Tuesday saw the official re-opening of Northwestern’s Seeley G. Mudd Library after its main floor underwent a major renovation.
A collaborative project between Northwestern University Library and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Mudd now boasts all new carpeting and furniture, six glass-walled group study rooms controlled by an online reservation system and lockers for student project storage. The study carrels in Mudd can now also be pooled together to be used by a small group, or pulled apart for individual use.
“The old Mudd Library was very faded, out of date and unattractive,” Dean of Libraries Sarah Pritchard said. “We have completely cleaned up and refurbished the main floor, creating a flexible space that caters to the way students are doing work nowadays, which is a lot of shifting in small groups and coming together at different times.”
Pritchard said the main focus of this renovation was addressing the need for more and better collaboration spaces for student groups.
“The School of Engineering didn’t have enough studio space for student groups to work in,” Pritchard said. “While we didn’t have enough space to permanently assign studios to each team, we came up instead with a combination of study rooms and storage spaces, where the library would oversee reservations in ways that allowed for a lot of different groups to use these rooms.”
For some students, the renovations to Mudd are a welcome improvement.
“Sure, I like the new changes,” McCormick graduate student Galiya Ibragimova said. “A clean and new studying environment definitely helps me to focus.”
However, some students living on South Campus are unsure if they are willing to make the long trek up to Mudd.
“The library is more a place for me to study than to get books,” said McCormick freshman Hyosik Min, who lives in Allison Residential Community. “The top floors of University Library are much quieter than in Mudd, plus I like the proximity of University Library to where I live.”
Other students also expressed a preference for physical convenience over a library’s subject specialty or study environment. Weinberg freshman Mary Kate Binecki said she uses University Library solely as a study space and has never borrowed books from it.
“For me, it’s more of a location issue than anything else,” Binecki said.
Pritchard said library administrators are aware of this trend and are trying to improve all NU libraries with a series of projects over time.
“We are trying to renovate the Shaffner Library in Chicago,” she said. “We’re also starting a project to renovate and restore the lobby of Deering Library to make it available as an entrance.”
Pritchard said she recognizes there is room for improvement in NU libraries.
“We’re always looking for ways to work more closely with students and faculty, to find out what they need and figure out how to get it,” she said. “The re-opening of Mudd Library is just one little step. We’re really excited about it.”
