. The library subscribes to approximately 5,000 periodicals and has access to more than 2,000 electronic titles.

The library's audio-visual units film and video number approximately 33,000.

The university has planned ahead to meet the needs of the new addition, according to Horny.

Total full-time faculty at the library is 27 with another 36 full-time staff members and 10 part-time workers. Sixteen of the full-time staff members are recent additions, brought on to meet the needs of the new facility when it is fully operational. Also, more than 100 student assistants aid staff members.

"We could not operate without the student assistants," Horny said.

More paid staff may be needed later, and positions will be added as necessary.

The volume of the stacks will be increased on lower levels with the use of compact shelving, set on rails and accessed electronically.

"Compact shelving has to be set up at lower levels to stand the weight of extra volumes in the same amount of space allotted to ordinary stacks," Horny said.

This type of system has been used in university libraries within the last 20 years to maximize space, she added.

Many of the books and documents added to the new library will be targeted to enhance the new degree programs offered at SMSU. The addition will also make room for multimedia areas where students can work on projects using multimedia resources.

Horny said library staff will work to keep administrative space the same size it is now by efficient use of the office space provided.

Already the staff has taken steps to minimize the use of paper by communicating and storing information electronically when possible.

The state of Missouri set aside $1.4 million for the planning stages of the project and has appropriated another $22.8 million toward the total $28 million project. Another $1.8 million came from local university funds, and an additional $2 million is expected to be raised from private gifts to complete the project, Horny said.

Obtaining the financing for the project has been a long, drawn-out process, Horny added.

Initial planning money from the state was appropriated in 1995, and that funding helped to get the state somewhat committed to the project, Horny said.

When other projects, such as jails, were competing for funds, SMSU students launched a campaign and presented it during the spring session of the General Assembly in 1997.

The effort was led by student Paul Seale, then Student Government Association library commissioner. Since then, Seale and Horny have co-authored an article about the campaign. The article was published in College and Research Libraries News.

Despite the success of the grassroots lobbying effort, funding still was hung up for more than a year because of the state lawsuit over riverboat gambling, Horny said.

Cannon Architects from St. Louis designed the structure with the aid of Perry, Dean and Rogers, a Boston, Mass., firm that specializes in library design. Springfield's DeWitt and Associates is the construction manager for the project in a joint venture with the firm of J.E. Dunn of Kansas City. Carson-Mitchell Inc. is the general contractor.

Good weather has helped the project stay on schedule, Horny said.

The lower floor of the existing facility has been taken out of operation during the first phase of renovation, which is expected to be complete by the end of the spring semester.

The building addition, under way on the west side of the building, is expected to be ready for occupancy by the summer of 2001.

The final phase of the project includes top-floor renovations and should be done by early 2002, if the project continues on schedule.