Regenstein renovation will meet demands of 21st-century research

The entrances and lobby will be renovated, the circulation desk will be relocated and compact shelving will be installed in the first phase of the reconfiguration of the Joseph Regenstein Library.

The reorganization and renovation, which began this summer, will continue throughout the 1998-99 school year.

Because of the improvements to the library's entrances, access to the building will be limited to the east doors during Fall Quarter.

"This year-long, first phase is only one step of a multi-year, multi-phase project," said Martin Runkle, Director of Regenstein Library. "The Master Plan outlines a comprehensive revitalization of the library that will prepare it for the demands of scholarly research in the 21st century."

In phase one, which began in July and will end next summer, the entrances will be renovated and the lobby will be completely refurbished.

There will be a major improvement in service when the desks for circulation, course reserves, privileges, inter-library loans and other services are moved to new facilities near the building's main entrance.

Phase one will also address the need for collection storage space by installing compact shelving for Special Collections on the A level and open-stack compact shelving capable of housing 1.45 million volumes on the B level.

"At the current rate of growth, the reconfiguration will allow the collections in Regenstein to remain in a single facility until at least 2012," Runkle said.

Runkle noted that the library will make every effort to minimize the expected disruption and inconvenience that the reconfiguration will cause.

More information on the reorganization, is at http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ LibInfo/Libraries/Regenstein/Reconfiguration.