By Stephanie Eisemann, News Correspondent 

The Snell Library staff held a town hall meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 30 from 6 to 7 p.m. to discuss the recent renovations of the library facilities, as well as possibilities for future developments and expansions.

“We’ve done a lot of renovation over the last few months, over the last couple of years in fact, and we’re not even quite finished yet,” Will Wakeling, dean of libraries, said. “We’re very eager to find out how well the renovations satisfy some of those issues, and we have the freedom to do some tweaking and adjusting as we go along.”

The small meeting with approximately 20 students was moderated by Rehan Khan, vice president of Information Technology Services and Wakeling. Students praised the redesigned first floor and other technologies like the 3-D printer that were added this summer. Last year, the second floor was redesigned into the Digital Media Commons, an innovative workspace for students.

However, students also raised some concerns about some of the renovations, like the new group collaboration rooms. This summer, 21 of these small study spaces were installed. Greg Thibault, a first year master of business administration student, said that his major concern was that students are frustrated with the policies of the use of the spaces.

Wakeling emphasized that the library does not normally regulate what students choose to do or work on in the spaces.

“The thing about individuals booking a space that could be used by three or four people is a real one that we need to address, and I think in principle, we absolutely agree that we need to put something in place,” he said.

As for complaints about the reservation system, Khan conceded that the new program has some “growing pains” and he will investigate the issues.

Thibault and a few others also addressed a desire for a graduate-student specific study area.

“In the very short term, one thing we will be doing is designated the space which is called Room 421 …once we get to the end of the current building phase, that room is going to be designated a graduate study room,” Wakeling said.

A solution that surfaced in regards to both improper use of the collaboration rooms and the struggle for silence on the third floor was a texting service that should be up in the next week or so. With the service, students can report inappropriate behaviors or non-courteous persons to the front library desk by simply texting a help number. In fact, the department announced that a similar system will soon be in place to report problems with individual printers, simply by scanning a QR code that will activate a problem ticket. Another perhaps additional amenity discussed was to install phone booth type spaces which function as proper places to take phone calls or even conduct phone and Skype interviews.

Workers like Karen Hilario, a senior architecture major who has been working for Stacks Maintenance since freshman year, expressed concerns at the meeting, too. She said the new placement of Stacks Maintenance in the basement is “kind of problematic” for the workers. Wakeling and Khan expressed a desire to fix the issue.  Hilario did, as a design major, compliment the new access to color printing.

Other concerns that arose were seating, glitches in the new media equipment and the need for upgraded versions of certain software. As always, the need for a greater printing capacity was also addressed, and Khan said that they would like to add more printing areas.

By this January, Wakeling said that the original Digital Media Commons space will also be expanded and the classrooms will be used for more student seating.

The town hall meeting also provided written comment cards for those who may have not had a chance to express their opinions verbally. Thibault was grateful for the opportunity to speak.

“Thank you to whoever is responsible for having this forum,” Thibault said. “There’s not always people who solicit feedback.”

Students’ feedback is crucial, according to Wakeling.

“In fact we are just going into an interesting, small planning project related to a gift … a parent donor gave us $100,000 to spend on improving study space in the library and … I have to say we might not have moved this donor in the direction…of that particular purpose if it hadn’t been for some of the feedback we’d been getting from the student users of the library,” Wakeling said.

Further suggestions, questions or comments can be addressed by contacting library.northeastern.edu/contact.