Thursday, March 23, 1978
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Library seeks more space
By MARY-ANNE OLIVAR
Staff Writer
Despite a proposed renovation of Watson Library, the dean of libraries says the current building's lack of space will require the construction of a new library.
"The whole idea behind the renovation is to put the building up to standard."
"I we don't have a new library in 1863," Jim Ranz, de of libraries, said early this year. "It is not a new library."
But even with the renovation, the space problem that has been plaguing the library for 10 years will remain, he said. He said the new computer problem was the construction of a new library.
"we're going to continue to use this building, we've got to put it up to 'par,' he said."
However, Ranz said the need for a new award would not lessen the need for renovation.
One of Watson's problems, Ranz said, is that the most used parts are not the most readily accessible ones. For example, users can go to the second floor to check out books.
ALTHOUGH THERE are no final plans for the renovation, library administrators made tentative plans that could make the library easier to use.
"A student would walk in the first floor
he will move on to the second on the first
floor. Saying, 'I saw you.'"
The tentative renovation plan includes removal of some interior walls, which would be replaced with more durable materials.
Also on the first floor would be the card catalog, the circulation desk and the reference room, which are now on the second floor. We reserve room, which is now in the basement.
The second floor would house the East Asian department, now in the basement, and the periodicals reading room, which is located on the first floor. Now on the first floor are planned to be moved to the third floor. A study area, faculty studies and the art library would be installed.
Ranz did not know whether the art library would be in Watson or in the Spencer
THE BASEMENT and the subbasement would have the processing and storage
Other proposed improvements include better lighting, adequate restrooms, proper heating and air conditioning, another elevator and fire prevention measures.
"Watson now has poor lighting, parts of it are hot, parts of it are cold and the building is waterlogged."
According to staff members, if there was a fire in Watson, users probably would not emergency exit and stairwalls, unmarked fire extinguisher locations, windows that are wired shut for security and the 10-inch window spaces through the metal window frames.
Ranz called the library a warren of small and awkward shaped spaces that made it difficult to navigate.
IN ADDITION, it is almost impossible for handicapped people to use the building. Ranz said. The elevators are inadequate, and difficult to keep in operation. Ranz said.
CAROL CHITTENDEN, associate reference librarian, has said, "When they delivered the new index tables, the work was done. We didn't think we could take them upstairs in the
elevator. The elevators were not big enough to hold the tables so we had to carry them around to the front of the building, through a tunnel with stairs. It amounted to a lot of wasted time.
In a 1974 report on the library, three library consultants said Watson was "a problem building with service and space that is important to make the most incessant architectural blunders."
The restrooms also are inadequate, Ranz said. There are none in the subbasement.
A PLAN FOR the upgrading and expansion of library facilities, prepared by the Libraries Planning Committee, states that the system has been lacking in space.
The plan said the libraries now occupied 224,858 square feet, about 88 percent of the 389,888 square feet that the Kansas Board of Regents recommended for 1977.
Ranz said the Regents established those guidelines while taking into account the size of the collection, the number of students enrolled and the amount of library staff.
The libraries provide 55,993 square feet for students, which is about one third of the recommended area. The libraries have 122,415 square feet for books, which is about 75 percent of the amount recommended by the Reents' guidelines.
"The guidelines were established so the institutions have what they need." he said.
Although student space will not be more of a problem if enrollment does not increase in the next years, lack of book space will continue to be a problem, Rana said.
"We receive 80,000 books a year that require 10,000 additional square feet of space," Ranz said. "And the book collection will continue to grow."
THE LIBRARY HAS 48,500 square feet for
and services about 16 percent less
than the average library.
Because of the lack of stack space, the libraries have had to put a lot of books in stock.
Even though the libraries suffer from lack of space, Kanz said, they would keep buying
"If we don't buy the books when they are published, there is a chance we couldn't买 them any more, and if we could, they would be more expensive," he said.
he put him to that space.
HOWEVER, HE SAID the books already were encroaching on staff and student space.
If you press that far, the library will be full of books and there will be no place for them.
Ranz said he hoped that a year or two after the renovation of Watson was completed, the new library building would be added to the Kansas Legislature for approval.
If Ranz wishes come true, part of the new building could be completed by 1895.
“If the new building doesn’t follow, there will literally be no space,” he said. “We need to find ways to get through.”
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