By: Amy Cooley
Renovations to Fondren Library are set to begin in Spring 2015 to make the library a more user-friendly place.
“Our focus is much more on you, the user,” said Gillian McCombs, director and dean of the Central University Libraries. “It’s about how you get what you need from the library.”
She explains that while libraries previously focused on their in-house possessions, Fondren aims to focus on how to use its contents and new ways for students to access them, whether it be from their dorm, in the library at midnight or in a more social setting. The online databases and 24-hour schedule five days a week make these a possibility.
Renovation plans to facility consist of a cafe within Fondren to allow students to meet with friends and study in a social setting.
The new learning commons will take place of the current information commons as an area that students can access the technology available to them. It will contain a number of computers so students do not have to carry their laptops with them. McCombs said that if each person is using his or her own wireless device, there is no guarantee on good connection.
The commons will also contain the assistive technology area, which has software to aid the visually challenged. The assistive technology area will be moved from its current location in Fondren to a more open area of the commons to make it more accessible and user-friendly.
With the addition of the learning commons, the reference desk will be moved to the entrance of the library to form the combined circulation and information desk to increase accessibility and helpfulness.
In addition, Fondren will be fixing some of its safety issues. Fire sprinklers will be installed throughout the center because there are currently on a few throughout the facility. The elevators will be also be redone and widened to fit a stretcher in.
“Right now if you faint on the third floor you have to be fire-lifted down,” McCombs said.
The project is set to begin this spring, but has been a work in progress for many years.
“We have been working ever since I got here,” McCombs said. “Fundraising, meeting with donors and introducing people to libraries.”
After arriving to SMU and dedicating Fondren Library West in 1998, McCombs explains that the library has never felt complete.
“Nobody has thought of the facility as a whole,” she said. “It’s still like three different libraries.”
This was the inspiration behind creating the new Fondren. The university provided a $9,000,000 budget in bond money for the project and the Central University Libraries have been raising funds from general donors, alumni, the Hillcrest Foundation, the Fondren Foundation and the Friends of the SMU Libraries.
Library directors hope for the $17,000,000 renovation to be completed and ready for dedication in spring 2016.
