Over the summer, Ohio Northern University made some major renovations
to the first floor of Heterick Memorial Library. They completely redid everything, that is, the floor, the
paint color, the furniture, and even the walls and rooms within it have a whole
new look. They even added a new café, which serves Starbucks coffee and other
types of delicious drinks right here in the library (which, if you ask me, was
genius—studying college students need coffee fuel!).
The result of the renovations has been overwhelming success.
Before, students were not in the library very often—there was always plenty of
seats to find when looking for a study spot. Now, however, the first floor is
seemingly always packed with busy students—myself included. The café has also
been a huge hit—there always seems to be a line, and as you walk throughout the
library, you can see several students drinking the beverages they bought from
there.
As an employee of the Writing Center on the second floor of
the library, I can say that even our services have been more popular than ever.
With more people at the library studying, there are more students who don’t
mind running upstairs really quickly to get writing help or set up an
appointment. It is great to see that our services at the Writing Center are
becoming more popular!
Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of students that
study on the second and third floors of the library. It just seems that a lot
of the success that the library has seen since school started this year can be
attributed to the incredible renovations ONU has made to the first floor. Let’s
hope that eventually the school will renovate the second and third floors as
well, so that our entire library can look as amazing as it does on the first
floor!
I can definitely vouch for your theory. Last year I hardly ever went into the library, when I did it was usually just to print a paper and leave. Since the renovations I want to be in there a lot more and I find myself spending my homework time at the new booths. I am super excited about the improvements.
ReplyDeleteI am rarely in the library. I miss all of the computers on the first floor. I am not a fan of the change. When I have been on the first floor of the library, there are students studying, but not at the new drink hot spot.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the renovations on the first floor make for a much more activity based environment and promote more group work. I like how the second and third floor are still traditional and more study friendly.
ReplyDeleteI definitely can agree with you on this one. I definitely have been more in the library this semester than all of last year! I really like the new look of the library, it makes it feel like an environment that you want to come to, not that you dread going to. I haven't tried any of the drinks from the cafe yet though!
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