North Texas Daily

Steven James / Staff Writer

In its efforts to give students more study resources on campus, Willis Library is moving the collections out of the second floor and installing study equipment.

The project began in January and is funded by UNT Libraries and government grants. In the spring, library employees moved the book collections out of the second floor of Willis, and relocated those books to either the third floor or to the Eagle Commons Library, located at the main entrance of Sycamore Hall.

The shifting phase of the collections is complete, but the project still has a few steps left.

Beginning Oct. 4, the re-carpeting will start. Once this begins, students will not be able to use the second floor until the carpeting is complete in about a month, said Associate dean of UNT Libraries Cathy Hartman.

However, after the re-carpeting, a new study space will be put in place for students, which will include 3-D printers and new computers.

“Libraries are taking advantage of this opportunity opened up by the carpet project to seek feedback from students about how they would like the Willis second floor to look,” director of library facilities and systems Scott Jackson said.

He said one way in which students can give suggestions on the project is by using a clickable Visio floor plan, in the Willis computers, to virtually drag furniture around the second floor and submit their projects to UNT Libraries. Another way in which students can give feedback is filling out an online survey. There are also large white boards on the second floor where students can write down their suggestions.

Students can also email the Libraries at Willis.2Project@unt.edu.

“Students need more study space,” dean of libraries Martin Halbert said. “This lets us focus on the collection there in a coherent way so that we can talk about the collection over at the Eagle Commons Library.”

Hartman said that even though the Eagle Commons Library is one of the oldest libraries on campus, it lacked book resources for students and faculty for a while. The two most useful resources people used were the commons area and the classrooms that can be reserved for study groups. She said she wants to better accommodate the larger number of students who are coming to UNT and using the libraries around campus.

“The students have come here in droves in the past few years,” Hartman said.

Featured Image: Students study during the construction on the second floor of Willis Library on Sunday. All books from the second floor have been moved to the third and fourth. Photo by Devin Dakota – Staff Photographer