A renovation to part of Hornbake Library’s ground floor will transform a current study space into the headquarters for the new information science major.
The $865,000 project, funded by the provost’s office, is scheduled to begin in November and finish in March, said Bill Olen, interim executive director of planning and construction for Facilities Management.
The 4,000 square-foot-area in Hornbake North will be split into four parts. Part of the current study area with seats, chairs and tables will be kept the same and will be open to all students. But the rest of the space will undergo major changes, professor and senior associate dean of the information studies college Brian Butler said.
“Right now what you have is a large room,” Butler said. “But what this renovation allows us to do is provide better services for students. This space will increase the visibility of the iSchool and of its programs.”
The undergraduate advising office for the information science major will be erected during the renovation. It will consist of four offices and one smaller room. The offices will house the director of the undergraduate information science program, the director of undergraduate student services for the iSchool, an associate director for the program and an advisor, who Butler anticipates hiring soon. The smaller room will be for student employees of the advising office.
A secure research lab — which no one but the researchers will be able to get into — will be built. It will consist of one large room with a lab, an observation area and two offices. It will test the designs and systems of new technologies, Butler said.
In a few years, the area could be converted into even more advising space for the information science major, Butler said. Since the major was created in March, about 100 students have joined, and Butler predicts a huge increase in the coming years.
“The demand just from a couple of events this month has us predicting that by the end of this year, 200 students will be in the major. And by the spring of 2018, we are planning on a trajectory of 400 students,” he said.
Butler said the last area to be created will house a collaboration space where workshops and seminars will take place and groups can gather to work on projects. The space will contain white boards, movable furniture and computer monitors, as well as a smaller meeting room.
“The space can fit up to 20 or 30 people, but we aren’t going to schedule any classes in there,” he said. “Once you start scheduling classes in there, it’s no longer open to anyone and isn’t useful as a collaboration space anymore.”
Another addition will be a corridor that goes from Hornbake South where some iSchool classes are to Hornbake North, Butler said. At the present, both wings are separate from one another.
The renovations are supposed to start in October, Olen said, but construction is delayed to reduce the impact to student and teaching space on the lower level. During the renovations, that entire area will be blocked off to students.
Another issue with this project is the room itself.
“The space hasn’t really been touched since the 1970s when the building was built,” Butler said. “The carpet may have been redone, but it has the same HVAC and electrical system from when the building was created.”
The room, which was originally storage and shelving for the library but at the moment houses a large collection of tables, chairs and study desks, doesn’t have any natural lighting. It also can’t hold the amount of people that will be using the space after the renovation. The HVAC, ventilation and air circulation would be under a lot of strain with so many people there. Besides adding walls, the renovations will consist of bringing those systems up to the standard for a busy space, Butler said.
“Most of the space, besides the advising office and research lab, will be open to everyone on-campus,” Butler said. “The iSchool and new information science major will benefit from this renovation, but so will all of the students on campus, too.”
