Here is the text of Dean Polden’s memorandum to the law school community about Summer 2006 renovations at the law library:

To: Law School Community

From: Dean Donald J. Polden and the Law Library Staff

Date: May 9, 2006

RE: Summer 2006 Library Renovations

As you may be aware, the law library has been planning a renovation project. Beginning on Monday, May 22, 2006, Heafey Law Library will begin the project on the library’s first floor. The library will remain open throughout this renovation project during its usual summer hours, which you can find on the library website.

The purpose of this project is to relocate the reference librarians’ offices to the area that currently contains the library’s reference collection (across from the circulation desk). The library will also move the reference service desk to an area directly across from the circulation desk. The University architect currently estimates that this project will take approximately 6 to 8 weeks to complete.

There will be some minor construction noise and associated dust/dirt on Heafey’s first floor. We are working with the contractor so that construction work should be from approximately 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The openings into the area off of the main reading room will be closed off in order to minimize construction dirt and noise. The demolition process should be completed before summer school begins. We are scheduling the relocation of shelving and furniture immediately after finals. We are not planning any construction activity for weekday nights or weekends.

The study areas at the far end of the library’s first floor will not be affected by the construction project and will be available for our students’ and graduates’ studying and research throughout the summer.

We realize that this may cause minor inconvenience for some of our students in summer school and graduates studying for the bar examination. However, we will minimize the impact that this project will have on those who use the law library. If you have questions about the project, please do not hesitate to contact the library administration or me.

Finally, the university will begin construction on the new university library in mid-July, but the initiation of that project will not occur during law summer school or while our graduates are studying for the bar examination.

I know that not everyone reads the news about Orradre’s big construction project as thoroughly as we do over here at Heafey, so for those of you who missed this news the first time around, here’s a recap.  Orradre Library is Santa Clara University’s main campus library, and as all law review editors know, law faculty, students, and staff have full borrowing privileges there.  The old Orradre Library building closed a few weeks ago and is in the process of being demolished to make way for a new library on the same site.  The Orradre staff have managed to reestablish most of their services in a very large modular trailer that can be found between the parking garage and the Buck Shaw stadium.  We’ve toured the new temporary library structure, and we were amazed at how quickly the folks at Orradre got everything up and running!  The Circulation Desk has been operational since June 23, and the staff are ready to handle all of your library needs.  If you need library materials that are located at Orradre, simply look up the material in our online catalog, OSCAR, request the material from the ARS, then pick up your books a few hours later at Orradre’s Circulation Desk.  If the books that you need aren’t available from SCU libraries, try LINK+, which allows you to borrow books from other public and academic libraries in California and Nevada free of charge.  Even if you’re a law student or faculty member, you’ll still need to pick up and drop off LINK+ books at the new Orradre Circulation Desk.   Summer hours for Orradre can be found on the website.  If you have questions, contact Orradre at 408-554-5020.

In an effort to provide more quality space for users, the library has been moving materials and rearranging space to improve access to the collections, as well as improving patron space.  This ongoing project is being planned and executed so that there will be as minimal an impact on our patrons as possible.  This process will be accomplished over several phases.

Phase one (Summer 2005): 

• Library staff relocated over 50,000 volumes of library materials to remote storage in Loyola Hall. Any library item listed in OSCAR that has as its location: Loyola Hall Remote Storage may be requested either at the circulation desk or the reference desk by filling out a Loyola Hall request form. Materials in Loyola Hall will be retrieved once daily.
• Installed access gate in law library, in preparation for the lack of undergrad library facilities.

Phase two (Summer 2006):

Relocating the reference collection, the reference service desk and the reference staff offices. This was necessary for several reasons. First to deal with the issue of noise emanating from the reference desk and to create additional office space for our expanded reference staff. Planning for this part of the project took most of the last academic year.

• The bulk of the reference collection has been temporarily relocated to our Compact Shelving Area
• Some reference materials have been added to the collections in the stacks
• Computer stations from the old DiNapoli Lab have been absorbed into both the Toso and Ruffo Labs
• Di Napoli is being repurposed as a conference room
• Three new conference/group study rooms have been converted from the former Reference department area
• Some additional furniture changes are still contemplated in this area
• All study carrels from the former reference area have been relocated, re-networked and given electrical power

Phase three (Fall 2006):

• Relocate duplicate copies of California Reports, California Appellate Reports and West’s California Reporter first to compact shelving and then to Loyola Hall
• Shift the entire California Collection
• Remove some shelving in the California Collection to make room for some informal study seating along the windows
• Shift the entire first floor stack collection
• Remove more shelving to provide study space along the window walls
• Add power and network connections to the reconfigured study areas
• Recarpet the first floor of the library
• Install shelving from the former reference stacks in the main reading room
• Relocate the Reference collection, currently housed in Compact Shelving, to the main reading room, near the Shepards collection. The materials that had been on the index tables have already been moved to the Shepards’ area.

Phase four (and beyond):

• Shifting the entire second floor collection
• Remove more shelving to provide study space along the window walls
• Add power and network connections to the reconfigured study areas
• Recarpet the second floor of the library

So please pardon our dust as the staff rearranges, relocates and repurposes the collections and spaces within the library.  Areas will be set up for casual seating, eventually roomier carrels will replace the current ones, and chairs will be replaced over time. 

We will keep you updated on this blog as changes occur.