As the year drew to a hectic close and students scurried to move out of their dorm rooms, they could take comfort knowing that they were not the only ones packing up. In November, the Review reported on the school’s plans to renovate the main level of Mudd Library and create an academic commons, which would combine circulation, reserve, the AV film collection and a café, as well as space for collaborative work.

The plan was approved at the following Board of Trustees meeting. Throughout the spring semester, library staff worked with a professional moving firm to gradually empty shelves on the main level, moving materials either to other floors or to storage in order to make room for the renovations.

The project, which has a budget of $1.5 million, has two goals, according to Director of Libraries Ray English. The first is “to promote curricular support for students, and the other is creating what we’re calling ‘academic community space.’”

Anyone who stepped into main level after finals week found it surprisingly bare. Yellow caution tape cordoned off much of the floor area, behind which workers busily moved around furniture. Pallets and ladders were stacked in corners and the normally quiet library was filled with banging and bustling.

Necessary demolition is slated to begin Tuesday, May 29, and the entire library will be closed just for that day. Throughout the summer the main level entrance will remain closed and patrons will enter and exit the library through the A-Level doors. What is normally the reserve desk will function as circulation until main level is ready fall semester. English is confident that the project will be completed on schedule, and is enthusiastic to welcome students to what he hopes will be a “very popular, attractive” space.

Additional reporting by Maxine Kaplan